Our goal at COA is to send at least one large container of medical supplies and equipment per year. As you may already know, this year’s shipment is headed to Tamale. Ghana. With that said, whenever possible, we also send along smaller “shipments” of supplies with groups traveling to foreign countries. Often, we collaborate with student programs that work at volunteer clinics in impoverished countries.

One such group of University of Michigan medical students, self-titled “Team Guatemala,” requested medical supplies from COA to bring to a clinic in Guatemala over their past Spring Break. We were obviously thrilled to provide! With suitcases full of supplies, they set en route to San Lucas de Toliman to provide medical care to local inhabitants. Please take a moment to read their story …

These students brought COA medical supplies to Guatemala.

A message from the Guatemala Trip Leader:

Over spring break, a group of 14 people coordinated through the University of Michigan Medical School went down to Guatemala for a week. The group included medical students, physicians, and a medical interpreter. We spent our week in and around a small town on Lake Atitlan called San Lucas de Toliman, running rural clinics in association with a local parish clinic in San Lucas. Over the course of the week, our group saw more than 150 patients with a variety of injuries, illnesses, and more skin conditions than most of us care to recall. As part of our donation to the clinic, we brought a variety of medical supplies and medications that were desperately needed in both the field clinics and the main clinic in San Lucas.

As medical students and physicians at an academic health center like the University of Michigan, we are accustomed to having supply closets filled with bandages, well-stocked pharmacies, and thermometers in every exam room. In rural Guatemala, supplies are much less varied and abundant. Some things can be improvised, but it’s difficult to get around the need for a stethoscope or a blood pressure cuff.  Children of Abraham played an integral role in helping our group gather and deliver supplies like bandages, suture materials, and stethoscopes to the people who need them. Thank you for your help and support. We are all extremely grateful for your hard work and dedication.

Best wishes,

Jessica Nelson
Guatemala Trip Leader

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Filed under: Humanitarian Aid, Shipments