Thank You!
Medical Missionaries extends heartfelt appreciation to all who generously donated items, participated in, or contributed in any way to our 2024 Caring Hearts Online Auction. A round of applause goes out to the victorious bidders! The 2024 auction raised over $4300, fueling our projects both near and far. Kudos!
Special thanks are due to all of the businesses, local eateries, breweries, wineries, sports teams and performance houses for their generous support. When you visit them, please let these organizations know that you appreciate their donations that led to a successful Caring Hearts Online Auction.
Art for a Cause!
A big shout out to Maria Rafferty and her family at The Winery at Sunshine Ridge Farm in Gainesville, Va. In addition to their generous contributions to our auctions every year, they have welcomed Dr. Irwin to exhibit his paintings at their beautiful winery on Lake Manassas.
The paintings represent the sights and memories from the extensive travels Dr. Irwin has taken in support of Medical Missionaries projects around the country. Stop by this lovely spot; enjoy the wine, scenery and music they offer and visit Dr. Irwin’s paintings upstairs!
Haiti Updates
St. Joseph Clinic is always managing challenges in order to keep the clinic running. Recently, strong winds damaged their cable antenna which prevented their internet connection from working. Luckily, the team is resourceful, and communications are back online.
Junior Charles Saint-Fleur, the St. Joseph Clinic manager, works hard on building partnerships. Due to his efforts, we are expecting some students from a Notre Dame University supported hospital in Hinche to do a rotation at the clinic. The students are expected to work in the St. Joseph Clinic’s lab for a few months. We also continue to work with Partners in Health to import medicines into the country.
Recent news has reported that US soldiers are in Port-au-Prince to support the US embassy. In addition, there have been large amounts of military supplies arriving in support of the upcoming Kenyan Peacekeeping deployment. We and the staff at the clinic hope that this deployment and further UN action allow the country to get back on a positive path.
Supplies and Equipment In and Out
Ukraine: We received a thank you note from the Traveling Colonels:
The donations we recently sent arrived in Ukraine on the way to Kyiv. They reported that the hospital in Lviv is treating 1,000 patients a day and are in need of the specialized supplies Medical Missionaries has been sending them.
We also received this positive update from The Traveling Colonels:
The prosthesis specialist and his son were very happy to get the supplies Medical Missionaries sent recently. Within a few days they had already used many of the donations. Gauze, gloves other vital items were sent to front line military hospitals and surgeons. All were well received and helped round out 30 medic kits for the front line.
Monte
Please keep the donations coming for this and of all our many projects!
Grundy, Va. On June 5th, Dr. Iwin’s “Beast” was loaded with food and driven to Roanoke to meet up with Jerry Skeens for the transfer of donations to the Rocklick Food Pantry.
All donations of non-perishable food are welcome at the Manassas office. We have also set up a shopping list via Amazon that you can use to send donations.
Cameroon, West Africa: Bishop Andrew Nkea was in town recently and stopped by the Manassas office to visit. He reported that his project of building the new hospital, medical school, and outlying clinics in Bamenda is in process.
He shared that after unloading a recent container from Medical Missionaries, he drove into rural areas to distribute donated items such as clothing and shoes. The medical equipment and supplies that we send directly supports the Bamenda project. The Bishop is trying to network with organizations and churches in the US in order to support his ongoing work in Cameroon.
Dr. Chenehu, a local physician and Medical Missionaries partner, visited Cameroon recently and took many medical supplies and equipment that Medical Missionaries collected for his projects there.
LAFTA (Living Alternatives for the Aging): Medical Missionaries has been asked to collect clean outdoor furniture for Elisabeth M. Mofor’s project supporting elder people with no family in Yaoundé, Cameroon. You can check our story and video from last month’s newsletter. Mofor’s pledge is “Caring with Kindness”. Please call the office at 703-335-1800 before bringing donations in. We will have room for storage after August 1st.
Nigeria: Fr. Canice Enyiaca, from St. Matthias Catholic Church in Lanham, MD, partnered with Medical Missionaries to load a container on June 1st for his projects in Nigeria. The container included medical supplies and equipment. Medical Missionaries was able to source a sonogram machine which the team was very pleased to receive.
Local Pick up/Drop off: Donations come in daily via foot traffic, car, or truck. Donors and clients are able to come in person during our office hours, 8am – noon, Monday through Saturday. We also have a truck where donations can be dropped off outside of office hours.
This year we are tracking the number of donors and clients. In May, we had 113 donors, and 46 clients that we supported.
“Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Even if it’s a little thing, do something for those that need help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it.”
― Albert Schweitzer
