Summer greetings! In this edition, we share the inspiring work that volunteer Joan Girardi and the Haymarket Quilters Unlimited are doing. We report on the latest updates from Thomassique, Haiti, including the Matwon and Community Health Worker (CHW) programs. We have updates on supplies and equipment we’ve sent around the world including Dominican Republic, Ukraine and Congo.
We are also asking that you review Medical Missionaries and help us earn the 2023 Top-Rated GreatNonProfits Badge.
Lastly, mark your calendars for the Fall 2023 Gala to be held on October 21st. We are busy planning the event and are looking forward to seeing all of our friends and supporters!
Updates from Haiti
Matwon Training at St. Joseph Clinic
Matwons are traditional birth attendants specializing in home births in their rural villages in Haiti. The program at St. Joseph Clinic in Thomassique began in 2013 and has 37 Matwons currently on staff.
Matwons are routinely educated on delivery practices, hygiene, pre and post-natal care and also trained to identify complications that arise during labor and delivery. They train and work together with the Clinic’s Midwives and are always on call for deliveries. During montnly training, they make the Clean Delivery Kits which are used to ensure safe home births.
With roughly 75% of births in the region taking place at home, extending maternal care to the rural areas through the Matwon program helps Haitian women have safe pregnancies and deliver healthy babies
Community Health Workers visit Darlegrand
Community Health Workers (CHWs) are traveling with their Mobile Clinics. These photos are from a recent visit to Darlegrand, one of the five surrounding villages that the Clinic services.
Community Health Workers are a lynchpin in helping to provide health care in the rural areas of Haiti. Before visiting a village, CHWs and their village’s Community Health Committees serve an important role in promulgating the event and its services to their community.
CHWs provide multiple services including first aid and basic healthcare in each of their villages, helping improve people’s access to healthcare. CHWs assist with Medika Mamba Program which provides food primarily to malnourished children. They offer community education sessions and support the Clinic’s vaccination program. Lastly, they conduct at home visits to community members and refer at-risk patients to the Clinic.
CHWs are an integral part of Haiti’s health care system. Your support allows Medical Missionaries to provide Haiti this service as part of St. Joseph Clinic’s outreach programs.
Local Spotlight
Joan Girardi and Haymarket Quilters Unlimited
Joan Girardi has been a long time friend and supporter of Medical Missionaries, along with her husband Jim. After suffering a medical crisis some years back, Joan decided she needed to find a “Third Place” (where she could find supportive and friendly people with similar interests), to lift her spirits and try something new. She discovered Haymarket Quilters Unlimited and her life has never been the same.
The Haymarket group, a chapter of Quilters Unlimited, has been in existence for 20 years and has approximately 200 members. Anyone interested in quilting is welcome to join. They meet monthly, either via zoom or in person in a local school. They offer programs and workshops to their members and schedule guest speakers to further their members’ education and knowledge of the “quilting arts.”
An important part of their mission is their Community Outreach Program, of which Joan serves as the Community Service Lead. Some of the community organizations they support include Willing Warriors Retreat, Project Linus, Birmingham Green and Medical Missionaries. They create quilts, placemats and pillowcases for these groups.
Their focus for Medical Missionaries has been on creating beautiful quilts and blankets for babies and mothers who might not have access to such lovely and comforting gifts. Medical Missionaries packages up these precious pieces and ships them to programs that we support overseas and locally.
The quilters have created a professionally quilted piece measuring 68″ by 80″ that will be auctioned off by Live Auction at Medical Missionaries Fall Friends gathering on October 21st. We hope you will be there to take a chance!
Food Delivery to Grundy Va. on Friday, August 11th.
Medical Missionaries’ continues to combat the problem of food insecurity by providing non-perishable food to the Rocklick Food Pantry in Grundy, Va. If you would like to send food this trip, please bring it to our office no later than Thursday, August 10th. Thank you to all who donate every month and to Dr. Geroge Bazaco and his friend Greg who are pulling the trailer all the way to Grundy on August 11th.
Our website has a list of items that are always in need.
Annual Fall Gala – Save the Date!
As we inch closer to our Annual Fall Gala, don’t forget to Save the Date! We will celebrate our families and friends on Saturday October 21st at the Windy Knolls Farm in Nokesville, Va. Delicious food is on the menu along with wine from Doukenie Winery and beer. We have several musical guests planned along with line dancing hosted by W.I.L.D. A Live Auction, raffles and a Silent Auction are on the schedule, along with enjoying the beautiful farm and barn on a fall day. Mo Barrett will delight us with her Emcee skills! Tickets will be on sale now!
We visited the site and took the below pictures!
Gala Guest Musicians!
Pat and Jerry Skeens, the coordinators of the Rocklick Food Pantry, Grundy Va. are busy planning their playlists for the Fall Gala on October 21st! They are accomplished musicians who will enchant us with the beautiful sounds and songs of their native Appalachia. Volunteer and talented musician, Dr. Mike Morch will be playing jazz and contemporary tunes!
Supplies and Equipment In and Out
Call Two Sisters, Va: Sisters Annabel and Joy stopped at the office to bring shower and commode chairs, medical and household supplies that Medical Missionaries can put to good use for people in need. The sisters help others to downsize, organize and declutter their homes. Some of the items that are no longer needed are then donate to organizations such as Medical Missionaries at the families’ request.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central Africa: Medical Missionaries donated medical equipment and supplies for clinics in the Congo. Items included 8 hospital beds and 3 Hoya lifts. Their trucks are taking the supplies from our Manassas warehouse to their Maryland warehouse, where they will load a container from Baltimore bound for the Congo.
Ukraine: Our partner, Colonel Monte Dunard, stopped by the office for the medical supplies Medical Missionaries collected for his project. He and his fellow Colonel, Chuck Ikins, are both USMC Retired and are now the “Traveling Colonels – Helping Ukraine.” After collecting requested medical supplies from organizations such as Medical Missionaries, they fly available air transport to Poland and then onto Ukraine, where they connect with and distribute packages of the needed supplies. Once in country, the supplies are efficiently sent via an internal FedEx system to front line units.
Medical Missionaries can certainly identify with the Colonels’ motto “We are who we say we are and we do what we say we do.” We are honored to assist in this effort for Ukraine and their fighting and medical units.
Col. Dunard, USMCR Retired, emailed us that
“supplies donated by Dr. Gil of Medical Missionaries in Manassas Va. made their way into 90 life-saving first aid kits with 3 Ukrainian soldiers lives saved”.
As you can see from the above thank you notes, each and every item is sourced to good use. To all who donate to and support Medical Missionaries, thank you!
Thank You Notes
Dominican Republic: Medical Missionaries received this thank you and photos from our partner, Rhadames Avila and the Foundacion Los Ninos de Maria Inc., who work in the Dominican Republic:
“Thanks again for all your kind collaboration. Everything ended up in different needed places in the Dominican Republic:
-Permanent Home for Senior Adults – Las Matas de Farfan: A center for the elderly with 35 patients, where we leave medical and personal hygiene items as well as wheelchairs, walkers, crutches and two Lyft: 1 electric and the other manual.
-Rural Community Health Centers – Las Matas de Farfan: 3 rural clinics that serve low-income people and that will now have some medical supplies and a manual Lyft to distribute them free of charge to needy families
-Neighborhood Health Center – Las Matas de Farfan: community clinic where people without health insurance attend and who will now have the help of this center with much-needed items such as pampers, wipes, pads, crutches, personal hygiene items, etc.
Your help was highly appreciated. And everyone there sends you prayers and may God bless you all for the wonderful work you do.”
Monacan Indian Nation
All, thank you so much for your generous donation and all the wonderful items you gifted to us. Your gifts (school clothing and supplies, sports equipment and hygiene products) are very much appreciated. Blessings, Monacan
Medical Missionaries Manassas Office Summer Schedule
Our office may be closed at some points during the season. The white truck in front of the office at 9590 Surveyor Court is always parked and open for any donations to be dropped off, should the office be closed. If you do not feel comfortable leaving items in the truck, please call 703 335 1800 during office hours, 8am till noon, to make sure that someone is here when you deliver. Please note that we are not able to accept adult clothing and C-Pap equipment. Visit our website to check on the type of items we collect.
Great NonProfits
Medical Missionaries has consistently earned the GreatNonProfits Top-Rated Badge each year!
We are in the process of collecting reviews so that we can earn our 2023 Top-Rated Badge for Great NonProfits!
Here is a sample of a past review:
Medical Missionaries’ help all people especially the poorest of the poor. The volunteers (none who get paid) work many hours picking up donations, sorting through them and then distributing them to those who need them. We support a clinic in Haiti. We send many sea containers to places like Africa filled with medical supplies, clothes etc. We support food pantries. We send items to an Indian reservation. Anyone can come by our facility if in need. People have come for wheelchairs, canes, crutches, clothes, diapers etc. Whatever you need, we probably have it and we give it to you. You can rest assured that if you donate to this organization it will be put to excellent use.
Anyone can write a review! Please share your stories of how Medical Missionaries has impacted your lives!
Just click on this link. We would love to hear your story!
Art Sale!
Our Founder and President, Dr. Gil Irwin, has traveled extensively in the U.S. and around the world on medical trips. He has brought his memories of those travels to life through his authentic oil paintings. Support Medical Missionaries projects and purchase a painting by Dr. Irwin. They will be on sale at our October 21st event!
Please contact the office (703) 335-1800 or email us at Info@medicalmissionaires.org if you are interested. We ship too!
