Brigade Experience

I write this on Thanksgiving 2008 waiting for family to arrive. My two healthy, beautiful children are home from college. I sit here thinking of my trip several weeks ago to Honduras for Propapa Missions America.

I have a son who has broken two legs and one wrist at different times in his life. American football has not been kind to him. In Honduras, children walk on their ankles with their feet turned in at ninety degrees due to club feet that should have been fixed when they were babies. Is my son any better than the children of third world countries, such as Honduras? Absolutely not, he is just luckier. He was born in a country were first rate medical care was available to him. Many children in this world are not that fortunate. That is just not right.

Our Ortho brigade arrived in Honduras Saturday night. I only knew several of the team prior to going, but by the end of the week I admired and loved every one of them. I have never met such a group of caring, hard working professionals. We all had the same thought, let’s just make a little difference. On this trip I also met the most amazing person ever in my life, Sister Laurinda. Every minute of her life is devoted to these children.

Sunday was clinic day. That is the day where we see the children that are scheduled for surgery during our brigade. X-rays are reviewed, patients are examined and they are told when to report. Fifteen surgeries are scheduled for the week. Surgeries will include several club feet repairs, knee injuries (two teens that have had knee tendon tears from soccer injuries a long time ago) and children that have contracted legs due to Cerebral Palsy.

Word gets around that we are here and people arrive, hoping that we can do something for their children too. Two of these walk-ins stand out.

A mom brought in her young son. He was born with his fingers attached to each other, like a ducks webbed feet. The doctors examined him and then gave the mother the good news, the fingers on the left hand could be detached during this brigade. The surgery on the right hand may be able to be done on a later brigade. The smile on the mom’s face when told we could help was priceless. Tuesday he had his surgery and he did well.








A dad brought in his teenage daughter. She was very skinny and sad. She walked with a terrible limp. Our translator informed me that she does not go to school as she is too embarrassed with the way she walks. Dad had an x-ray and he gave it to the doctors to review. After looking at the film the patient was examined. It was determined that the patient was born with such a deformity in the hip socket area that surgery could not be done. I will never forget the feeling in my gut as I watched dad and his limping daughter walk out the front door, knowing that this young lady is sentenced to a life like that. Had she been born somewhere else, her story may have had a different ending.

Last week I watched my son play football with his college friends, running like the wind, with all that hardware in his leg. I can only think of that teenage girl in Honduras.

- Brigade Member Larry Loewy

PPH was there again because of YOU!

In an update from Honduras:

THE ANGRY RIVERS, CANALS AND FLOOD GATES could take no more. In early October, 2008, the destruction began again. The rain pounded on our tin roofs so hard that the sound became sickening. Now the entire country was beginning to feel the affects. The rainy days turned to weeks then months. Even the area of the PPH Office was threatened as the water reached the edge of the banks of the five- year- old River built by the Japanese. I asked my neighbors, “Where do we go when the water comes.” The answer was--since we can’t get out, we have to go up where we can in anyone’s home or our roofs. This lasted only three days and nights. And we did not have to leave our homes although many did.

The highway from San Pedro to El Progreso was crowded with plastic shelters. Any school, center or church that was dry was used as a refuge in the entire country where it was flooding..

The Modern Day Blessings immediately became the beacon of hope. Cellular phones, emails, TV stations, reporters were getting word out to everyone where people were suffering the most. Phyllis Casey was with me constantly during the entire ordeal, telling me about the donations coming to PPMA that could be transferred.

Word came from Urraco asking me to try to contact the El Progreso TV station. With fear in my heart, I started out for El Progreso.. It was dark and some lanes were not flooded on the highway. When I told Juan Bendeck, the owner of Canal 48, he asked me to talk on the TV. I told the viewers there was no food for the newcomers who just arrived in Urraco. Simultaneously a huge truck drove up from a Progreso Bread Co. with sandwiches. Juan sent them to Urraco in the dark, in the water. What a joy to get the phone call an hour later saying that the truck actually arrived at our Clinic Warehouse in Urraco where 300 women and children were not being housed. There was enough food to feed them all from Pavon II and I and other flooded areas.

Most people had to evacute their homes for a month or more in Urraco—70% of the families, Pavon II and Pavon I—all the families, Esterio Indio, 80%, Batan, 80%, Aldea 28 and 29, 30%, Mealer and Cayo 70%, La Fragua, 50% and Vera Cruz, 90%. Just to mention a few that some of you know well. Naturally there were many more in our area.

Besides the $11,215 that we received from PRO-PAPA MISSION AMERICA donors, help also came from Honduras businesses, churches, TV stations, individuals, Police, Military, the Honduran Emergency Committee called COPECO.. Several times, Honduran people stopped me to give me clothes for the people in Urraco. I saw individual cars stopping on the highway to share plates of food with the people who were in the plastic shelters there.

As ULUA RIVER came more and more angry, all of Urraco was threathened. We made the decision to buy 3,000 large sacks and sand to fill them. Men, women, children, young and old worked around the clock to prevent ULUA from flooding the center of Urraco.

Our Clinic was able to see 950 patients GRATIS during this time, with the help of the donations received. We were also able to help buy food that was cooked by a group at the Catholic Church, St. Anthony. Fr. Chavelo, the Pastor and the Team worked around the clock on a four burner stove. 2,700 plates of food were prepared daily with a total of 64,800 plates for 24 days. Another group of Volunteers from a Church in el Progreso also cooked around the clock and delivered food daily to our area.

COPECO, the Emergency Committee in SPS called Benigno Ramirez, our PPH President, telling him that had 15,000 little boxes of milk for the poorest children in our area. With PPMA donations we were able to hire trucks to get the milk in SPS and deliver it to the poorest in and around Urraco. COPECO also delivered sacks of food for 250 families in the Military trucks, 250 cylinders of gas for the poor and 110, 6” pipes to help finish the Water Project for Urraco and the 6 communities connected to the Water system. Now we only lack 36 pipes to reach the source of the water in the mountains.

The stories are too many to share here. Driving into Urraco is still a challenge with the main entrance closed due to deep holes and 2-3 feet of very wet mud. One has to take a route north to get into Urraco from the North side.

How can we thank you again?

The generous donations came quickly from our PPMA/PPH friends. . .

Recently a Church in Indiana, PA helped pay some pending emergency bills with their large donation. .

We got constant emails telling us of prayers, solidarity, that they were trying to find donations, wanting to do more for our Honduran friends many of you know so well.

To all who donated for the flood Victims—THANKS A MILLION.

For any of you who would like to help keep our incredible 24 hour PRO-PAPA Health Center to continue our health services the poorest, please continue to donate for our Clinic this 2009. Any amount will help--$10, $20, $50, $100, $500. If you want to spread the word to others please do. We are celebrating the 14th Anniversary of our Clinic in March 2009. We need your help to buy the needed medicines. Please help. The aftermath of the flood, rains continually brings all kinds of sicknesses, especially to the young and elderly.

Yesterday, I was at our Clinic when a Mother was receiving help for her two little girls. Both suffered an asthma attack at the same time--a very common illness in Urraco especially after rains, floods, dampness, and all the dust, etc. The happy look on the Mother’s face told me so much. She was so relieved as she took her girls home. She thanked the Doctor over and over for all she did.
Immediately after this, a Father brought in his little boy who fell off his bike and had a bad cut on his forehead. The Doctor and nurse rushed the little boy to the Clinic’s Emergency Roomto clean and stitch the wound. The Father said to me—Sor Laurinda, I thank God and your organization for this Clinic. Where would I have gone on December 31 for help?

Where would people go in the middle of the night when sickness strikes their child?

Where do they take an elderly woman whose blood pressure is dangerously high?

Where does a poor husband take his pregnant wife who is in labor late at night or any other time? Our Suyapa Clinic has helped save hundreds of lives over the years.

THANKS FOR HELPING US HELP THE POOREST IN OUR SUYAPA CLINIC! GOD BLESS YOU FOR ALL YOU HAVE DONE -- WILL DO!