Esperanca

Esperana (es-pe-ran-sah), the portuguese word for hope, resonates in everything we do. We are more than doctors, donors, volunteers. We are activists, community members, and global citizens. We are connected to our work because we are there, on the ground, letting the people tell us what they need. Of all the work esperana conducts, none is more dramatic than the effect the medical teams (consisting of a minimum of a surgeon, nurse, and anesthesiologist) have on the lives of the families served through our volunteer surgical missions. Due to the poor political climate in some of the countries we serve, we were unable to send all of the scheduled surgical teams from the united states out of safety concerns. Last year we sent only four volunteer surgical teams to ecuador, and peru. They performed 192 surgeries with an in-kind value of 2.41 million. However, through our medical partners in nicaragua we facilitated 35 medical brigade missions where we treated 3,376 patients for an in-kind value of 936,632. Patients were treated for severe burns, cleft palates, injuries & deformities, goiters, hernias, tumors, gall bladders, and a full range of obstetric and gynecological needs. Additionally, critical medical supplies with an in-kind value of 2.67 million were shipped to hospitals and clinics to provide life saving assistance. For more information please visit www.wetransformlives.org