Medical Mission Preparations

One of the things that makes PazSalud unique is that we work closely with community leaders, long before the medical mission ever begins, to pool our collective resources in order to create the best medical brigades possible.  Comasagua - the site for our 2016 General Medical Mission - has some remarkably enthusiastic and motivated leaders happy to partner with PazSalud to bring our services to the most patients we can.

For the past several months I've been working to put together a team of local entities that will help us pull off the massive undertaking that is a PazSalud February mission.  Below I'm meeting with the mayor (center, yellow shirt), the Director of the municipal health clinic (center, plaid shirt), the local CIS health promoter/volunteer coordinator (right, plaid shirt) and a room full of nurses and health care outreach workers.

Christmas in El Salvador

Every year PazSalud puts together baskets of food items for the families we have been working with over the years and we deliver them just before Christmas.  Each basket is filled with healthy staples for the family to enjoy during the holidays.  Sharing the gift of food during this special time of year is one of the ways PazSalud continues to be a presence in our past mission communities and help some very needy and deserving Salvadorans.

Special Order Glasses for Tamanique Patients

During PazSalud’s recent joint optometry mission with the Lions Club of Bellingham, WA, our optometrists identified patients from Tamanique who require prescriptions that we could not fill from our supply of donated glasses.  In these cases, our mission team volunteers will take their prescriptions and have lenses specially made for them in the U.S. at no cost to the Salvadoran patient.

A very special thanks to Walman Optical who so generously made and donated the glasses and Ken Henderson whose efforts made it all possible for me to recently deliver customized, special-ordered glasses to some very needy patients.  Their new glasses enable them to see the world like they never have before and the smiles on their faces tell you all you need to know about how happy they are.