Volunteers Help Care For 5,430 Guatemalans

In Guatemala, Project HOPE volunteers along with their military counterparts and other medical volunteers participating in Continuing Promise 2010:

• Treated 5,430 patients
  Provided 20,799 patient encounters
  Performed 121 surgeries
  Participated in 12,782 educational contacts

More Kevin Makwoski Photos from Guatemala

Photos by Kevin Makowski, HOPE's volunteer Public Affairs Officer

Help Support Project HOPE's Humanitarian, Health Education and Volunteer Programs Around the Globe.

Getting Help from the Kids in Guatemala

As another team of volunteers heads toward Nicaragua and Panama to begin work soon, Kevin Makowski, HOPE's PAO, continues to tell the stories of the volunteers who just completed their work in Guatemala.

After leaving Costa Rica, we were at sea for 2.5 days before we arrived off the coast of Guatemala on September 5. The helicopters came and went all day long preparing the Med sites for our work with patients. The Project HOPE volunteers were treated to an amazing sunset as they prepared to begin work early the next morning.

Dr. Jean Muench, a pediatrician from Pediatric Physicians, PC in Roswell, Georgia, was one of the HOPE volunteers working onshore on day one. After a slow drive up a stone path that is used as a road past waterfalls and sweeping views of the valley and bay below we arrived at the town of Pavas, the site of Med Site 2. The patients had been waiting for hours in the sun. The children in Guatemala are very curious and come at least 3 to a family, the older siblings help mom with the younger ones and often help us as well.

Photos and story by Kevin Makowski, HOPE's volunteer Public Affairs Officer

Help Support Project HOPE's Humanitarian, Health Education and Volunteer Programs Around the Globe.