Jeremy
We can't wait to go back to Ecuador!
Patients like Jeremy make CAMTA volunteers long to return...
Who's the little guy in the bucket??
Meet Jeremy, one of our youngest (and cutest!) patients. Last February, CAMTA's orthopedic team began to gradually straighten Jeremy's club feet with a series of five plaster and fibreglass Ponseti casts. In the photo, Jeremy's having a little soak to soften one of the plaster casts used over a nine day period. We'll be doing a final procedure for him when we return to Ecuador in 2014. 

There are so many more children in Ecuador who, like Jeremy, are born with club feet. Many of these babies do not receive adequate care, making learning to walk difficult, or impossible.  Other children are born with dislocated hips which can cripple them by the age of 30. If you can't move, you can't work to support your family; entire families end up suffering.
 
It doesn't have to be that way. 
CAMTA is making a difference - and you can help.

 
                                                  I want to help!                              

 
Mission 2014
 
CAMTA will be sending a team of almost 100 volunteers - doctors, nurses, therapists, students, translators and lay people - to provide orthopedic surgeries to children and adults at Un Canto a la Vida Hospital in Quito. 

  

When we arrive, more than 100 people will be waiting in the clinic, hoping that the medical team from Canada can alleviate their suffering.  Learn more.
Meet Jenna, a first-time CAMTA volunteer
  
Jenna Tiedemann is very excited to be joining the CAMTA mission in February. Yet this is not the first medical mission this 25-year old registered nurse has been on. 
  
Last May, Jenna travelled to Arusha, Tanzania to work in a local hospital where equipment was sterilized with boiling water and scrubs, masks and patient bedding were washed by hand and hung out to dry! Learn more.

The SIGN Nail

 

In rural Ecuador, people sustaining broken limbs in car accidents or other traumatic events usually have to endure weeks of traction while their injuries heal. Traction often leaves a person with a deformed or shortened limb. 

 

For the last five years, CAMTA surgeons have donated a SIGN Nail kit to remote hospitals in Ecuador, and have taught the local surgeons how to use the tools. Learn more.

 
November's CAMTA Champion:
 

When you send a medical group into a developing country to perform surgical procedures, there are many steps to be taken to ensure that your group meets the regulations set by the host government.

 

The Ecuadorian government mandates that all medical volunteers produce proof of their ability to practice in their field. This process requires that a notary public views the original degrees/certificates and licenses to practice and then notarizes copies of each. All notarized copies are then forwarded to the Consulate of Ecuador in Vancouver for his official stamp.

 

Jim Davies has been acting as our notary public for many years. Jim comes to our first team meeting each year and then makes himself available to team members who could not attend the meeting to complete this job.

 

Jim's invaluable and accommodating volunteer time to CAMTA is very much appreciated by the entire team. Thanks Jim!
Love the background music in the Jeremy story? It's Willie and Lobo's "La Lancha"
 

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 November 2013