The Outreach Continues: December - February 2011

Expanding the reach of the nutrition program, training nurses in cervical cancer prevention, providing medical attention on medical missions, delivering life changing surgery - the work begun ten years ago by Partner for Surgery continues.

6 Teams Perform 168 Surgeries
Medical Team Visits 4 Rural Communities
594 Patients Receive Medical Attention
127 Referrals for Surgery

 
 

William Xo Pop was born with a severe cleft lip and palate, making it impossible to nurse. The severity of his condition made it very unlikely that he would survive beyond infancy. When William was born, the family was shunned and neighbors encouraged his parents to kill him. Instead, they went to great lengths to help their child. To pay for hospital stays and expensive medications  the family sold their only asset, the family land, for a little less than $2,000. Now without home or land to raise corn and beans, they had no choice but to move William and their five other children into a lean-to behind a home owned by another family member.

Then they heard about Partner for Surgery and brought William to a medical mission where he was immediately placed in our Nutrition Project. He gained sufficient weight to have operations for both cleft lip and palate and, because of adequate nutrition, is currently a healthy little boy. However, the family is still landless and living in the lean-to, without income to provide sufficient food for their children.

A sad situation and the reason Partner for Surgery has started a new project to connect with children like William at birth. Now, midwives will alert Partner for Surgery to babies born with severe clefts within hours and it will be possible to enroll them into our Nutrition Program within days.  Our goal is that no one will have to sell land or give up there livelihood to help their child.

Strengthening a Nation: Cervical Cancer Prevention  

In February, Partner for Surgery had an extremely successful Cervical Cancer Prevention training session. 1,052 women were screened for conditions leading to cervical cancer, 58 were treated, and 9 nurses trained. A special thanks to Doctor Humera Mohammed of the University of Illinois at Chicago for her extraordinary leadership during this effort.

Since 2008, PfS has partnered with the Guatemalan Ministry of Health to organize training in cervical cancer prevention. The nurses bring this life-saving skill back to their health centers. Cervical cancer is the leading cause of premature death for women in Guatemala.

Partner for Surgery does not perform cosmetic surgery unless it severely impacts a life. Lucia Pop was born with a facial affliction that caused her to be shunned by her community. Now 16, Lucia traveled over eight hours across rough terrain to get to the surgical center in San Juan Sacatepequez. She made the trip alone, unable to speak Spanish. When Lucia arrived, a surgical team from Holy Cross Hospital, led by Dr. Philip Iorianni, delivered the surgical care that Lucia needed to have a normal life.