By Leila Hawken | Program Fundraising
The past two months brought back-to-back missions, one emphasized surgery and the other intense training. This is how our new Pediatric Heart Center is taking its place as a modern medical facility in Central America. Our Global Giving donors have supported this entire endeavor for which we and the children we save remain grateful.
Giving Tuesday is coming up on November 29. On that date, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has agreed to match by 50% any donation you might offer to continue our work to bring life-saving surgery and training to impoverished Latin American countries, and to continue to strengthen our new Heart Center in Nicaragua. This is an unprecendented offer on their part. But it will take your generosity to bring us those matching funds. Any amount will be matched, from $10 to $1,000 on that date, beginning at 12:01 am Eastern time and continuing throughout the day, until the $500,000 in matching funds is exhausted. We are a small organization, so this represents a huge opportunity for us and for you to help.
What have we done in the past two months? In October, we sent a three-person expert training team to the Heart Center to provide Quality Improvement (Professional Development) in a 2-day intensive respiratory therapy seminar. Subjects included cardio-pulmonary response, ventilation, pulmonary hypertension, pneumonia, and other related topics, including actual case studies. This was the second seminar by this same team; the first was 2-3 years ago. Thinking back, the team leader reported, "On Day 1 we have already found that they have many more capabilities with regard to respiratory support than ever before. Everyone is extremely accommodating. This is such a great place to be and to interact with people who are interested in helping children get well." As a Global Giving donor, you had a hand in this.
In November, a full surgical training team, led by a noted French heart surgeon, visited the Center to provide more surgery and operating room training. It was an international team, most of whom were making return visits. The surgeries were successful and the professional interactions were rewarding. As a Global Giving donor, you were instrumental in making this happen.
On GivingTuesday next week, please consider helping Surgeons of Hope with a donation. There is one more thing you could do that would help us immensely on Giving Tuesday. Would you please publish this project report to your Facebook community or Tweet it to your Twitter audience....in other words, pass it along, and recommend us to your friends? End of the year is a good time to give. Please join hands with others and give from the bottom of your heart through Global Giving. We cannot do what we do without you.
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