Website: http://partnerforsurgery.org/
Location: Various sites in Guatemala
Focus Areas: Surgery, Medical Spanish, Rural Health, and Patient Advocacy
Medical Missions
Six times a year, Partner for Surgery organizes a one-week medical triage mission in Guatemala’s rural area. Usually, 2 to 4 volunteer medical professionals (doctors and nurses) from North America evaluate approximately 1000 individuals and identify over 150 surgical candidates. PfS has local community managers that inform and educate their communities through radio broadcasts, community meetings and personal contacts about surgical options by showing them our patient educational video. The local community managers also participate in the Medical Missions and help with the translation, social-economic study and scheduling of the patients referred for surgery.
Surgical Missions
Nearly every week of the year, surgical missions are organized by different international volunteer surgical teams at different surgical sites in Guatemala. PfS brings in patients for these teams, particularly for those teams who reach out to the neediest of the poor. They provide all the necessary patient logistics (transportation, food, temporary housing).