Each year Dr. Namrata Varma leads the medical team from Memorial Care Miller Children's & Women's Hospital Long Beach to Guatemala for our pediatric ear, nose & throat (ENT) mission. The team provides critical pediatric otolaryngology surgeries.
Dr. Varma’s team is set to deploy to Guatemala City in March 2023, and we are currently fundraising to support the mission.
Dr. Varma’s team is set to deploy to Guatemala City in March 2023, and we are currently fundraising to support the mission.
The need
Nearly half the Guatemalan population is under the age of 18 and many families lack access to healthcare services. This is compounded by the fact that there are only four ENT surgeons in Guatemala City. Since 2012, Mending Kids has been deploying surgical teams to operate at the Shalom Foundation’s Moore Pediatric Surgery Center in Guatemala City, helping the long list of children awaiting procedures and expanding the capabilities of the local surgeons and medical professionals. Our young patients and their families come from all over Guatemala, many commuting up to 10 hours by bus to receive free access to specialized surgical care from our team.
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DONATE NOW & HELP US DEPLOY THE TEAM!Your tax-deductible donation will support Dr. Varma and the medical team's travel for the mission, rent the surgical facility, and purchase medical supplies to provide this critical surgical care. Everyone on the medical team donates their time and services to give these kids a chance at a healthy life.
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Memories from our past missions...
progress
After returning in 2022 from a two-year pandemic hiatus, the team mended 41 kids in 5 days. To date, we have mended 1131 kids in Guatemala. This year, surgical procedures planned for the mission include the removal of tonsils, nasal deformities, nasal blockages, eardrum repairs, tongue-ties, and the correction and maintenance of tracheostomies. With your help, these children and their families can be present and social in school. At the same time, their families can go on with their day-to-day/everyday lives of making a living and providing for their families.
our commitment
- 2012: General Pediatric mission in Guatemala, mended 52 kids.
- 2013: Our first ENT mission. We were able to mend 32 kids. General pediatric mission mended 87 kids.
- 2014: Deployed two ENT missions, providing 141 procedures to mend 77 kids in April, and 84 procedures for 46 kids in October.
- 2015: 105 kids mended with 190 surgical procedures in 5 days, the most surgeries ever performed on any Mending Kids mission.
- 2016: The Guatemala team returned to mend 97 children with life-changing ENT surgeries.
- 2017: 100 kids were mended with 125 procedures.
- 2018: 85 children were mended on our December mission.
- 2019: 101 children were mended on our November mission.
- 2022: 41 children were mended on our March mission.
