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The air is hot and thick in the makeshift waiting room at Beit CURE Hospital of Zambia, a pediatric teaching hospital specializing in the treatment and care of children living with physical disabilities.  There is standing room only in a crowded area where mothers wait with patience for their children to be taken to the OR for surgery.  Some have walked great distances with their babies strapped to their backs while others have traveled hundreds of miles by bus.

They hear about Surgicorps through a pipeline of sources; some learn by word of mouth or through a chance radio broadcast. CURE’s staff spreads the word and reaches out as far as Zambia’s Copperbelt (hours away) to provide impoverished villagers with the opportunity for life-changing surgery.  Many have waited an entire year for the Surgicorps doctors to return and perform a second and even third surgery.  In a country where tribal medicine and natural healing with herbs is still practiced, some of the parents have stepped away from their cultural realm and comfort zone to seek help, out of sheer desperation.

Three operating rooms provide a wide scope of surgeries. Frequently seen in developing countries are children born with extra digits, who come to have extra fingers and toes removed. Because of the use of open flames for cooking, severe burns are also customary in the rural areas of Zambia. Some children suffer from limbs that have literally melted together from burns and undergo surgery to release the contracture, followed by skin grafts.  Webbed fingers are separated, cleft lips and palates are repaired, and sometimes an unexpected injury can arrive that will startle even the most seasoned medical professionals.  Such was the case with a 3-month-old infant whose young mother brought him in without his left foot and with his bone exposed.  The severe injury was presumably caused from a snakebite that went untreated.

There is a common thread amongst these modest, polite, and humble people.  They are kind and gentle souls whose love and devotion to their children is palpable. They are unentitled and accepting of all outcomes, even when learning that surgery might not provide the miracle that they had hoped for.  They are never with anger, and always with a thank you and gratefulness.

It is in the patient ward that we are able to experience the true essence of these religious and joyful people.  They have appreciation for the smallest of things; a new stuffed toy, a sundress, a coloring book with crayons, or a simple bottle of nail polish.  For many, their hospital stay is seen as good fortune, mostly because they are assured three meals a day for themselves and for their other children in tow.  Although shared, they have a clean bed, an indoor bathroom, and a running shower.  There is a sisterhood established amongst them, even those who have met for the first time.  We observed each other with a sense of wonder and with admiration.

In our final hour, this group of magnificent mothers joined together and sang for us.  They sang in their native language and brought each and every one of us to tears.  Through song, they thanked us for changing the lives of their children.  Through song, they blessed us, and they blessed our children.  They thanked us for giving them back their dignity.  It was with pure joy that we basked in the warmth and gratefulness of these beautiful people.  We left the Beit CURE Hospital of Zambia knowing that their lives had been changed, that their lives had been bettered because of us.  What they didn’t know was how much they had changed our lives.  What they didn’t know was that we left wishing that we were a little bit more like them.

 

As I am packing for my fourth trip with Surgicorps, people often comment “Oh, you are such a good person!!”  I’m thrilled that’s what they think, but the truth is I’m really not that good. I do it because it makes me incredibly happy.  I have so much fun I just can’t stay home. Each trip is a new adventure. I travel to places I’ve never imagined seeing, with people I’ve never met, to work long hours in hospitals that aren’t exactly like the hospitals at home.  I’ve learned new languages, tried new food, followed new customs.  I’ve learned to always carry a flashlight, a multi-tool, and duct tape, how to wrap a lungi so it won’t fall off, and how to use a rural Asian bathroom. I’ve made new friends across the world, and seem to have brought a little comedy to the locals with my attempts at speaking new languages.

The cynics say “Oh, you’re trying to save the world”…hardly. But we do make an enormous difference in the lives of the kids lucky enough to be able to reach us. The endless poverty, starvation, illness are unimaginable. I remember the woman and her young daughter burned from having acid thrown in their faces, the couple who lost four children under the age of 5 to illness, the man so severely scarred from diesel burns I couldn’t find his eyes to look at him. There are children that do not fuss, waiting all day for surgery having nothing to eat, and do not cry with exercise or bandage changes.

What impresses me the most is the dignity of the poorest of poor, the grace with which they face unimaginable tragedies and horrific injuries, often from violence. The gratitude of the hospital staff when I show them a simple strap that can help people that lost use of their hands hold an object, and their pride when I ask for information to take home with me to share their skill in building adaptive equipment from nothing but used cardboard boxes and glue. And these people, who seem to have nothing to give, give the most, in one place literally by singing songs of gratitude. (Yes, we all cry!).They teach me the strength of the human spirit, they exemplify that joy and hope can prevail under desperate living conditions.

A message home from my first trip still holds true: “Who would have dreamed that I would pay so much money to travel so far and work so hard and love every second of it”.  On each trip I laugh and I cry and I come home with experiences that warm and fill my soul. Pictures and words cannot begin to explain what happens on a Surgicorps trip. I don’t do it to be nice, but doing it does open my heart wider than I ever knew possible.  And I know that each time I travel, I come home just a little bit nicer. I give five days of work, what I get back is priceless.

 

 

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” –Helen Keller

Surgicorps is set to leave for our 5th mission trip to Zambia from September 12th-19th with 21 medical and non-medical team members. These words by Helen Keller are lived by each team member who gives so much to make each trip a success.

We will once again partner with Beit CURE International Children’s Hospital in Lusaka. Our team this year includes: 9 members from Pennsylvania, 6 from Massachusetts, 2 from New York, 2 from Colorado and 1 each from Virginia and Arizona.

Tara Burns will be joining our team for her 21st mission with Surgicorps. Other return team members include Christine Bowman, Diane Bremer, Joanie Dunn, Lori Ellis, Betty Hearne, Alex Hutchinson, David Kim, Scott Pearson, Tamara Rychok and Alyson Winston.

We welcome several new team members this year as well: KC Collins, Rama Joshi, Richard and Bernadette Montilla along with their son, Antonio, DeNese Olson, Charles Yang and David Yui.

Jack Demos will lead the team as Medical Director and Linda Esposto, our Director of Programs and Logistics, will be ensuring each aspect of the trip runs smoothly.

Thank you team Zambia for dedicating your talent, skills, passion, time, energy and resources to our friends in Lusaka. Stay tuned and follow us, for trip updates and pictures, on Facebook, Twitter and most recently on Instagram and LinkedIn!

  

I was sitting in class when my professor first mentioned her trips to Guatemala with Surgicorps International, and I instantly knew I had to go. I served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala from 2011-2013, where I worked in rural elementary schools, lived with a host family, and became part of a close-knit community. The experience had been life changing for me. Witnessing the lack of psychosocial care for Guatemalan children in clinics and hospitals led to my discovery of the field of child life and set me on my career path of becoming a certified child life specialist. Child life specialists support children and families facing challenging experiences related to healthcare and hospitalization, and I am a graduate student working towards certification so that I can help spread the field internationally to places like Guatemala.

Through Surgicorps International I had the amazing opportunity to return to Guatemala to do the work I had first dreamed of doing while I was a Peace Corps volunteer. When our team walked into the hospital at Obras Sociales Del Santo Hermano Pedro and I immediately began interacting with patients and speaking Spanish, I felt like I had come home. I was thrilled that I was able to use my Spanish skills to translate for surgeons and nurses during screening day and the days that followed, as well as use my training in child life to help keep children calm and happy before and after surgery.

On my third day in the hospital, one of the surgeons asked me to prepare a seven-year-old boy, Marcos, for his upcoming surgery to remove a mass from his hand. When I sat down to meet with Marcos and his father, they both appeared nervous and fidgety. In broken Spanish, Marcos’ father explained that they had traveled for two days to reach the clinic, and that they lived in the far away department of Huehuetenango and spoke a Mayan language called Chuj. Guatemala has over 21 Mayan languages, and I had learned basic Q’anjob’al during my Peace Corps service, a language that is closely related to Chuj.

In Q’anjob’al, I asked Marcos’ father his name, told him mine, and commented on the weather. His face broke into an incredulous smile. “How do you speak that?” he gasped. “Are you not American?” We began to laugh as Marcos smiled shyly, and I explained that I had lived in Santa Eulalia, Huehuetenango during the Peace Corps and learned Q’anjob’al there. The mood in the room lightened as we compared words in Q’anjob’al and Chuj, and Marcos’ father told me about their lives in an area not far from where I had once lived. Marcos came from a very poor family and was one of many brothers and sisters, and his father struggled to find work to keep the family clothed and fed. Marcos often missed school due to pain from the mass in his hand, which made it difficult for him to write. I read Marcos and his father a prep book that explained what would happen before, during, and after surgery, and engaged Marcos in medical play so he would not be afraid of medical equipment in the operating room and would understand how it was used. By the end of our meeting, Marcos and his father were relaxed, comfortable, and ready for surgery, and I felt a special bond with them both.

I accompanied Marcos to the operating room and was by his side to comfort him when he came out of anesthesia after his surgery. I then had the opportunity to spend a few hours with him in the recovery room. We played games on the iPad, colored, and talked about his life. He reminded me of my host brother in Santa Eulalia, who was also seven when I began my service. It was a joy to spend so much time with him and help him cope with a new and potentially scary experience and environment. Thanks to the generous donations of people in the United States, we were also able to supply Marcos and his family with new school supplies, clothes, and toys. I will always remember how proud and happy Marcos looked when I slipped a brand new jacket over his shoulders, or when he wrote his name on a piece of paper after surgery.

During my week volunteering with Surgicorps International, not only was I able to achieve my dream of offering child life services in Guatemala, I also reconnected with Guatemala in a way that exceeded all my expectations. It was an honor to give back to a country and people that had given so much to me during my time in the Peace Corps. I know firsthand the life-changing impact surgery will have for children like Marcos and his family, who would not be able to afford such procedures on their own. I am so grateful that Surgicorps International is doing such important healing work in the country so dear to my heart, and around the world.

As a child, I often fantasized about what I would be when I grew up: a famous actress, a
percussion player with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the President of the United States. I had some
pretty lofty dreams until I decided on my true calling: I wanted to be a general surgeon like my
dad, Dr. Ramakrishna and play percussion for the Pittsburgh Symphony in my free time.
While I never made it to medical school (or played with the Symphony), I often wondered what
it would be like to work with my dad. Surgicorps International gave me the opportunity to find out.

I first joined the Surgicorps team on their trip to Guatemala in 2011. I worked alongside my dad
and several other doctors as a non-medical volunteer. I wasn’t convinced that I could be a useful
member of the team, but I quickly learned that every members’ talents could be put to use in
some way. I helped with paperwork, acted as a runner for my dad’s operating room, and
comforted young children in the recovery room. In the years that followed, I eagerly awaited
these trips. They provided me with a chance to give back to communities in need and
a chance to connect with my dad in a meaningful way.

I have always known that my dad’s profession makes him an important figure in his patients’
lives, but the Surgicorps trips provide a wonderful lens into my dad’s impact on others. During
the trips, I watch him screen patients, indicating his concern for their health, and gaining their
trust. I follow him as he makes rounds each morning to ensure that patients are healing and
feeling better. I see him comfort mothers who are taking care of their young children, and how
he makes every member of his operating room team feel comfortable. Even the medical staff at
the clinic is at ease with him despite a language barrier.

The Guatemalan people have made quite an impression on my dad, and it’s easy to see that he
has done the same to them. This summer, I will return to Guatemala on my fourth trip with Surgicorps.

Being a part of this medical mission has been life changing. I will work with a team that I now consider a close
group of friends, and once again, I have the opportunity to work alongside my dad.
My dad has made a career out of helping others. Surgicorps lets me see this important work in
action and it finally allows me to help him give back to his deserving patients. For that, I am
extremely grateful.

Please consider supporting the team’s efforts through a contribution to our Crowdrise campaign!

 

 

 

SPOTLIGHT ON 2015 GUATEMALA TEAM MEMBERS

 

We are preparing for our 13^th trip to Guatemala from August 8^th-15^th with a team of 33 talented, dedicated and amazing medical and non-medical volunteers! Our team this year includes: 17 members from Pennsylvania, 11 from Massachusetts, 2 from Ohio and 1 each from Arizona, Colorado and Canada!

Dave Fortun, one of our veteran Guatemala team members, is making his 11^th trip this summer. Other return team members include Heather Archambeault, Kerry Bennett, Joy Bohan, Denise Esposto and her daughter, Tomasina Boyd, Stephanie Charron Butt and her son, Dylan Butt, Kevin Cohen, Amelia Hare, Meredith Harris, Laurie Kiehn, Carlos Mata, Judith McNicholas and her son, Aidan, Pat Kelly, Dave Metro, Nagamalli Ramakrishna and his daughter, Sangeetha, and Gregg Weidner and his wife, Nicole Tomba Weidner.

We welcome several new team members this year as well:  Kyle Amsler, Liliana Camison Bravo, Gregory Halenda, Caitlin Hall, Anne Kamarchik, Ella Kipervasser, Farzaneh Nabizadeh, Lynn Novier and Katie Respet.

David Kim will once again be our Medical Director and Linda Esposto, our Director of Programs and Logistics, will be orchestrating the many details to ensure the success of the mission. Our new Executive Director, Kate Freed, will be taking her inaugural trip with Surgicorps. Stephanie Charron Butt will be in a new role of Trip Coordinator.

Surgicorps thanks each of these volunteers who work tirelessly each day to help provide much needed services and support to our friends in Guatemala. Stay tuned and follow us, for trip updates and pictures, on Facebook, Twitter and most recently on LinkedIn!