The Summer months for Mission UpReach are full of service and visitors. We welcomed groups from across the United States to Honduras to serve via medical brigades, basketball, and VBS. We love seeing familiar faces of those who return year after year to give of their time and resources to help those with so little, as well as getting to know people serving with us for the first time.
At the beginning of June, Southside Church of Christ in Texas held a medical brigade at one of our DESEO schools, La Independencia. They attended to the medical needs of 723 people with such love and care. Also, one of our long-time brigade members Andy Brightwell was able to meet the child she sponsors through The DESEO Project and his family. The DESEO Project provides uniforms, shoes, school supplies, and backpacks to the sponsored children, but they also make sure the kids have access to medical care through brigades such as this one!
A group from Southside COC in Kentucky came at the end of June and spent a week in CorquÃn, Copán. They were able to serve over 700 people by bringing dental care and general medical care to the community. Dental brigades often see a lot of children with decaying teeth, and all they can do is pull them out. But this brigade was also able to provide education in good oral hygiene and donated tooth brushes, tooth paste and the educational tools so they can continue to teach on oral hygiene in the future.
In July Scott Galloway made annual visit to Santa Rosa to give basketball training to our DESEO team so they can continue running the UPWARD basketball after school program with excellence. He shared his excitement over this DESEO team and the impact he believes they will have through sports training. They have a passion for the game of basketball and sports training in general, and that will translate to the kids.
Mission UpReach welcomed the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) for the third time this year, this time from the Caroline and Virginia campuses. Among them were 36 medical students, 4 staff, 5 preceptors, 1 pharmacist and 2 volunteers. We also had 14 translators from local schools and universities who helped make this medical brigade possible. During their time with us, they visited 4 different villages to bring medical care for around 550 people. The impact of medical brigades is not only for those receiving free medical care, but also for the translators that assist the teams. Many translators awaken a passion for medical care and go on to study medicine and become doctors. One such example is our own Dra. Stefany Madrid who runs our future clinic and is our Honduran doctor on staff for all medical brigades. She credits Mission UpReach with her early dream to be a doctor because she served as a translator with us for years when she was young.
The final brigade of the Summer was with Pine Tree COC in Texas. Pine Tree was the largest group of the year with 53 participants. Among them were two Mission UpReach board members, Jeff Simpson and Adam Spencer. This large team was split into two groups: one held a medical brigade in Pinabetal which served 1028 people (a record!), and the other held a VBS which traveled to various DESEO schools in the morning and did basketball training in the afternoon. A small group was also able to travel with the DESEO team to celebrate the birthday of a sponsored child in their home. This child had never had a birthday party, and it was so special to witness the joy it brought him.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.