Our best-kept secret

Shhh...don't tell our secret.
For years, Children of the Americas volunteers have returned from our annual team trips looking weary after a long week of work in rural Guatemala, which gets us a lot of sympathy from our families for a few days after we arrive home.
Our volunteers typically see over 1,400 clinic patients, and do 80-120 surgeries in a week. Our dental team pulls countless teeth, our pharmacists dispense thousands of medications. Orthotics staff give out hundreds of crutches, special shoes, and several dozen wheelchairs. We should be tired!
Barb Buss, seen above this past January on our last COTA team, has divulged our secret. Her smile gives us away. We LOVE what we do. There is no more meaningful way to spend a week of volunteer time than to offer medical/surgical/dental/orthotics care to those in rural Guatemalan who have no ability to obtain this for themselves.
But please, don't tell our family members. They might stop pampering us when we get home!

Covering our Patients in Comfort

For the last five years, Children of the Americas surgical patients in Guatemala have been the beneficiaries of many hand-made quilts. Hundreds of quilts and infant bibs have been made by this group of dedicated volunteers in Mt. Carmel, Indiana. COTA staff has made a tradition of gifting one of these special donations to each surgery patient we help on our teams. A big thank you to the amazing residents of this tiny but compassionate town.

Message on Team 2011 from COTA Board Member

“I am always in awe that COTA can assemble a team of 120 professionals from around the country, have them "parachute" in to a remote location, work so well as a team under adverse conditions and produce so much work. Helping people is the most important part of what COTA does but metrics set benchmarks for the next trip.
Dick Schmitt
COTA Board Member

COTA Finishes Team 2011 in Salama, Guatemala

These are a few of the outstanding professional volunteers who helped Children of the Americas on our recent medical/surgical/dental team last week. Thanks to the dedication of over 100 volunteers, we were able to see 1,600 clinic patients, perform 83 surgeries, assist 120 dental patients and donate 4,200 prescriptions to the citizens of this northern city. Twenty prosthetics patients were fit for donated limbs and donated walkers and crutches were given out.
Great job COTA volunteers!