We donate equipment all over the world, but our ministry is about the people the equip-ment benefits. The projects listed below are ones we have partnered with recently. We hope you gain a glimpse into the world in which MedEquip Mission invests its time.
Guatemala
MedEquip Missions, a ministry of Helps International Ministries (HIM), commits to two trips per year (each lasting one week or longer) to take a biomedical technician to fix equipment in Christian hospitals and clinics. Tools and testing equipment are cached at Vine International Bodega (warehouse) outside the capital city. The trips have a full itinerary sometimes working two or three sites in one day. This service is well received. We do not charge the ministries for the service. Each of the two or three team members raise the approximately $1000 cost for the trips expenses. Dennis and Doris Rice, Vine Internationa,l host the team and create the itinerary. Financial donations are used for personal support, travel, spare parts, and where necessary and affordable, purchasing new equipment (note the costs listed by equipment below).
The following is a taste of the current needs that some life-long missionaries or devoted nationals have expressed. The list is “fluid”, always changing. These brothers and sisters work to save physical life giving the opportunity to share spiritual life in Jesus Christ.
1) Project name and description: Strong Tower Ministries – Steve and Robin Braun in Zacapa Guatemala have built a very rural medical clinic in the mountains of south east Guatemala in a village called Liquidamo (translate – “Liquid Amber” and the predawn view supports the translation). They are church planting in this region, working on water projects and building houses affected by hurricanes for villagers. They train and use volunteer national staff and short term teams to supply their personnel needs.
Equipment needs:
- Solar power system, evaluation in the works
- EKG computer card to use with laptop. Card, leads, software costs are approximately $2000.
- Fetal Doppler with manual (cost $470-670)
- Defibrillator with manuals
- Adult and pediatric scales
- Otoscope/ophthalmoscope battery operated x 2 (not many are donated, purchase cost of new units
is $400-800 each)
2) Project name and description: Rheas of Hope (Rayo de Esperanza - http://www.rayodeesperanza.org/index.htm ) - Mike and Karen Rhea in Rio Dulce are building a second clinic and large orphanage project. Access to their story is on http://www.vineinternational.org/friends.htm .
Equipment needs:
- Portable Ultrasound – (est. cost $10,000)
- Fetal Doppler (cost $470-670)
When the new clinic building is ready in late 2007, we will also need:
- Otoscope/ophthalmoscope x 2 (we do not see many of these donated – to purchase they are over
$1,000 each)
- Exam tables
- Adult and pediatric scales
- Blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes x 3
- EKG $1500 for stationary model, or ~$2000 for portable laptop model – Mike and Karen participate
in mobile medical team work and the laptop has some benefits for that kind of work.
3) Project name and description: Choculo Hospital Dr. Sergio and Veronica Castillo are nationals who have devoted themselves in service to Indians working the cane, coffee and banana plantations located toward the Pacific coastal region on the back side of an active volcano. Before they came, prenatal care was non-existent resulting in high fetal and infant mortality rates. There are a lot of machete wounds, work related and otherwise.
Equipment needs:
- Biomedical services twice a year
- Two anesthesia machines
- Two operating room tables
4) Project name and description: MedEquip Biomedical Technician Team
