In August of 2008 I was fortunate enough to go on a surgical mission trip organized by SHARES International. The trip ended up being one of the most memorable events of my life.
Many of the volunteers who went are doctors and nurses who took a week off of work to go to Mexico and work even harder then they would back home in the US. I was there to take pictures and shoot video in order to produce marketing materials for the organization.
In only three days, over 6 hours of video was shot and more then 650 pictures were taken. In that time I interviewed six parents and met dozens of children. I was allowed to be in the operating room and Dr. Stieg, the plastic surgeon who performed the lip and pallet repairs, even allowed me to scrub in and assist him during one of the procedure. If that wasn’t enough, we were even provided with a local guide who took me around the city of Oaxaca and into the mountains to visit a pre-Columbian Zapotec ruin called Monte Albán.
While visiting the market at the center of the city, I tried a popular local dish called ‘chapulines.’ If you’re not familiar with it, it’s made of grasshoppers, the whole body intact including the legs and doused in spices. It’s delicious with guacamole!
I can only hope that my contribution will help get the word out about this amazing organization and bring more attention to cleft lips and pallets.
Here is the video that was produced after condensing 6 hours of video down to three and a half minutes of video. Please feel free to cry a little, no one will judge you harshly.
From the SHARES website: “SHARES International is an organization that forges alliances to heal children and bring hope to families with special medical needs. Our mission teams target patients and partners in Latin America and the Caribbean. SHARES International’s medical teams partners with local civic leaders, hospitals and government leaders to perform cleft lip and palate operations for needy families, free of charge.”
