Beyond Surgery - Projects for Sustainability

 
More Than Surgery:
 
One of the distinguishing characteristics of Faces of Hope relative to any other organization that does this work in Guatemala is that we are more than a surgical team.  We are a humanitarian team fueled by the expertise in the surgical ward.  Over our six years of existence, we have completed numerous programs with our Guatemala partners. 
  • Mobility We have given Companeros en Salud (our rural outreach partner) mobility to reach deeper into the furthest reaches of Guatemala. We have done this by providing a four-wheel drive truck and off road motorcycles to help them access villages otherwise only accessible by foot.
     
  • Capacity Building We have worked to strengthen Antigua's Charity hospital and our host, Obras Sociales del Santo Hermano Pedro, in many ways. We brought needed vaccines to the staff and provided numerous pieces of surgical equipment and supplies to allow them to do more with what they have.
     
  • Basic Health We have outfitted the entire hospital with a closed-circuit television system so that they can provide basic health education to the people who come to the hospital. Once we established the closed circuit television system, we were able to help them produce educational content in basic health and sanitation in Spanish and several Mayan languages.
     
  • To extend this message to the populations that need it, we have provided LCD projectors to Compeneros en Salud so that they could take this information deep into the Mayan villages. We also equipped Casa de Fe (our pre/post-op housing facility) with televisions so that they could show this content to the families who stay at their facility.
     
  • Beyond Cleft Surgery Our most recent project has been to work with two Guatemalan plastic surgeons who are trying to establish the first burn clinic in the country. In a country that has over 65,000 burn victims, Guatemala has NO established clinic for their treatment. Literally, these two surgeons have to beg, borrow and steal time in the operating rooms, equipment for burn rehabilitation therapy, and resource to help the most severely burned children. It is an overwhelming experience to see their challenges.
Over the past years, our efforts have begun to pay off. Each year we bring bags of supplies of surgical and therapy materials that they do not otherwise have. We were able to connect them with local Rotarians who can provide more ongoing funding, a critical piece in the establishment of the clinic. Finally, this last year, we were able to provide critically needed surgical equipment so that they now finally have a fully dedicated surgical theater to address the burn victims.
 
From our team, to the city, to our strengths and our projects, Faces of Hope is changing health care in Guatemala, one smile at a time.