Clinica Esperanza

I recently recieved as a member of the clinic this newletter. This is a great cause and something that you may want to contribute to (you can mail a check to the USA address or pay online and its tax deductable). If you have any questions let me know. - Mike Carter

December 14, 2007

Dear Friends of Ms. Peggy and Clinica Esperanza:

This has been a landmark year for Clinica Esperanza and the low income residents of Roatan. In February, Ms. Peggy and supporters dedicated the opening of the new medical clinic in Sandy Bay. Relying entirely on donations from the community, the clinic has averaged 700 patient visits per month! The clinic provides medical and dental services, consultations and health education.

The people of Roatan are medically underserved, those with resources and those without. While those who can pay do, the vast majority find it difficult to even pay the nominal 50 lempira fee ($2.60). Regardless, no one is ever turned away. This year, some of our “special needs” kids include a three year old girl with 20% body surface burns, a six year old girl with a serious heart defect, a four year old girl with a congenital jaw deformity, two young boys with club feet – the generosity of our supporters has enabled us to get the specialized help these Island children need.

Through the hard work and charisma of Ms. Peggy, Clinica Esperanza has become a premier training site for medical volunteers throughout the world to serve and learn the Island culture. While we hosted over 90 volunteers this year including doctors, nurses, medical students – some staying a week, others for months, the backbone of the Clinic is our Honduran medical staff. All of their salaries and the medications they prescribe come from generous donations from supporters like you.

While we are focused on our long term goal of completing the second floor of our Clinic which will hold a birthing center and pediatric inpatient unit, our immediate needs are being able to pay our staff and provide all the necessary medications to treat a diverse Island population.

Here are some of our monthly costs:

– Honduran Doctor $1,800

– Honduran Dentist $ 700

– Honduran Nurse $ 600

– Medications (discounted) $1,600

– Electric Bill $ 300

Helping cover these costs will ensure the treatment of a five year old boy with a swollen belly and sunken eyes from intestinal worms, an 80 year old Islander man with high blood pressure and prostate problems, a 20 year old woman 5 months pregnant with a raging fever from malaria – all recent patients.

Thank you for your past support. In this Season of Giving we hope you can find it in your heart to assist us again by making a generous donation. Thanks to all our volunteers as well, for without the thousands of hours of donated help, we could not carry out our mission.

Sincerely yours,
Juan Pablo Goni-Baeza
Board of Directors

www.clinicaesperanza.com



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To make a donation, you may send a check to Mission Roatán, a tax-exempt agency that provides 100% of the funds to the clinic.

Name: __________________________________________________________________________________

Address: __________________________________________________________________________________

Phone: _____________________________________ Email: ______________________________________

Please write "Clínica Esperanza" on the memo line and make the check payable to:

Mission Roatan, PO Box 472, Mahomet, IL 61853

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Or you may pay by credit card via Pay Pal at http://www.missionroatan.org/MRAssistance.htm

Roatan gets a lot of press recently

We have had a lot of great press about our litlte piece of paradise lately.

For example today there was an article in the London Times online. Check out the link at http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/destinations/caribbean/article3050990.ece

At Last

The name of the boat is "At Last" well at least that is what we are naming it. Thats right we bought a boat. Since we moved here Cindy, Gene and I have been looking for something to tool around in.

Last week while looking at some new office space I talked to Delzia Rosales and found out she was selling her 25 ft Pro Line Walkabout. We went and checked it out a few days later and bought it on the spot.

She has a 200 HP Yamaha and came rigged with fish finding GPS and a lot of goodies. Like any used boat (she is a 1996 that was repowered a few years ago) it has some work to do. Mostly small things and the guys start working on those items this weekend.

So now we have a boat and you as our friend have another great reason to come down and check out Roatan (can you say private booze cruise).

Concert for the Angels

Thursday December 6th was the social event of the season for Roatan. That was the night the Roatan Intl. Airport is turned into a grand hall fitting of a gala to raise awareness and money for some of Roatans most important non profit groups.

The event is called the Concert for the Angels. It supports some great local charities including clinica esperanza http://www.clinicaesperanza.com/, Little Friends foundation http://www.lff.roatancharities.com/ and the low cost day care that provides day care for working women.

The event itself goes down like this. They take the airport concourse, baggage claim areas and decorate them all up (even a red carpet entrance). Then they turn off the ugly lights and create some mood lighting. They set up some bars on the rental car counters and put food in the baggage claim (local eateries donate tables of food). You make your entrance and spend some time socializing with people that look familiar but somehow you hardly recognize in their best duds. Then after a while the show starts. They have a variety of great artists lined up including string quartets and singers.

The highlight however was seeing some examples of the actual angels. These angels are the kids that were positively effected by the actual charities. Including getting holes in hearts fixed, club feet, cleft pallets etc. It was really heart touching and a great thing. You can check it out at. http://www.ccaroatan.com/

The event of course was all Roatan. It started a little late (hey it is island time). The AC in the airport is still broken so it was a little hot too. But all in all it was a great time and we loved it.

In the pictures above you can see the following people: William and Lowie Crisp look great (love Williams T-Shirt under the jacket). You can also see the chairs in the check in area for watching the show and the buffet in the baggage claim. Finally you see the grand entrance and of course yours truly and my lovely wife.

Ceiba Dentist Report

Last Friday Cindy and I used our teeth as a legitimate excuse to get off the rock. We went over to La Ceiba on the mainland to a dentist that had been recomended to us. Well we arrived and I showed the address to the cab driver and he took me to a dentist office.

We went in and after a few minutes of broken spanish we learned that we were in the wrong place. The place we had been recomended was an orthadontest that was good at root canals etc. So we called my office had Juliette call the other detnist confirm this and promptly canceled our appointment. Then we waited 30 minutes and saw the dentist whos office we were sitting in.

She turned out to be great. All modern equipment, very gentle with the cleaning and overall very good. I was cracked up however with the childrens props she had. These little stuffed animals showed a monster that took no care in brushing versus a couple of good brushers. A good lesson at any age.

I am glad to report no cavities and all is well for Cindy and I.