Dear Supporters,
My name is Lisa Carani, I’m a Nurse Practitioner and I am honored to serve as the new President of Healing Hands Medical Mission. As our team looks forward to our upcoming mission trips in March and June of 2024, I wanted to share an experience with you from our March 2023 mission. Of course, without the help of donors like you, our missions could not happen. We are so grateful for your financial support and prayers. This Christmas season, please prayerfully consider our mission and help us continue to provide the kind of care described below.
On our Spring mission trip, we traveled with a smaller healthcare team. While there, in addition to conducting our mini clinics, we also assess inventory for our larger trips in June of each year and make vital connections with the local hospitals to whom our patients are referred. With a smaller footprint of staff, we are able to take our mission directly to the small villages around San Antonio de Padua Parish where we are normally stationed. Armed with our stethoscopes, duffle bags filled with medications and supplies, and a sense of purpose to help those in need, we set out to serve our patients where they live and work. One of the villages, La Ensenada, was so remote, they had never been visited by a medical mission before. They welcomed us with the sound of a conch shell announcing our arrival (Please see photo)
Our team had planned to see about 50 patients that day. We felt small but mighty and prayed that God would give us strength to serve this community with dignity and empathy. Although we had no electricity, we treated intestinal illnesses, previously undiagnosed diabetes, high blood pressure, pregnancy, infections, acid reflux, wounds, malnutrition, irregular heartbeats, and a variety of orthopedic injuries. Following Jesus’s example, we listened to lung sounds, palpated abdomens, washed wounds, and comforted our Guatemalan brothers and sisters with splints, walkers and medicine. We saw patients from newborn to 96 years old and ended up seeing 137 patients by candlelight well into the evening. God truly helped our team provide the “loaves and the fishes’’ needed to help this community.
This upcoming year, my team and I would like to place an emphasis on health education and provide water filtration devices in addition to providing crucial medical care. Within the Izabal region, one in five individuals do not have access to clean water (1). Lack of access to a reliable source of clean water puts individuals at a higher risk of infection, tooth decay, and chronic dehydration. By offering health education and access to water filtration, we provide the opportunity to improve health awareness. It is our hope that by working with our patients to improve access to health education and water filtration, the communities we serve will have an improved understanding of their health and better health outcomes.
The following are examples of what would be made possible with your great contributions:
With your generosity, we have been able to provide continued services to the people we serve. In this way, the Healing Hands Medical Mission is unique in that we are able to provide food, medication, and wellness checks with the assistance of our in-country missionary and maintain an ongoing presence in the communities. For more information or to donate, please visit our website at healinghandsmission.com or visit our social media on Instagram @healinghandsmedical or Facebook at Healing Hands Medical Mission.
My team and I cannot express our gratitude for your continued support. Donors like you are what make this mission possible. We look forward to continuing to grow our mission with your assistance.
Blessings,
Lisa Carani, APRN
President