For those who don't already know this, I use my own personal funds to travel to Rwanda. Donations to the 501c3, One Good Deed, are all used for our projects and to help the people we serve. I truly do mean ALL of the donations. We no longer have a business phone, most of our correspondence is done via email, and so we have no overhead costs any longer. That is important to us. We don't want to become one of those "non-profit" organizations that spend the majority of their donations on administrative costs, travel, etc., taking away from the amount available for their causes. When people volunteer to travel with us, they too are paying their own expenses. It's quite a commitment, and one that we appreciate.
Sooooo, now it's time for me to pay off my debt before I begin again. I hope this will be a task I can accomplish this year so we can make plans for another trip in early 2014....we'll see. In the meantime, I am pursuing my Master's degree in Nursing Education. I hope this will enable me to include nursing students in our work in a way that will earn them college credit. Again, we'll see.
Just because I've been temporarily sidelined from Rwanda doesn't mean we aren't busy, though! We are still working with people who are continuing what we started in Rwanda, and we've been dabbling in projects closer to home.
I posted about a baby I had taken care of during her short life. Her name was Helena and she was an amazing girl--so is her mom. Helena's mom is the best advocate I have ever seen. When Helena needed a PDA ligation (a kind of heart surgery common to premature infants), she had to be transferred to another hospital. Helena's mom, Pam, was furious! While this surgery can normally be done at our facility, it just happened that the surgeon who performs it had been deployed to Afghanistan. Pam made phone calls and pursued an alternative solution to the situation. While it was too late to prevent Helena's transfer, Pam was responsible for getting another surgeon to become "recertified" to perform this surgery at our facility. She was an inspiration to us all, as was Helena. Because of them, no baby will have to travel to another hospital for this surgery again. Pam called it "Helena's Mission."
During Helena's time with us, Pam read a book to her most days called "Katy No Pocket." This book was special to Pam because she said it reminded her of her situation. Katy is a kangaroo who doesn't have a pouch so she can't carry her baby. Pam felt like she had no "pouch" since Helena was born early. This book reminded her of "kangaroo care" which is a form of holding for mothers and fathers of premature infants. Because of Helena, we at One Good Deed are working on buying multiple copies of the book Katy No Pocket for distribution in memory of Helena to all mothers of babies born before 30 weeks gestation in the unit where she was a patient.
At the end of the book there is a picture of Katy the kangaroo with her new "pouch" and in it she is carrying all of the other animal babies she met along her journey to find a pouch. When I look at that picture, I think of Pam. Pam, in her own way, is carrying all of the babies who need this surgery because they will no longer have to go to another facility. We think she has made the lives of countless infants and their families a little better.....One Good Deed at a time!
