The Number Five

 Five dollars doesn't buy much. If you remember a time when it did, you are showing your age. Fifty dollars will get a steak dinner for two, with wine, or a night out at the movies with pizza. Five hundred dollars finishes up most people's Christmas list, with a little to spare. Five thousand dollars? It is hard to imagine what our readers could do with that amount of green paper rectangles. With five thousand dollars, you are halfway to a new car, or better yet, departing for a cruise. 
At Children of the Americas, we look at money a little differently. We view financial donations through the eyes of our Guatemalan patients and the possibilities that exist for them if we have available funding. Patients like Angel, who came to the states through Children of the Americas and left healthier and happier than he had been in years. 

This is what Angel's dental x-rays looked like when we first encountered him as a patient in our dental clinic. The victim of a robbery in Central America, Angel had been shot in the face and the bullet penetrated his lower jaw, exiting via his cheek. Without funds for medical care, Angel suffered for years, and was only able to find a Guatemalan dentist who agreed to wire his teeth into his jaw. For two years Angel subsisted on liquids and hope that access to surgery to rebuild his jaw would somehow become available. By the time he found his way to a Children of the Americas team in Guatemala, Angel's teeth were floating in his gums, held in place by wires that were embedded in his mouth.

Getting this fourteen year old to KY for donated surgery, finding him a foster home (thank you Teresa and Ed Tackett!) and arranging donated OR time, oral surgery and dental bridges took funds we had to raise, hope we had to muster and bravery on the part of a homesick but determined teenager. The team of professionals who donated their time and compassion to restore Angel to health didn't think about financial compensation. Angel's Mayan mother in Guatemala had no money to thank us, but she used her gift of textile weaving to send us some hand woven "thank you cards."

With five thousand dollars, we could fund the travel costs of twenty more children like Angel; children from Guatemala who have no hope of finding surgical intervention in their own country and who have COTA professionals waiting here to help. 
We are halfway there. 
Giving the gift of health this holiday season has never been easier. The GoodGiving campaign runs for a few more weeks. Clicking on the link below allows you to be part of a future miracle. 

COTA Fundraiser