MEMO Project: D.O.L.L.s – “Dolls Offering Lots of Love”
Originally the idea was to give Cuban children in hospitals a nice doll (for most, the first doll they had ever had) and have a Canadian pray for the child prompted via a digital photo of the child. For the first few years we were unable to find a champion to organize the program here in Canada, and very few people volunteered to pray for the children.
That has now changed with Charlotte Hutton taking on the task with a great passion and love for the children and to serve the Lord.
Charlotte has also expanded the idea by using it for an outreach to local girls who will learn to sew using dolls as the Club project.
Elim Community Church in Thunder Bay’s Current River area has volunteered to provide physical space, encouragement, and accountability for the program.
As well, Charlotte’s vision is to teach other home skills such as cooking while providing Christian mentoring and appropriate adult love. Charlotte says: With a 4-H type spin on it, girls age 11-14 can learn to sew dolls for the kids of Cuba. We will alternate a sewing project and a cooking project and ask if they’ve had any answers to prayer that week, etc. These conversations will lead to a lot of interesting dialogues and I can hardly wait. Elim will run the project. I am going to mainly be responsible for gathering the adult ladies who sew D.O.L.L.s for Cuba as a compassionate ministry arm of MEMO Cuba and a helper for the kids.
Charlotte asks: “I would ask for prayer that the children, ladies, and the mentors for the children would respond to this meaningful program, that our work would succeed and hearts would be blessed and the children will know that they are loved by us and the Lord.
We need workers, kids, and a heart for the Lord. (We have lots of materials.)”
Charlotte’s past experience indicates that many of these children come to the club hungry: “One of the stumbling blocks of previous Clubs was that the kids come in hungry, they want their snack first. So we will give them a cup of soup when they get to club and then they pay attention when we teach them to make that soup. (Give a Fish or teach to fish). Our first project is set up for the last two weeks of November and first two weeks of December. Of course, these are the older girls from the three years of previous club activities.”
For those of you going on the Friday, October 14th. MEMO dinner look for the D.O.L.L.s display table and sign up sheet. Charlotte will be there to talk to and ask questions. You can also sign up by dropping an email through our Contact form.
Here is the schedule:
1. D.O.L.L.s Project Sewing Day
Saturday November 5th, 2011
at Elim Community Church
260 Black Bay Road
9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Lunch Provided 11:30 a.m., Free Will Offering Accepted.
All Materials/Machines Supplied but You May Bring Your Own If Preferred.
For Details and to Register, call Charlotte @ 622-2611.
All Ladies Welcome.
2. D.O.L.L.s Project for Girls Ages 11-14
Make Dolls and Teddybears for the Sick Children in Cuba
Learn to Sew and Knit
Thursdays 3:45 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. flexible
November 17, 24, December 1, 7 inclusive
All Materials Supplied,
For Details and to Register, call Elim Church @ 344-3391.
Maybe this is the opportunity you have been looking for to make your life more meaningful!!!
Container #43 Packed and Ready for Shipping!
It was a good pack!
A perfectly beautiful day and just the right number of volunteers giving up time from the Thanksgiving long weekend.
Done in eight hours, no injuries, and everyone had a good time knowing they were doing something very worthwhile.
"So this is fun!"
2 ultrasounds are now on their way to Cuba to be used in diagnosing cancer, heart disease and other painful diseases (from Tampa Florida sent by a generous mission organization). 600 gallons of renal dialysis fluid (That’s 3 tons of weight) – most of it loaded by hand in 6 gallon cartons. This will be used in saving the lives of Cubans with end stage kidney disease (from our local hospital)
Cardiac defibrillators,dozens of boxes of dressings and I.V. supplies along with a lot of children’s rehabilitation toys for use in the two children’s clinics we support (from a Children’s clinic here in Thunder Bay along with clinics, home care and individuals)
4 video conferencing units which will kick medical education and consultations up a few notches (from far reaching northern Ontario remote communities)
Please send help the fork lift is stuck
And dozens of boxes of brand new mobility devices and home care supplies from a defunct Health Care supplier in Seattle via Folks from a church in Langley, B.C.
A total of 697 pieces, all packed with love and the prayer that they will bring both physical and spiritual healing to our needy Cuban neighbours.
"I think it's full!"
As I think of all the sources of the supplies, the logistics of shipping, the donations that pay the $9000 for getting it all to Cuba, and the happy, energetic,enthusiastic volunteers all I can say is “Praise the Lord”
OCTOBER 8 IS PACKING DAY
This is your chance to be involved.
Help with packing 9 a.m. Saturday Oct 8,
9a.m. 258 Van Horne. Bring a lunch.
Coffee available.
Oct 8 Packing Day
We will be packing container #43 9 a.m. Sat Oct 8th at 258 Van Horne
If you can help any time 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. phone 346 8170
2 Ultrasound Machines Coming!
We’ve just received word that 2 good ultrasound machines are finally being shipped from Tampa, Florida (approximately 90 miles from Cuba!) to Thunder Bay in preparation for the 42nd container to be shipped on the October 8th shipping date! Ultrasound machines are particularly useful for follow-up of positive mammograms.
Because of the US blockade to Cuba, these machines must take this 1,700 mile detour from Florida to Canada before being shipped. However, we are grateful that we have been able to get our hands on them as Ultrasound Machines are usually worn out before hospitals dispose of them. This is great news for the people of Via Clara province!
On the Road Again! – from Sioux Lookout
Here are some pictures of our container being loaded on the truck on Monday. It was delivered to CN Rail in Winnipeg yesterday.
Thank you for all the effort you put into getting an authorization number for us to ship the container before the inspection on our container expired. It looks like we will have enough to fill another container in the Summer of 2012.
Blessings,
Merle Burkholder
Report on June 2011 Trip to Cuba
It has been a marvelous, exciting and sometimes tiring seven years since MEMO Cuba was begun. Most amazing has been the multitude of Miracles that God has performed through MEMO to bless the people of Villa Clara with improved health care. As with all human organizations, times change, people change and needs change so the need for ongoing evaluation of what we do continues.
This was the prime purpose of this trip June 4th to 14th. Accompanying me was Britt Bailey a research assistant from the Thunder Bay Regional Hospital whose purpose was to evaluate our Mammography program. This is within the context of our grant request to the Canadian Government for funds so we can expand the breast screening program to cover a population of one million Cubans. This would result in the additional saving of 100 Cuban women’s lives each year. Pray that CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) will look favourably on this new proposal. We will know if we have made the short list by the end of June.
We met with a very enthusiastic group of Oncologists in Havana who welcome the donation of the simulator we shipped two years ago to improve the effectiveness of Cobalt radiation therapy.
For a variety of reasons (none of which are MEMO’s fault) we have been asked not to ship any further containers until further notice (Maybe November). I was able to negotiate shipping an already packed container from Sioux Lookout, a small Northern community, this July. The energetic Sioux Lookout MEMO people have collected two and possibly a third container full of hospital equipment available as the result of consolidating two local hospitals
into one new hospital. Our warehouse is filling up fast so pray the issues will rapidly be solved in Cuba.
Dr Aurora’s breast screening program is functioning well and many new breast cancers are being found as she carries out her work. MEMO has the only functioning mammogram machines in Villa Clara province so her work load is extremely heavy. Pray for her.
Steve Neufeld tells me that we are no longer in the hole financially so can start raising funds for shipping the next container. If you’re interested in getting involved with MEMO, please consider making a contribution toward the next container. Thank you for your continued prayers and support.
MEMO Breast Screening on the Move
Those of you that built the mobile clinic and donated funds to keep it supplied with film will be gratified to see it is really working saving lives. Below is a message and some pics from Dr. Aurora. Continue to pray for Aurora as she is the person that keeps the program going.
Today early in the morning the mobile mammogram machine was moving to the rural area, and the woman are very enthusiast and exciting. The work is very hard for me along, you can imagine that but …Praise the Lord!! The pictures were take from a patient with her cell phone, sorry it is not very good.
May 2011 Update
Here’s a brief update provided by Dr. Harvey, President of MEMO Cuba:
Last week 12 volunteers removed 8 complete dental suites from the Dental School at Confederation College over two days. I am always amazed at the energy and resourcefulness of our volunteers. The dental chairs etc are now stored in one of our highway trailers. A large number of metal cabinets,dental lights and xray machines are now stored in the basement of the Twice as Nice store on May Street. Thanks to the owners from the Christian Reformed Church for so graciously allowing us to use this space.
Our warehouse is fast filling up with the addition of 25 beds from Homes for the aged and many other things. Our problem is not, getting medical stuff, but finding the money to ship it (Hint/hint). There is so much stuff in our storage that could save lives and relieve suffering if it was in Cuba. June 18 we hope to ship Container #42 if the money($8500) for shipping comes in.
We have two ultrasound machines arriving from Tampa Florida(go figure) and an anaesthetic machine and electrosurgical unit coming from Food for the Hungry in Saskatoon. These machines are needed and will be a real blessing in Cuba.
I have spent the last three weeks preparing a 35 page grant proposal for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The project would be to extend the breast screening program to the entire population of Villa Clara province over the next 5 years. This would involve developing one new clinic each year based on the model of the Placetas breast screening program. At the end of the five years an additional 100 Cuban women’s lives would be saved each year! Once the Clinic and mobile mammography have been paid for, it will cost about $20,000/clinic for film/year. If you would be interested I can send you an email of the grant proposal.
For every dollar MEMO raises, CIDA would match it with four dollars! The project calls for $1,200,000 over five years. Pray that CIDA officials would look favourably on this proposal. The result will be announced in September.
June 8th Dr Neety Panu, Chief radiologist at the Regional Cancer Centre and her research assistant Britt Bailey are planning to accompanying me to Villa Clara to evaluate the present Placetas Breast Screening Clinic and to discuss with Provincial and National Health officials the details of enlarging the breast screening program to include the whole province. Dr. Panu was Dr. Aurora’s teacher last summer for mammography training. Dr Panu has an extremely busy life, so this is a great contribution to Women’s health in Villa Clara.
Thank you for remembering the above things in your prayers
Jerome
Container #41 Packed and Sent
Container #41 Packed and Sent
Hi everyone,
With a lot of hard work and some very chilled volunteers we got container #41 packed and away! It contained an ultrasound for Aurora to do more accurate biopsies, an anaesthetic machine, specialized dressings to follow up Karen Parker’s wound care workshops in Villa Clara two weeks ago.
And literally tons of other medical supplies and equipment to continue our mission of showing God’s love to the Cubans by improving their health care.
We have room now to receive dental suites, beds etc waiting for us to pick up.
Thanks to Karen Rody and Ina Thordarson for HOT Soup and sandwiches over at Grace Church.
Pray now that the contents of the container will find the proper destination and use in Villa Clara.