Post by tomcamp on Jan 14, 2007 9:19:26 GMT -5
This is how Mary Guffey applies for grants. She would be
O.K. with any of us "stealing" her wording. I could learn from her..
8088 County Road 22
Waverly, Alabama 36879
U.S.A.
World Vision
P.O. Box 3204
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
World Vision=s international aid programs are compelling. I am writing to you at the recommendation of Ms. Carolyn Cooper, Donor Contact Services, World Vision, U.S. (Info@worldvision.org) , to mention an opportunity for World Vision to extend its reach by assisting the Alabama Honduras Medical Educational Network (AHMEN), the California Honduras Institute for Medical and Educational Support (CHIMES), and the Carolina Health Foundation (CHF) (www.honduranmissions.com) in providing expanded services to the people in the remote areas of northeastern Honduras.
AHMEN, CHIMES, and CHF are faith based non-government organizations that share the love of Christ in very practical ways through the combined efforts of several hundred health care providers, pastors, and educators who serve communities in Atlantida, Colon, Gracias a Dios, Olancho, Roatan, and Yoro. Under the auspices of the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) at the invitation of Cruzada del Evangelio we have worked in the under served regions of northeastern Honduras for a decade, providing health care free of charge to anyone in need, regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity and without personal agenda. Our medical efforts have moved beyond "band-aid" rescue medicine and with a continuous presence have truly provided quality primary healthcare. We have also built clinics, woodworking and sewing schools and established food distribution centers for the children whose parents have died of AIDS.
New initiatives of our 2007 missions include: providing Bibles in both Spanish and Garifuna; offering Bible Schools and distributing Christian literature; establishing and furnishing a computer lab, library, and English language school in Limon; donating learning/teaching aids for the public schools in all the communities in which we serve; offering seminars in business for the Woodworking and Sewing School students, teachers, and graduates, and investigating the possibilities of marketing artisans= products through Fair Trade Associations. In addition, we hope to curb the damaging effects of household smoke by promoting cooking stove alternatives. We are particularly impressed with the technologies and micro-enterprise approach offered by Stuart Conway and Larry Winiarsky, Ph.D. of Trees, Water, and People who already have a presence in Honduras.
However, one of our primary objectives for 2007 and the reason for this request is to expand our vision care offerings. Vision impairment is a pervasive problem; sun and smoke exposure, injury and infection, and lack of proper nutrition and hygiene are among some of the contributing factors. After months of inquiries and requests from many international aid agencies, we have just this past week received replies from two humanitarian organizations affirming their willingness to provide specialized treatment and surgeries. Our patients may be referred to SEE International surgical teams, thanks to the servant hearts of Dr. Alicia Ponce (hospitalponce@yahoo.com), SEE International host ophthalmologist in La Ceiba and Mr. Danny Simentales (danny@seeintl.org), International Clinic Coordinator. In addition, Mr. William Davis (sight12@sbcglobal.net) , Administrator of Sight for the Blind, has generously offered the services of Sight for the Blind teams at the Lions facility in San Pedro Sula.
From our own resources, we intend to upgrade our vision programs to include distribution of sun glasses for children and adults as well as reading glasses and prescription lenses. The prescription lenses are not used glasses, but instant eye ware in which new lenses are inserted into new frames in the field. We will focus on eye care education and hope to screen all the children through the schools and churches . And as our emphasis is on sustainability for all our projects, we have made arrangements for Donna Goff, a Honduran nurse residing in Limon who has worked with our teams for many years, to train with Dr. Valerie Colby, a missionary optometrist in Tegucigalpa. She will return from her training to become the Eye Nurse for all the AHMEN, CHIMES, and CHF teams and will serve as the administrator of the expanded eye care program being responsible for the equipment, glasses inventory, and patient report forms, all of which will be housed in our clinics in Honduras. She will also function as the liaison with the host ophthalmologists for referrals to surgical teams from SEE International and Sight for the Blind.
For the referral program to be successful, it is imperative that we pre screen our patients effectively and accurately, as the host ophthalmologists will be selecting the surgery candidates based upon our patient report forms. As most of the villages we serve are not easily accessible and do not have electricity, our immediate need is for portable, battery powered, non invasive, user friendly diagnostic equipment; specifically, a retinal camera, a puff air tonometer, a panoptic ophthalmoscope, and an autorefractor. Specific instruments and approximate costs are:
Portable, robust (sealed against dust and moisture), user friendly retina camera purposely designed to permit retinopathy screening by an inexperienced operator by Visition Instruments (Greg Koennecke, visioninst@sa.chariot.net.au ) an Australian engineering firm. Pre-production prototypes are scheduled for this April with units available for purchase by mid 2007. The target discount price for humanitarian organizations: $15,000.00
Reichert PT100 hand held puff air tonometer from Veatch Ophthalmic: $5,532.00
Welch Allyn PanOptic Ophthalmoscope & Lithium Handle from Steele=s: $632.00
Right Med (formerly Nikon) Retinomax 2 autorefractor from Veatch Ophthalmic: $9,604.00
Total Estimate US $30,768.00
We truly want to provide an avenue for quality vision care; yet with so many commitments in place, we simply must have help.
Please feel free to discuss specifics with Dr. Tom Camp, Director of AHMEN, at llamacamp@hughes.net , Dr. Luther Harry Castillo, Ciriboya at wasurusian@yahoo.com , and/ or Dr. M. Brad Guffey, Fellow, Infectious Disease, University of Alabama at Birmingham at guffey@uab.edu .
For the overall effectiveness of our humanitarian endeavors, please contact the administrators of Cruzada del Evangelio, Eleanor Cooper and Sandy Palencia at cruzadas.sandy@gmail.com or the missions director for the North Alablama Conference of the United Methodist Church Paulette West at pwest@northalabamaumc.org .
Let me encourage you also to take a look at the Birmingham (Alabama) Post Herald website (www.postherald.com/honduras.shtml). This series brings light to several special aspects of our Network's mission which are not conventional. You may be interested as well in the comments of Dr. Elias Lizardo, former Health Minister of Honduras and current Advising Minister on Social Affairs during a radio interview with Network administrator Dr. Nath Camp on NPR News at www.wbhm.org/News/2005/Help_for_Honduras.html.
Again, we need and will be happy to receive aid of any sort, be it in the form of equipment, funding, personnel, and/or counsel.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Vaya con Dios,
Mary M. Guffey, Ed. D.
Expanded Eye Care Program Director
AHMEN, CHIMES, CHF
Phone: 334 887 5658
email: hjguffey@earthlink.net (The second letter is a J )
O.K. with any of us "stealing" her wording. I could learn from her..
8088 County Road 22
Waverly, Alabama 36879
U.S.A.
World Vision
P.O. Box 3204
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
World Vision=s international aid programs are compelling. I am writing to you at the recommendation of Ms. Carolyn Cooper, Donor Contact Services, World Vision, U.S. (Info@worldvision.org) , to mention an opportunity for World Vision to extend its reach by assisting the Alabama Honduras Medical Educational Network (AHMEN), the California Honduras Institute for Medical and Educational Support (CHIMES), and the Carolina Health Foundation (CHF) (www.honduranmissions.com) in providing expanded services to the people in the remote areas of northeastern Honduras.
AHMEN, CHIMES, and CHF are faith based non-government organizations that share the love of Christ in very practical ways through the combined efforts of several hundred health care providers, pastors, and educators who serve communities in Atlantida, Colon, Gracias a Dios, Olancho, Roatan, and Yoro. Under the auspices of the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) at the invitation of Cruzada del Evangelio we have worked in the under served regions of northeastern Honduras for a decade, providing health care free of charge to anyone in need, regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity and without personal agenda. Our medical efforts have moved beyond "band-aid" rescue medicine and with a continuous presence have truly provided quality primary healthcare. We have also built clinics, woodworking and sewing schools and established food distribution centers for the children whose parents have died of AIDS.
New initiatives of our 2007 missions include: providing Bibles in both Spanish and Garifuna; offering Bible Schools and distributing Christian literature; establishing and furnishing a computer lab, library, and English language school in Limon; donating learning/teaching aids for the public schools in all the communities in which we serve; offering seminars in business for the Woodworking and Sewing School students, teachers, and graduates, and investigating the possibilities of marketing artisans= products through Fair Trade Associations. In addition, we hope to curb the damaging effects of household smoke by promoting cooking stove alternatives. We are particularly impressed with the technologies and micro-enterprise approach offered by Stuart Conway and Larry Winiarsky, Ph.D. of Trees, Water, and People who already have a presence in Honduras.
However, one of our primary objectives for 2007 and the reason for this request is to expand our vision care offerings. Vision impairment is a pervasive problem; sun and smoke exposure, injury and infection, and lack of proper nutrition and hygiene are among some of the contributing factors. After months of inquiries and requests from many international aid agencies, we have just this past week received replies from two humanitarian organizations affirming their willingness to provide specialized treatment and surgeries. Our patients may be referred to SEE International surgical teams, thanks to the servant hearts of Dr. Alicia Ponce (hospitalponce@yahoo.com), SEE International host ophthalmologist in La Ceiba and Mr. Danny Simentales (danny@seeintl.org), International Clinic Coordinator. In addition, Mr. William Davis (sight12@sbcglobal.net) , Administrator of Sight for the Blind, has generously offered the services of Sight for the Blind teams at the Lions facility in San Pedro Sula.
From our own resources, we intend to upgrade our vision programs to include distribution of sun glasses for children and adults as well as reading glasses and prescription lenses. The prescription lenses are not used glasses, but instant eye ware in which new lenses are inserted into new frames in the field. We will focus on eye care education and hope to screen all the children through the schools and churches . And as our emphasis is on sustainability for all our projects, we have made arrangements for Donna Goff, a Honduran nurse residing in Limon who has worked with our teams for many years, to train with Dr. Valerie Colby, a missionary optometrist in Tegucigalpa. She will return from her training to become the Eye Nurse for all the AHMEN, CHIMES, and CHF teams and will serve as the administrator of the expanded eye care program being responsible for the equipment, glasses inventory, and patient report forms, all of which will be housed in our clinics in Honduras. She will also function as the liaison with the host ophthalmologists for referrals to surgical teams from SEE International and Sight for the Blind.
For the referral program to be successful, it is imperative that we pre screen our patients effectively and accurately, as the host ophthalmologists will be selecting the surgery candidates based upon our patient report forms. As most of the villages we serve are not easily accessible and do not have electricity, our immediate need is for portable, battery powered, non invasive, user friendly diagnostic equipment; specifically, a retinal camera, a puff air tonometer, a panoptic ophthalmoscope, and an autorefractor. Specific instruments and approximate costs are:
Portable, robust (sealed against dust and moisture), user friendly retina camera purposely designed to permit retinopathy screening by an inexperienced operator by Visition Instruments (Greg Koennecke, visioninst@sa.chariot.net.au ) an Australian engineering firm. Pre-production prototypes are scheduled for this April with units available for purchase by mid 2007. The target discount price for humanitarian organizations: $15,000.00
Reichert PT100 hand held puff air tonometer from Veatch Ophthalmic: $5,532.00
Welch Allyn PanOptic Ophthalmoscope & Lithium Handle from Steele=s: $632.00
Right Med (formerly Nikon) Retinomax 2 autorefractor from Veatch Ophthalmic: $9,604.00
Total Estimate US $30,768.00
We truly want to provide an avenue for quality vision care; yet with so many commitments in place, we simply must have help.
Please feel free to discuss specifics with Dr. Tom Camp, Director of AHMEN, at llamacamp@hughes.net , Dr. Luther Harry Castillo, Ciriboya at wasurusian@yahoo.com , and/ or Dr. M. Brad Guffey, Fellow, Infectious Disease, University of Alabama at Birmingham at guffey@uab.edu .
For the overall effectiveness of our humanitarian endeavors, please contact the administrators of Cruzada del Evangelio, Eleanor Cooper and Sandy Palencia at cruzadas.sandy@gmail.com or the missions director for the North Alablama Conference of the United Methodist Church Paulette West at pwest@northalabamaumc.org .
Let me encourage you also to take a look at the Birmingham (Alabama) Post Herald website (www.postherald.com/honduras.shtml). This series brings light to several special aspects of our Network's mission which are not conventional. You may be interested as well in the comments of Dr. Elias Lizardo, former Health Minister of Honduras and current Advising Minister on Social Affairs during a radio interview with Network administrator Dr. Nath Camp on NPR News at www.wbhm.org/News/2005/Help_for_Honduras.html.
Again, we need and will be happy to receive aid of any sort, be it in the form of equipment, funding, personnel, and/or counsel.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Vaya con Dios,
Mary M. Guffey, Ed. D.
Expanded Eye Care Program Director
AHMEN, CHIMES, CHF
Phone: 334 887 5658
email: hjguffey@earthlink.net (The second letter is a J )