THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU TO SAVE THE LIFE OF A WOMAN WITH BREAST CANCER IN CUBA!

If you were a woman in Cuba with breast cancer you would have virtually no chance of early diagnosis by mammography even though it could reduce the chances of you dying by up to 95%.

That is unless you lived in the Municipality of Placetas, in Villa Clara where MEMO Cuba has built it’s second mobile mammography clinic. Each year this outreach to Cuban women 50 yrs to 65 yrs of age is saving the lives of up to 80 women from a horrible death by breast cancer.

A small group of dedicated volunteers in Thunder Bay have committed their time and talents to constructing the mobile clinic. Special donations of paint, signage and other materials from different vendors in the city have made this a very low cost project. Now the opportunity is for you to help out with getting this clinic to Cuba!

The cost of shipping this mobile clinic to Cuba will be $10,000 Cdn. It will cost $1.66 for each km on it’s way from Thunder Bay to Cuba. Unfortunately It is not saving any lives sitting in our warehouse in Thunder Bay.
You can be part of this amazing outreach by donating to MEMO’s next breast cancer care initiative. We need your help in getting this clinic to Cuba.

Will you consider donating today? Click here now!
For more information on the history of the Mobile Mammography program run by MEMO Cuba, click here.

Some photos of the process of the mammography clinic being built. A huge thank you to all those who lent their support!

Today it is all sheeted in. The wiring is done. The mammography machine is installed. Interior panelling is being applied. Interior cabinet work will be done on site and then an aluminium skin will be applied after doors and windows are installed. You may wonder why there are no wheels. They have been removed so it will fit inside the container.(They go as well!). These volunteers don’t fool around. They know the sooner it gets to Cuba the sooner more women’s lives will be saved and God will be glorified.

The money for building the clinic structure came in over Christmas – Thanks to many of you! The mammography machine only needs $2000 to finish paying for it – Thanks to my brother’s legacy. Then as soon as we raise $10,000 for shipping, it can be sent. Please consider making a contribution today!

I am amazed, thankful and very excited. I hope you are as well. Tell your friends. We need their help too!

Fran Friesen of Thunder Bay recently traveled to Cuba to compile a beautiful, informative, and heart warming video that will challenge you to become a part of the amazing work MEMO is currently doing in the area of breast cancer. Watch the video below, and if you feel compelled, please donate to the cost of shipping the second mobile breast screening clinic, a cost of approximately $10,000!

It is very satisfying to use a little bit of our money to help the indigenous church in such a big way. Thanks to you who donate and help make these small things possible!

Unfortunately CIDA denied our request (the fifth since we began in 2004) because “…your proposal should have been better articulated:Sound Project Design and Integration of Gender Equality)
We will contact CIDA for help in learning how to better “articulate” what we are doing. When the next call for proposals comes we will apply again with this new information and hopefully be successful.
Because women’s lives are at stake we will continue to apply in the face of repeated rejections until we achieve an acceptable application.

In the meantime our MEMO volunteers are proceeding in faith to build another mobile clinic. The materials will cost $5000. The mammography machine will cost $7000. Then there is the cost of shipping: $6000. We are now totally dependent on the generosity of individual Canadians to see this miracle happen.

I quote Greg Kernaghan:
“Either someone failed to point out that their goal was “impossible”, or they simply chose to turn a deaf ear to such advice. In a sense they succeeded in the end because they didn’t know any better!” You can be part of this “Impossibility” by donating to the MEMO Mobile Mammography Initiative.

Our visionary volunteers welding up the chassis for the next mobile clinic, December 2011.

In Falcon village,Cuba, Dr Aurora arrives to begin a day of mammograms. Which one of these women's life will be saved from breast cancer?

Download MEMO Cuba’s Christmas 2011 newsletter now!

Lori gave three talks on wound care to Cuban nurses at three of the cities we work in. After the last talk she was given a bouquet of flowers in gratitude.

We asked if they received the dressings we had been sending in the containers. They said no. We then visited a warehouse in Santa Clara where all the dressings and ostomy supplies we had sent were dumped. Because they were past their expiry date they were awaiting an expert committee to go through them and say which ones were safe to use. Pray that the expert committee will use their common sense and declare them okay for use by their countrymen who suffer needlessly for lack of ostomy and wound care supplies. From now on we will use remedial measures to make sure all dressings are acceptable.

The prostate surgery program we began in Placetas is flourishing. The young Cuban Urologist has done 82 minimum access prostate surgeries since we left in June. We visited Saugua, a 300 bed hospital serving North Western Villa Clara Province and hope to support Prostate surgery there as well. They are also asking for help with arthroscopy and laproscopic abdominal surgery.

We visited the psychiatric hospital located on farmland outside of Placetas. This picture shows a small washing machine that does all the laundry for 62 patients. We will try and raise funds for two heavy duty Canadian washing machines that will help solve the problem ($800). They also need a compressor unit for a commercial refrigerator unit they have ($1200).  If any of you have a good chest freezer you want to get rid of let us know as we need several for various institutions we work in.

The Placetas hospital smoke blackened kitchen was washed by the local fire department and received one coat of paint. We left 10 gallons of white paint for a second coat to finish what has been a four year process with some of you actually being involved in helping paint. Patience and persistence eventually pays off.

Doctor Aurora is working very hard directing the Placetas mammography clinic and the mobile clinic. She is finding a very high incidence of breast cancer among the women of Placetas.

I delivered a replacement ultrasound transducer probe used for prenatal checks in Placetas. It was bought second hand off EBay for $1000. New it was $16000!

This is just a little of what we did, what was done and what we learned(good and bad). We have many things we can share that are not appropriate for the universal internet.

If you or your group or church would like to hear personally, contact us as we would love to come and share with you. And as always we need money. Please remember MEMO as you do your end of year charitable donations.

Thanks for your interest and support of God’s work through MEMO Cuba.
Jerome

By the fact that the food was excellent?
That you met some new friends at your table?
That you were reminded of God’s faithfulness and blessing to MEMO over the last seven years?
That people have been challenged to pray for the people of Cuba that they will realize God’s love for them as their physical needs are met by MEMO?
Or by the amount of money raised ($11,000 after expenses were paid)?
Or that a woman came up to me with tears in her eyes and said “I am a Cuban. Thank you.”

Well, all of the above.
We praise God for moving the hearts of His people to give so generously.
We trust that, though unseen, you will continue praying for MEMO.
The money will pay for container #44 to be packed and shipped Saturday, November 26th with enough left over to pay for
3 months of mammography film which we sent in the last container.

Blessing on each one of you.