With Dr. Joe Hurley, center, and Dr. Carcamo, a Salvadoran obstetrician.

As a Catholic physician with an interest in surgery, I was very excited to learn about Helping Hands Medical Missions and the work they have been doing around the world. Since 1996, teams of about 25-45 volunteers, nurses, dentists, and physicians (both primary care and specialist) have been setting out on annual week-long trips to the third world, including Sonsonate and Santiago Texacuangos, El Salvador, to provide medical care to thousands of impoverished patients. More importantly, through their encounters the missionaries also aim to bring the gospel and it’s saving message to every patient they encounter.

Although it wasn’t my first time in El Salvador, it was the first time I visited in the capacity of a physician. On arrival, I learned that with the exception of general surgeon Dr. Joe Hurley and orthopaedic hand surgeon Dr. Don Condit, I was the only one with significant experience in the operating room and as a result I would be spending most of the week assisting the surgeons.  I spent the first three days operating with Dr. Hurley, and together we repaired approximately thirty hernias, which in an agricultural economy like that of El Salvador can be very debilitating. The next day I spent with Dr. Condit, who had a variety of cases including excision of a wrist ganglion cyst, a free toe phalanx transfer to lengthen the fingers of a child with a malformed hand, and a tendon transfer operation to restore some hand and wrist function to a patient with a permanent nerve palsy.

I also was able to spend two days with the primary care team, where my Spanish came in VERY handy. Although some patients presented to receive vitamins and over-the-counter analgesics like ibuprofen and tylenol, and others just for someone to visit with, I was satisfied to make a few diagnoses including ringworm and asthma and initiate the appropriate treatment.

Woven into the mission work was a great spiritual program. The week was structured almost like a “mini-retreat,” with daily Mass and time for private reflection. Father James Perez served as our chaplain.

In the future I hope to involve the TLAU becados in the HHMM mission in Sonsonate. Many Salvadoran students and volunteers, both medical and non-medical, provided great help to keep the mission running smoothly. I think it would be a great opportunity for them to join the HHMM volunteers and witness firsthand what it means to take the talents you have received and give them to others.  The Least Among Us always emphasizes that scholarships are not merely paths to material advancement, but widespread cultural change and a lifetime of self-improvement.

I met many very enjoyable personalities and made many friends during the trip. Although everyone worked very hard, we still found time to have fun. It may have been my first mission with Helping Hands, but it definitely won’t be my last!

For more photos, see our Picasaweb page. For more information about Helping Hands Medical Missions, or if you wish to make a donation or volunteer on a mission trip, visit their website for more information: www.hhmm.org.

(Disclaimer – My Helping Hands Medical Missions trip was not funded by The Least Among Us.  As stated in our mission statement, 100% of all donations are used directly on educational capital projects and scholarships.)

Assisting Dr. Don Condit with a tendon transfer procedure to restore some finger and wrist function in a patient with a disabling nerve palsy.

Parents of schoolchildren work to construct the foundation of new classrooms at Nuestra Senora de los Pobres in Zacatecoluca

When I tell others about The Least Among Us and its mission, I’m always sure to emphasize a very important fact about the poor in El Salvador. Poverty, especially in the third world, does not signify complacency. The Salvadoran people we help do not lack ambition or the desire to improve themselves or their lot in life. They simply lack capital. I know from experience that they share our desire to improve ourselves, grow in virtue and knowledge, provide for our families, etc.  Simply put, in a rapidly globalizing, technology-centered economy, the system works over their heads.

As I thought about the virtue of charity, especially as it relates to financial support of our mission, I found an interesting parallel. Just as the poor want to improve their situation but lack the resources and raw materials to do so, all of us in the USA are deeply aware of great, noble, pure ambitions within our hearts that we never realize for a variety of reasons.  For some it’s a lack of courage, and for others it’s the scarcity of time.  And yes, like our Salvadoran brethren, we have all struggled with a lack of money or resources.

So in some ways The Least Among Us serves both the poor and its donors. For the poor, it provides resources to allow them to improve themselves mentally, physically, and spiritually. For donors, it creates opportunities to realize those great, noble, pure desires we all have but worry will never be realized.  It’s a win-win situation. A candle burning at both ends emits twice the light, right?

I started this post hoping to draw attention to some of the easiest ways to support The Least Among Us financially, so I must emphasize that if it is scarcity of time or treasure keeping you from helping, please take a look at the online giving service we have partnered with, Network for Good. Several donors are making clever use of the site to make small monthly donations, as little as $10 or $15. This may seem an insignificant amount, but if every fan did the same, our impact on the lives of those we help would be greatly magnified.  It is also very convenient, since many of us are so busy that remembering to sit down and make a donation every month is a pie-in-the-sky.

Finally, remember that most banks have very useful and user-friendly online autopay tools, whereby a client may designate a payee and an amount and the bank will take care of the rest: a check will be issued and mailed on a one-time or monthly basis without further hassle or postage fees.  So ask your bank, and when you sit down to pay your electricity or gas bill, remember your brothers and sisters in El Salvador at the price of two or three coffees every month.

Father Pat and Miriam Vazquez, one of TLAU’s first college graduates, on her graduation day

Father Pat Keane traveled to El Salvador July 23 through August 2 to visit with the becados (scholarship recipients) and to attend the college graduation of Mirian Elizabeth Clavel Vasquez, a scholarship recipient and one of our first students to graduate from college.  She received her degree in Primary Education and hopes to teach soon at an elementary level.

Father’s meeting with the becados marked the beginning of a new tradition for The Least Among Us. At a special ceremony, each student was presented with a document written by The Least Among Us outlining the foundation’s approach to scholarships.  Each student was given a day to think and pray about the letter before signing it and listing the ways they planned to help their community after they graduate.  To paraphrase the letter (I plan a full post with a translation at a later date), scholarships are not awarded for mere material advancement of the individual, but as a crucial element of our mission to fight poverty and renew the culture from the inside out.  Therefore each student is expected not only to complete their education, but to spend their lives, even after graduation, making continued financial or non-financial contributions to their community. Father Keane emphasized the importance of helping others with their time, talent, and treasure, participating in activities such as weekly tutoring for struggling students.

Our next graduate will be Jorge Perez who successfully defended his thesis during Fr. Pat’s visit and will be receiving his Licenciatura on December 5th of this year.  Jorge has been in our scholarship program for the past eight years and is an alumnus of TLAU’s very first school in Santo Domingo de Guzman.  Born into a very poor family, Jorge entered first grade at the age of 13 and has shown remarkable perseverance in that he had to walk 45 minutes each way to go to school up until 9th grade.  He attended high school as a TLAU becado in Sonsonate and has been studying at the University in Sonsonate for the past 5 years.  At the age of 30 he will finally receive his college degree making him the first in his family to attain the unthinkable.   Fr. Pat plans to return to El Salvador in December for Jorge’s graduation and to celebrate Jorge’s wedding the following day.

The rest of the becados are doing very well as is Madeline Sanchez who received life saving open heart surgery through designated donations to TLAU.

TLAU scholarship recipients think and pray before signing TLAU’s mission promise.