Sutures Are A Human Right!

Baby Clothes!

2011-04-29T15:04:00.000-07:00

Father Wayne Dziekan from Graylord Michigan recently visited Casa Materna in Nicaragua, and took some baby gifts and some little girl dresses, plus a beautiful quilt. The plan was to distribute them on Easter.

Please check out www.casamaterna.org, which serves women with high-risk pregnancies in rural Nicaragua.

How about giving a donation for Mother's Day this year??

Read This! from Dokte Paul

2010-12-13T15:55:00.000-08:00

5 Lessons From Haiti's Disaster - By Paul Farmer Foreign Policy

Thanks Again, Global Links!

2010-12-12T11:54:00.000-08:00

Global Links has sent more than 200 sutures to Mike Ursiny (www.MikeUrsiny.com) here in the States to be taken onward to Cameroon in support of the work of Dr. Georges Bwelle. You can listen to NPR's "The Story" about this amazing doctor; it aired in October and you can go to http://www.thestory.org/, and click on "archives" to find it. Or check out Dr. Bwelle's website, http://www.ascovime.fr/.
Medifree has also donated spinal needles and 12 boxes of iodine swabsticks, which were donated by Med-Eq. Both Global Links and Med-Eq take excess medical supplies and 're-gift' them to needy health-care providers. And both organizations can use your support!

Learn more about Dr. Bwelle

2010-12-12T11:44:00.000-08:00

Learn more about Dr. Bwelle by clicking here.

ooh baby!

2010-08-09T05:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a new batch of beanie hats ready to go to Partners in Health for distribution in Rwanda. www.hotheadknitters.blogspot.com. Not a boring pastel in the lot!

Medifree has also sent eight metal speculums to Free Burma Rangers, so the medics can better serve women, but thankfully we will not be posting a photo of these instruments. Ouch.

Sutures for Chechnya

2010-04-23T16:00:00.000-07:00

Global Links has again come through with donated sutures, this time for Dr. Khassan Baiev's work in Chechnya. The children there suffer so much, and have mostly been forgotten by the world. Check him out on You Tube.

Beanies for Rwandan Babies

2010-04-18T05:10:00.000-07:00

Like to knit or crochet? Check out http://www.hotheadknitters.blogspot.com/.

Here you will find out how to keep Rwandan newborns (and babies at other places where Partners in Health works) warm and healthy.

Medifree has sent this small donation of homemade hats and pillowcase dresses.

Free Burma Rangers

2010-04-18T04:41:00.000-07:00

These cuties are Karen refugee children, participating in a demonstration on behalf of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Medifree is sending 8 vaginal speculums to Free Burma Rangers, a brave group of travelling medics. If you haven't done so yet, please check out their website.

Recommended reading: A Land Without Evil: Stopping the Genocide of Burma's Karen People by Benedict Rogers.

Iraqi Health Now

2010-04-15T15:32:00.001-07:00

Medifree was able to provide Iraqi Health Now (http://www.iraqihealthnow.org/) with 70 spinal needles, which have been urgently requested by the Children's Welfare Teaching Hospital in Baghdad. It is only a very small amount compared to the need, so we are looking for more.

At her Thai border clinic, Cynthia Maung treats victims of war from her native Burma

2010-02-22T17:18:00.001-08:00

At her Thai border clinic, Cynthia Maung treats victims of war from her native Burma

Posted using ShareThis

Medical Advocacy Team

2010-02-22T16:20:00.001-08:00

Amazingly, I have forgotten to mention, let alone link to, the wonderful folks at MAT! Please check them out at http://www.medicaladvocacyteam.blogspot.com/. Medifree has helped out in small ways over the past year or so.

This photo is of Ugandan boys so very happy because their orphanage just got a load of mosquito nets and food, including fresh fruit that can double as a hat! It's impossible to read the posts about this orphanage without tears. So please read, cry, and do something to help!

Prosthesis at last!

2010-02-22T15:55:00.000-08:00

Medifree partnered with the local Baptist Church to take care of the co-payment so this young Karen woman could get her first prosthesis. She has lived since birth without half a right arm.

Amazingly, she has been working at a meatpacking plant, heaving fat into a bin above her head, using her left arm only. Imagine doing that repetitive motion for eight hours a day, five, sometimes six, days a week.

Global Links Donation

2010-01-01T14:36:00.000-08:00

Here are some baby clothes and a handmade preemie hat being packed up to send to Global Links' New Mother-Baby Collection Drive. Check them out at http://www.globallinks.org/. They are the wonderful folks who send us sutures which we pass on to clinics in Haiti and Burma.

Medifree Dresses

2009-10-07T16:46:00.001-07:00

Beautiful girls!

St. Vincent's Center for Handicapped Children, Port au Prince

2009-09-21T06:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.vnews.com/08292009/5957400.htm

Please take the time to read this newspaper article about two women in New Hampshire who are raising funds (through a quilt raffle) to buy braillers for blind children in Haiti. St. Vincent's is "struggling just to keep the doors open, much less meet the needs of the children in its care."
Medifree has sent them a brailler, as well as two recorders, since they are also collecting musical instruments.

Davis Zachary

2009-09-21T06:04:00.000-07:00

Global Links' gift of sutures was delivered, as planned, to Zach. He gave a presentation on his family's work in Haiti, and urged his audience to indulge in "dangerous prayer." As you can see, he worked up quite a sweat during the evening.

Packing Up!

2009-09-19T11:01:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow we're catching up with Davis Zachary from Real Hope for Haiti at the Town Hall in Vandalia Michigan to deliver these goodies, and listen to his talk.
Thanks, once again, to Global Links (www.globallinks.org) for another 250 sutures! The backpack is stuffed with more pillowcase dresses, and a few other useful odds and ends.
Zach is currently readying a semi trailer to ship to Haiti, so please check out http://www.haitirescuecenter.wordpress.com/ to see how you can contribute.

Free Burma Rangers

2009-09-19T09:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Global Links (for a gift of 200 assorted sutures), Med-Eq for providing spinal and Touhy needles, and our volunteer seamstress who, it seems, is addicted to making little girls' dresses out of pillowcases, we were able to send a small box of donations to Free Burma Rangers. These indomitably brave folks operate at the Thai-Burma border and provide medical and spiritual assistance for Karen and other minority peoples in Burma.

Not Exactly Medical Supplies, but......

2009-09-19T08:59:00.001-07:00

still a necessary part of life. Our local homeless and drop-in shelter, where people can get a shower and do their laundry, as well as have a meal and make phone calls, all for free, is totally out of hygiene items. So Medifree has donated a bag 'o shampoo just as a small reminder that there are hungry, tired, dirty, lonely people in our hometowns as well as overseas.

CerviScope

2009-08-18T18:05:00.000-07:00

Check it out at www.familyhm.org/PortableColposcopy.pdf.

The CerviScope is a portable colposcope which will allow many women in developing countries to be screened for cervical cancer, and will help save lives.

Medifree is pleased to sponsor a CerviScope for Dr. Tarek Meguid. His writing about his work in Malawi with women, along with Paul Farmer's work, inspired the creation of Medifree, so this is a return gift.

Thanks to Family Health Ministries (especially Dr. David Walmer, Kathy Walmer, and Jaqueline Ndirangu) for making this possible!

MEATPACKING REFUGEE HANDS

2009-08-09T05:53:00.000-07:00

These are the swollen hands of a refugee from Chin State, Burma. He supports his large family by working in a meatpacking plant, as do many other refugees here in Michigan. He must use a knife that is the wrong size for his grasp, through his eight-hour shift, sometimes 6 days a week, in extremely cold conditions. He doesn't want to complain, because he is scared to lose his job.

A young Karen refugee woman also works at this meat packing plant. Her job, again eight hours a day, six days a week, is to use her left arm to grab gobs of fat and throw them into an overhead bin. She can only use her left arm because her right arm is congenitally amputated a bit below the elbow.

Medifree has partnered with her church to obtain a prosthesis for her. She does have health coverage through the meatpacking plant, but her co-pay is a whopping 25%. We will be posting updates so you can share in her happiness as she finally gets her arm.

If you haven't heard about the Karen people, please check out http://www.khrg.org/ and http://www.freeburmarangers.org/. They are a minority people in Burma who are being systematically hunted down and killed by the Burmese army. It is an ongoing tragedy that for some reason rarely if ever makes it into the world's consciousness. Maybe because the Karen have no oil or other earthly riches.

Thanks, REMEDY!

2009-07-13T05:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Remedy, "Recovered Medical Equipment for the Developing World," we were able to send preemie nipples to Real Hope for Haiti. As you can see, they are being well used!

Check out http://www.remedyinc.org/ to learn more about this wonderful organization.

MEDIFREE, INC.

2009-05-23T16:09:00.000-07:00

"Sutures are a Human Right" is evolving! We have incorporated in the state of Michigan and have become "Medifree, Inc." We are working on building a website, and this blog will be accessible through its homepage.
As Medifree, we have made a donation to Global Links to honor them on their 20th anniversary. This young Haitian is a beneficiary of their hard and loving work.

Please consider giving to Global Links ; there is a link to their website on our side bar.

Cole Miller: NO MORE VICTIMS

2009-04-24T08:50:00.001-07:00

"No More Victims works to obtain medical sponsorships for war-injured Iraqi children and to forge ties between the children, their families and communities in the United States. We believe one of the most effective means of combating militarism is to focus on direct relief to its victims."

Cole Miller spoke at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on April 15, 2009. A follow up meeting will be held on April 27 to see if the West Michigan community can support his work, either by sponsoring a child to come here or by sending funds to support children in their communities. We hope to be a part of any such effort.

Check out his website at www.nomorevictims.org. His videos are deeply moving.

Surgical Instruments

2009-04-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a generous discount from Aesculap and an anonymous donor, we were able to purchase several thousand dollars worth of surgical instruments for Dr. Baiev's work. His email response reads in part:

I have just returned from Chechnya to find the medical instruments waiting for me. What a wonderful surprise!.....

I have been in Chechnya for the past three months operating on children with birth defects. At that time, I wish I had had the micro scissors with me as well as the forceps. The delicate instruments are essential in the kind of work I am doing. I look forward to putting the new ones to use.

I plan to spend some time observing the work on burns which is being done at Shriners Hospital in Boston. At that time, I plan to look at the kind of dermatome which would be most useful. [dermatome is surgical instrument used in skin grafting] There are so many kids in Chechnya with both burns and burns scar. Unfortunately, we still have many hundreds of mines spread around the country side.

..... Many children in Chechnya will bless you. . . . .

If you haven't read Dr. Baiev's book yet, do so! Grief of My Heart: Memoirs of a Chechen Surgeon.
If you want to help purchase a dermatome, we would be most grateful for any contributions. Send to us, or go to the website http://www.chechenchildren.org/.

THANKS, GLOBAL LINKS!

2009-04-07T02:47:00.000-07:00

Here's an example of Global Links' gift to the Real Hope for Haiti clinic being put to good use. More sutures will be going down in May, thanks to their generosity.

Walker Bags

2009-02-01T07:59:00.000-08:00

We have a friend who makes bags for walkers out of recycled materials, including those canvas bags we all have hanging from our closet doorknobs. If anyone could use a few, let me know. Anyone who uses a walker would surely like to have a sturdy, attractive bag for it!

Grozny School for the Blind (Chechnya)

2009-01-20T07:13:00.000-08:00

We have found two manual braillers and other Braille material to send Dr. Baiev for use at the Grozny School for the Blind. We also hope to have other donations for the container he plans to send in the spring; we are looking for canes and Braille watches.

Refugee Boy Gets Ready to be Shot!

2009-01-19T16:51:00.000-08:00

With needles, of course. This is my foster son from Burma, getting ready for his first ever immunizations.
He is here to introduce you to Dr. Cynthia Maung, who runs a clinic on the Thai-Myanmar border to serve Burmese refugees. Check it out at http://www.maetaoclinic.org/.

Congratulations, Dr. Mukwege!

2009-01-19T10:47:00.001-08:00

Dr. Denis Mukwege, who runs a clinic for victims of sexual violence, in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, was recently named "African of the Year." He has also won the Olof Palme prize, awarded for outstanding achievement in promoting peace.

Check out http://www.panzihospitalbukavu.org/, and read about his work.

Also! (insert drumroll) Our first box of 200 sutures is on its way to Haiti, courtesy of Global Links. Thank you to everyone who is making this possible.

from Khassan Baiev

2008-12-29T03:30:00.000-08:00

Dear Ms Storm,
Thank you very much for the e.mail about medical supplies. I am very interested. At long last, I am travelling back to chechnya where I am operating on children who are victims of war. We desperately need medical supplies. I will put together a list and send it to you.
Bless you for organizing this. Wish you all the best of the New Year, Sincerely, Khassan Baiev

Dr. Khassan Baiev is Chairman of the International Committee for the Children of Chechnya and author of the incredible, unforgettable book, The Oath, which has just been published in paperback under the title, Grief of my Heart: Memoirs of a Chechen Surgeon.

http://www.chechenchildren.org/

from Tarek Meguid

2008-12-20T10:13:00.000-08:00

Dear Maia,
thank you so much for this mail and the effort you put into this. I think this is truly great and we might indeed need to approach you sometime in the future.
What you write sounds fascinating, it feels very good to hear what you are doing and I am very sure people in dire need will in fact and actually benefit from this.
Many thanks for that.
And many greetings
Tarek

Hello Dr. Meguid, I was quite moved by your article in "Health and Human Rights", as well as by Dr. Farmer's. I am an immigration attorney specializing in advocacy for prisoners/detainees, and have also been involved with several small ngos seeking medical supplies for use in Haiti and Iraq. While searching for a way to make a greater contribution, I decided on the idea you will find at http://www.suturesareahumanright.blogspot.com/.
After less than one week, I have already had positive responses.
I wanted to share its launch with you, since you are quoted right at the top! and also hope that if I can be of help to you, you will let me know.
Peace,