Most of us have seen the TV commercials for Operation Smile. This program sends Canadian doctors to do cleft lip and palate surgery on severely facially deformed children in needy countries. What most of us don’t know is that Thunder Bay has had its own Smile Project for 9 years. In 2012, MEMO made contact with Dr. Marisel Garcia de Busta, a pediatric maxillo-facial surgeon in Matanzas, Cuba. She was performing cleft lip and palate surgery on newborns in the…
A few months ago, I received a request from our contact person in Cuba, Dr. Abel Santana for “barium powder.” Some of you may remember in the old days, when a doctor wanted to look at the inside of your stomach and intestinal tract, you would have to swallow a horrible tasting white paste and then have X-rays to show what it was outlining. That’s barium powder! The accuracy rate was only about 70%. Today doctors can actually look inside your…
After 6 months of preparation of 1,900 separate items and packages, on March 25th, we shipped 40’ ocean container #102 to Zimbabwe. This involves a lot of preplanning so that items to be packed are readily available from our storage trailers. The 10 tons of critical medical supplies includes simple things like dressings and catheters to more complicated medical equipment like ECG machines, fetal monitors and ultrasounds. As well are all the widows and orphan supplies, including clothing, dishes, cooking…
The beginning of a new year gives us reason to plan what we would like to do this year and what our needs will be. We only ask for a knowledge of God’s will, and the strength and wisdom to carry it out. In the spirit of transparency we try to keep you informed of what our plans are. PLAN FOR 2023: This year we would like to ship a container every 4 months beginning in March for a total…