Created with Care for Children of the Americas

Hand quilted baby blankets and infant bibs are a work of art. Each blanket takes many hours of cutting, piece work and sewing. The bibs are a great gift to give out for our cleft babies we care for on our surgical teams.
Hand made blankets of this quality are often sold in gift shops across Kentucky. Fortunately for COTA, the Brookesville, Indiana sewing guild realized that they are priceless gifts to our Guatemalan patients, and they donated the products to us. The recent gift of over 100 blankets and 150 bibs have been shipped to Guatemala and are waiting to find their new owners when we disperse them on Team 2012. We are grateful to Marie Kerr in Mt. Carmel, Indiana for her many years and countless hours of sewing for our patients. Marie, who is in her late 70's, has a big heart, busy hands and talented friends.

Rigoberto needs a prosthetic leg

This is Rigoberto. He lives in a very inaccessible area of northern Guatemala, which makes obtaining a prosthetic leg almost impossible. As shown in this photo, Rigoberto makes his way up his mountain village pathway with a homemade crutch.
Children of the Americas will be in Guatemala in January, and we hope to be able to help this patient with his ambulatory needs. The average cost of a prosthetic leg in the United States is well over five thousand dollars. All of our prosthetic supplies are donated to our Guatemalan patients. Your donations help us do this much needed work.

Spreading the Word about COTA

Paul, Josh, Rosemary, Jody and Luis enjoyed speaking to a group of University of Kentucky medical, nursing and PA students recently in Lexington. Always happy to share the word about the great work being done within the Children of the Americas organization, these volunteers were equally inspired by the enthusiasm of the students they spoke to.

Who Knew?

It sounded like a long and tiring day, and it would have been without the great attitudes of these COTA volunteers. Everyone got up very early on a Saturday, drove 80 miles to northern Cincinnati, and (naively) thought they would be spending a few hours going through donated medical supplies from our generous donors, Matthew 25.
In reality, we spent more than a few hours; were faced with 7 shrink-wrapped 8 foot tall pallets of 40 boxes each and had to open each and every box to determine what supplies would best meet the needs of our upcoming COTA team. We finished the day by loading one pickup truck, a van and two cars with the boxes of surgical and medical supplies in this photo.
This picture was taken at the end of the day. Jennifer, Renee, Diana, Rosemary, Mary Ann and Jody know that hard work, when shared with compassionate hearts and good friends, can still leave you with enough energy for shopping!
Who knew.

Osvaldo Prepares to Return to Guatemala

Years of waiting are over for Osvaldo. Thanks to the skills of the surgeons in Richmond, Virginia who volunteer with The World Pediatric Project, Osvaldo's miracle surgical donation has happened. His six weeks of post-operative healing is over, and Osvaldo will be returning to his parents in Guatemala this week. COTA networks with volunteer American Airlines employees to escort our patients home, and The Miles for Kids program donated his airline ticket. Perhaps Osvaldo is smiling because he knows how fortunate he has been to have so many adults working on his behalf.

100 Hours of Volunteer Time for 1 Guatemalan little Boy

It has been estimated that each child COTA brings out of a developing country for donated surgery requires 80-100 hours of volunteer time. Other agencies that we network with confirm that they have found the same to be true. Osvaldo is the most recent beneficiary of some of those many hours. In his particular case, the hours of volunteer effort will be much higher than 100.
Children of the Americas discovered Osvaldo when the determined women in this photo
got together and decided that this little boy in remote Guatemala needed help. Osvaldo was born with a congenital anomaly of his mid-face. Surgical correction of this life threatening issue could only be accomplished with the finely tuned effort of three pediatric surgical specialists: plastic surgeons, neurosurgeons and ENT surgeons. Once The World Pediatric Project in Richmond, Virginia agreed to accept Osvaldo into their program for donated surgery, the network between COTA and TWPP came together for the benefit of one little boy with a big problem.
In upper right photo: (L-R) Rosemary Vance, Executive Director of COTA; Teresa Godsey, volunteer; Dr. Carol Cottrill, President; Tom Rolfes, volunteer; Bety Davidson, volunteer; Osvaldo, lucky little boy. Photo on upper left: Osvaldo with Jenna Garber, Program Assistant with World Pediatric Project in Richmond, VA. She took Osvaldo to visit the James River before his surgery.
In the five days since Osvaldo left Guatemala, he has flown on both a commercial (wonderful donation from American Airlines) and private (thank you Roger Teague!) plane for the first time. He had his first McDonald's french fries within hours of landing in the states, and like most children, he knew instinctively how to play on the playground. The photo (upper left) shows Osvaldo visiting the river in Virginia this past holiday weekend.
He is getting an MRI as this post is being written,and has a CAT scan scheduled for later today. Surgery is on Thursday. One hundred hours will turn into hundreds more before his health is restored, and all of the people in Osvaldo's circle of concern will consider it time well spent.

Pediatric Malnutrition Continues in Guatemala

http://www.economist.com/node/14313735

An interesting article posted this week.

Baby Brayan and His Circle of Concern

These health care professionals in Lexington, KY are some of the many people who have donated their time, skills, knowledge and love to our newest cleft patient from Guatemala.
Dr. Carol Cottrill (seated) arranged the donation of surgical care while she and her husband (Tom Rolfes in yellow jacket) donated the remainder of the medical care bills. Rosemary Vance, COTA Executive Director, worked out the details of Brayan's travel and visa. Dr. Henry Vasconez (holding Brayan) donated his surgical skills. As of two days ago, Brayan is home in Guatemala.

A Big Smile On A Little Baby

This little charmer is the newest stateside COTA patient.
Baby B was flown into Cincinnati last week thanks to the excellent and well-coordinated efforts of the American Ambassadors Escort Program.
While he awaits his donated surgery, Baby B keeps his caretakers happy just watching his smile.

The Image of Strength

There are few photos that capture the essence of a Guatemalan mother more than this image taken by a COTA team member.
Children of the Americas has provided hundreds of donated surgeries and thousands of clinical visits/pharmaceuticals to rural Guatemalan women since we first started bringing our annual teams to this Central American country. By supporting the health care needs of Guatemalan mothers, we are enabling them to better care for their children.
On average, a rural housewife in this part of the world spends 10-14 hours a day providing for the needs of her family. The following is an excerpt from the 2003 report issued by USAID:

While Guatemala is the most populous Central American country (11 million) and largest economy (2000 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $19 billion), its largely rural, Mayan population lives in extremely difficult conditions. Distribution of land, income and other wealth is highly skewed toward a small percentage of Guatemala's Spanish-speaking population. An estimated 57% of Guatemalans live in poverty, and the roughly five million Mayans are isolated socially, economically, and politically due to geographic and language barriers as well as the lack of educational and economic opportunities. Overall, adult literacy is estimated at 65%, but literacy among Mayan women is estimated as low as 30%. Fewer than half of rural Guatemalans have access to running water, electricity reaches only a quarter, and only 16% have access to modern sanitary facilities. Infant, child, and maternal mortality rates are among the highest in Latin America, despite decreases in recent years. These indicators reflect the country's persistent under-investment in social services and basic rural infrastructure, as well as past practices of political and socioeconomic exclusion of the indigenous population.

COTA is making a difference in these statistics, one healthy mother at a time.

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!

Baby Alex Two Years Ago in KY After Coming To KY For Donated Cleft Surgery, And Now as a 4 Yr Old.

Inmer Shows off His Repaired Cleft

Many of our readers, and especially our Team 2010 participants, will remember Inmer. (See earlier posts below). This baby presented to our clinic in Retalhuleu with a cleft lip and palate, and he was in a near-starvation state. Unable to breast feed, Inmer had declined in weight and stamina. After careful instruction from Barb Buss, RN, COTA cleft instructor, Inmer's mother felt more confident in trying to maintain his nutritional needs at home with donated formula. Unfortunately, the baby got sick again, necessitating a trip to the states for donated lip and palate surgery.
He was returned home in August to happy and relieved parents. We couldn't resist showing him off in this recent photo.

COTA Team 2010 Slideshow

COTA Prepares for Team 2011

Children of the Americas board members have been busy since June working on the details of our upcoming team. In January of 2011, over 100 volunteers will depart the U.S. for Guatemala.
This past summer, several COTA board members drove throughout Guatemala searching for the best Team 2011 site. Many things have to come together in order to create a successful team experience, and Salama had the right combination. Since the scouting trip, supplies have been gathered from several locations, inventoried, boxed and shipped to Guatemala. All team applications have been received and approved by a team committee. Professional CV's are ready to submit to the Guatemalan Ministry of Health. Hundreds of clinic and OR forms have been printed and packed, COTA is networking with other NGO's for prospective surgical candidates, and plane reservations are being made by our volunteers.
All of the above is done by board members who work full-time and volunteer in their "spare time" for our organization.

Jose moves to his new foster home

Jose, who you will remember as having the large AV malformation of his face, was transferred to his new foster home in Cherry Hill, NJ on June 20th. His long-term stay with Margaret and Scott in Tennessee was a wonderful and nurturing environment, but their home was a long way from Roosevelt/St.Luke's Hospital in New York City. Jose is scheduled for his final surgical revision of his facial tumor on July 22, and COTA foster parents Beverly and Warren agreed to host him. This will allow Jose easier access to his surgeons in NYC, and will make the post-operative course less concerning in case of medical care issues. Beverly, an RN, and Warren, who is an OB/Gyn surgeon, have fostered three other children for COTA, and are well-versed in the issues of fostering a medically-fragile child. Shown above in Warren's plane, Jose is preparing to enjoy is first-ever ride in a private plane.

Imner has a new palate repair

On every COTA team, there is one baby in particular that is critically ill and captures the hearts of team members. Imner was that baby for Team 2010. It is hard to believe that on January 18th of this year, he was severely malnourished, had a baseball sized hernia, cleft lip and a cleft palate. He was limp in his mother's arms when she brought him to our clinic. He didn't have enough strength to eat.
Imner has just completed his last of three surgeries, and will soon be reunited with his mother in Guatemala. Although COTA has sent photos of Imner's progress while he was in foster care here in the states, we are sure she will be surprised to see what a sweet and healthy smile he has now. Imner has been very blessed with the excellent donated foster and surgical care in his adopted state of Illinois.