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As we end this year, Mending Kids reflects on all that’s been accomplished during 2018. The year was filled with stories of recovery and heartfelt memories. Mending Kids helped save and change the lives of children from all over the world. The surgeries provided varied; colorectal, cardiac, ENT, plastic and burns. Here is a snapshot of some of the lives we’ve touched in 2018: Mending Kids Works With Good Samaritan To Bring Jamaican Boy to U.S. for Reconstructive Surgery12/17/2018
Mending Kids flew out 14-year old, Anthony from Jamaica to Los Angeles this November to undergo a series of facial reconstruction procedures. Anthony fell off of a pick-up truck when he was only 6 years old. The fall left him with a disfigured face. Complex, facial reconstructive surgeries are not amenable in his home country of Jamaica. And, Anthony’s family was unable to fund such a complicated procedure.
Flash-forward 4 years. Steve Miller was vacationing in Trelawny, Jamaica and noticed a boy sitting at the pier. It just so happens that Anthony’s Dad, Bernard works for a rafting tour company and Anthony was waiting for his Dad’s shift to end. Steve couldn’t help but to notice this boy’s face. He went back to his vacation rental and inquired with the house manager if they knew of the boy. They did, and the manager contacted Bernard about Steve’s inquiry. Steve searched for nearly 4 years for someone to take on Anthony’s case. No one would. Until Steve reached out to Mending Kids about 3 months ago. Mending Kids sponsored his flight and made all of the arrangements for him to be seen at both Shriners and Children’s Hospital L.A. While Anthony was here, Steve launched a Facebook Giving Tuesday campaign, which fundraised nearly $5000 to sponsor Anthony’s housing and food. In between appointments, Steve made sure Anthony and Bernard were able to take in some Los Angeles sightseeing and enjoyed quality time getting to know each other. Mending Kids arranged for Anthony’s many appointments while here. It was uncovered that before Anthony could have any reconstruction done, he needed to meet with a Neurosurgeon, because via a brain scan, it was obvious his brain was exposed. This speciality is not a service provided by Shriners. Steve learned of a neurosurgeon, Mark Krieger of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles so Mending Kids arranged for and paid for that appointment. Dr. Krieger advised that Anthony could have his three initial nose surgeries and come back for the neurosurgery procedure afterwards. At this point, Anthony and his Dad had already been here a month and Dad needed to get back to Jamaica so he could go back to work and help support his family. Anthony, his family and Steve remain hopeful that his reconstruction will happen through Mending Kids Individual Surgical Care Program in early 2019. Mending Kids deploys to Guatemala City to provide 85 children with general ears, nose and throat procedures. Mending Kids Lead Surgeon Dr. Namrata Varma, led the 21 person team consisting of 11 medical volunteers;surgeons, surgical technicians, anesthesiologists and nurses along with of 10 High School student volunteers from MUSE High-School in Calabasas .
The student volunteers helped out with paperwork, passed out stuffed animals to patients, helped ease the children's nerves before and after surgery, painted the exterior and bathroom of Prince of Peace Girls Group Home and Orphanage, and helped pack our loaned medical equipment. The students also had a chance to interact with local volunteers who were their age. These bilingual Guatemalan volunteers served the purpose of translating in the screening clinic, pre-op, and post-op. This was an opportunity for the Muse student volunteers to connect with their peers, and find commonalities between the two cultures. “We have seen patients who have never gotten a good night’s sleep wake up happy as they have never done before. We are here to change Guatemala but Mending Kids is here to change our world,” says Dr. Ligia Figueroa, Medical Director Moore Pediatric Surgical Center. Mending Kids’ hope is to make great strides at self-sustainment in the area of pediatric ENT surgery while making many more of these surgeries available to these young patient and empowering surgeons to provide these procedures confidently. For more information about our Overseas Medical Missions click here Florence Dorsky, Jeff Drasnin, Marc Edelman, David Elichman, Joel Engelstein, Tina Erwin, Amy Eskoff-Garrett, Sarah Evans,
Rami Even-esh, Eversole Trust, Diana Fehey, Aimee Feifer, David Fishberg, Todd Forte, Kerry Frain, Jef Friedman, Brian Frischer, Solange Frischer, Caren Galit, Marni Garfinkle, Aaron Garrison, Marc Gasway, Natali Gebran-Miller, Carol Gendler, Sepha Ginsburg-Silverman, Glendale Adventist Medical Center, Carrie Goldin, Jeremy Goldstein, Mitch Goodman, Courtney Gordon, Hilda Gourdikian, James and Susan Gray, Mo Griss, Elijay Hacohein, Kathy Hakim, Michelle Hamada, Heather Harp, Troy Haynes, Maureen Hecker, Adria Hersh, Lenny Hirsch, Jennifer Hirschberg, Angie Hobbs, Conor Hogan, Alyssa Hope, Ann Hudson, Tracy HuethDanika Iagorio, Yuval Ilani, Rustam Isakov, Seth Itzkowitz, Zoe Jackson, JEUNESSE KIDS FOUNDATION, INC., Lynne Joseph, Rachel Kamrasch, Carol Kaplan, Christine Katzman, Stephanie Kaufman, KCBC Foundation AKA Khalili Foundation AKA KB Surgical Center, Kenneth Keiter, Stefani Kelly, Danny Kern, Michelle Kert, Jessie Kimmell, Melissa Kingma, Karen Klugo, Wendy Knecht, Arthur Kokozian, Meera Kotagal, Nooneh Kradjian, Ece Krane, Ian Kusinitz, Jessica Langsbard, Carla Leader, April Lebowitz, Samantha Lee, Barbra Lesh, Stephani Letzring, Jacqueline Lewis, Kate Lieberman, Iris Lim-Beutel, Aaron Lipskar, Laura & Dan Lorimer, Karina Lynch, Seda Macher, Ranum Magellan & David Van Iwaarden, Angela Maly, Mara Mandel, Carrie Maras, Heidi Marcus, Rob Mariles, Annissa Mason, Diane McCabe, Colleen McGuine, Brian Miller, David Miller, Jeffrey Miller, Robin Miller, Susan Miller, Missy Modell, Kim Moskowitz, Alison Moss, Chelsea Mullins, Dawn Mullins, Nikki Nachum, Hartley Naki, Eleanor Nett, Tom Newberry, Robin Nugent, Kristen Oyler, Ian Paquette, Lori Parker, Maral Partamian, Lindsay Pashayan-Fries, Jody Peckett, Jonathan Penn, Evan Peterson, Todd Ponsky, Brian Potash, Shannon Price, Carlin Ram, Jon Rapport, Joan Rater, Scheila Reich, Meri Rerisi, Gil Reyes, Romeo Rodriguez, Alex Rose, Jamie Rosen, Michelle Rosenbaum-Ellis, Peter Rosenberg, Laurie Rosendahl, Steven Rothenberg, Vickie Rowe, Nate Ruben, Dana Ruggieri-Lamacchia, Lindsay Rutter, Greg Ryan, Sarine Sahatjian, Nick Santaniello, Michelle Scarola, Amy Schneider, Barry Schneider, Seth Schochet, Emily Schonbraun, Linda Schrager-Cohen, Jaimee Schreiber-Loewy, Bob Schwartz, Robyn Schwartz-Millman, Dori Schwartz-Prussian, Daniel Scroggins, Jacob Seldes, Farrah Selvers, Andrea Shapiro, Jay Shapiro, Paige Silver, Galite Silverman, Rachel Silverman, Justin Singer, Michelle Singer, Barry Sloane, Albert So, Adrian Soghoian, Heather Speizman, Steven Squillante, Warren Sroka, Marian Sternberger-Freundlich, Meagan Stockemer, Amy Stollmack, Tara Strong, Ashton Stronks, David Suchowiecky, Jannis Swerman, Geoffrey Szot, Erin Thompson, Esther Tseng, Bradley Tuck, Heather Tungate-Bingham, Sabrina Valadez-Donyes, Eva Van Brunt, Victoria Vickson, David Wagner, Kiko Wanger, Max Wanger, Burn Washburn, Lauren Wassler, Kaare Weber, Steven Weigle, Scott Weingust, Kelly Weinstein, Janis Welsh, Joyce Wengler-Kelton, Nicola White, Kelly Williams, Tara Wolfe, Jay Zatzkin, Gabrielle Zhuang, Julie Zunder
Mending Kids continues its partnership with The Shalom Foundation’s Moore Pediatric Surgery Center (MPSC) in Guatemala City to provide 85 children with general ears, nose and throat procedures.
Mending Kids Lead surgeon Dr. Namrata Varma (Otolaryngologist) and her team of medical volunteers, including Dr. Joni Doherty from Miller Children’s and Women’s Hospital, deployed to Guatemala for our annual ENT mission at Moore Medical Center. Our mission team was made up of 21 volunteers, including 10 student volunteers from MUSE High School in Calabasas. In total 93 patients were screened and 85 patients received procedures. Mending Kids’ hope is to make great strides at self-sustainment in the area of pediatric ENT surgery while making many more of these surgeries available to these young patient and empowering surgeons to provide these procedures confidently. Sharing health care knowledge and skills is a crucial building block toward establishing surgical sustainability in Guatemala and to mending more children beyond the scope of just our mission. Our MUSE High-School student volunteers helped out with paperwork, passed out stuffed animals to patients, helped ease the children's nerves before and after surgery, painted the exterior and bathroom of Prince of Peace Girls Group Home and Orphanage, and helped pack our loaned medical equipment. They also had the opportunity to connect with local Guatemalan peers, who helped with translating in the screening clinic, pre-op, and post-op rooms. Mending Kids thanks KARL STORZ, a global manufacturer and distributor of medical instruments and devices, for generously donating surgical equipment to be used for the procedures.  Jeunesse Kids™ is a nonprofit charitable 501c(3) foundation and is funded and supported by a vast community of caring individuals whose mission is to build better tomorrows for young people in underprivileged communities around the world.
Sunday October 28, Mending Kids was fortunate to be a recipient of a $68,400.00 check from their charitable fundraising efforts. However, to our surprise, once we received the check it had increased to $72,407.00. Jeunesse Kids™ selects a Charity Foundation within the community that Jeunesse is having an event at, and receives donations from distributors and attendees at the event. In addition, Jeunesse Kids had a booth at the event and offered a free gift with a donation. Chris Johnson, our CEO, was asked to come on stage in front of 1200 attendees, to receive the donation by General Manager Martine Girotto. He was surrounded by the donors who each donated $1500 toward the total check. Jeunesse Kids is the nonprofit that spun from Jeunesse Global. The event took place at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.  Mending Kids met Arles, from Nicaragua, when he was 8 years old. This is 6 years after he received his initial childhood burns, and we have supported him through his burn-care treatments for the last 11 years and through 8 surgeries. This donation will support his journey to and from Nicaragua for treatment at Shriners For Children’s Medical Center.
 2-year-old Fatuma was one of 11 young heart patients on our Tanzania Cardiac mission in Dar Es Salaam in October. These dollars fully-funded her surgery. Mending Kids is happy to report she is doing well and is home in Tanzania recovering.
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Mending Kids is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization registered in California, United States of America.
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