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1 Nov
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In the News Haiti Updates Bolivia Updates About Us Update from the President Who We Are Mission Board of Directors Haiti What We Do Why it Matters Haiti Trips Gallery Bolivia What We Do Why it Matters Bolivia Trips Gallery Donate Volunteer Connect In the News Haiti Updates Bolivia Updates About Us Update from the President Who We Are Mission Board of Directors Haiti What We Do Why it Matters Haiti Trips Gallery Bolivia What We Do Why it Matters Bolivia Trips Gallery Donate Volunteer Connect Donate
READ MORE16 May
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READ MORE28 Apr
Bolivia Updates
Bolivia 27 November 2018 Bolivia trip NAVMC took 18 medical professionals to Bolivia the first week of November. The team saw almost 50 people in clinic and booked 36 patients. We performed 40 procedures including many […] READ MORE 5 July Ultrasound Machine In March, NAVMC’s board approved $2500 toward a new ultrasound unit for the clinic in Palacios, Centro Medico Humberto Parra. The unit just arrived and they shared some great photos […] READ MORE 31 May NAVMC Continues to Offer Surgical Aid in Bolivia Unfortunately, last year we had to turn down a few patients for surgery. One was turned away because his hernia was so large our surgeon did not feel comfortable repairing […] READ MORE 10 May Patient Testimonial “One day I was working at my kitchen job and I suddenly felt an insurmountable pain in my lower abdomen. The pain was so strong I thought I was going […] READ MORE 10 May Shoes When it rains in Palacios, a small rural community a 30 minute drive from the nearest paved road, everything turns to mud. The roads, which were almost entirely made up […] READ MORE 1 June Roofs In June 2017 NAVMC helped to fund a construction project in Palacios, Bolivia. The team removed the commonly used thatch roofs in favor of corrugated metal ones. The new roofs serve to reduce the spread of […] READ MORE
READ MORE19 Apr
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A Community of One MIssion Northern Arizona Volunteer Medical Corp supports the health, education, and safety of children and families in need through local programs and international relief projects. YEARS + 0 Making a Difference current outreach We provide medical and surgical care, education, food, housing, and other basic needs. Supporting Medical Relief in Haiti We support Hospitals in Port au Prince, Haiti as they continue to treat Cholera, and victims of gang violence. Our volunteers provide medical care to patients and training to local medical staff. Ninety percent of patients cannot pay for medical care. We believe that every individual has the right to access quality healthcare regardless of their economic status. Our organization is committed to bringing medical relief to those who need it most. Providing Surgery and Disease Prevention in Bolivia We are happy to announce that NAVMC sent a medical team to rural Bolivia in May 2023, the first since the pandemic. Read the blog for trip details from our Bolivia leader, Amy. Read more Educating Children and Young Adults We support the education of children and young adults, firmly believing it to be a fundamental human right. By ensuring access to education, we empower individuals to forge brighter futures for themselves and their communities. Feeding the Starving During Crisis NAVMC is partnering with Haitian small NGOs with boots on the ground to deliver meals to communities in Haiti. Haiti is one of just six countries in the world that has reached catastrophic levels of hunger. This situation is growing worse daily and is due to gangs paralyzing the country, causing fuel shortages & skyrocketing food costs. Read more How to help We are passionate about securing a healthy and safe future for families and children. We invite you to join us as a volunteer, a donor, or a sponsor in the array of service opportunities we offer. Make a difference DONATE INTERESTED IN VOLUNTEERING? VOLUNTEER Unshaken A story of Haitian REsilience and Beauty This film follows Mohlenne Bosse, a young Haitian woman, as she learns how to walk on crude prosthetics after suddenly losing both of her legs to a mysterious affliction baffling the Haitian and American doctors who worked to save her legs and then her life. Stay Informed Learn about our ongoing relief efforts and latest travel updates. 30 May BOLIVIA TRIP SUMMARY – MAY 6-13, 2023 We had an absolutely amazing trip to Bolivia. This was the trip intended to check on our supplies, negotiate terms with the hospital, see patients in clinic, and reconnect with everyone down there that make our trips possible. All goals were achieved and exceeded. The team consisted of Drs. Andy Aldridge, Phil Williams, Brian Balanoff and me. The small team made the trip much more relaxing, and we could be more flexible with our schedule. It also really helped the four of us to form meaningful and lasting relationships with those at the Susan Hou Clinic in Palacios and READ MORE Subscribe to our newsletter Stay well-informed about our continuous efforts. Sign up!
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6 Aug
Hope Everywhere
The lead-up to this trip has been rough. Haiti has been experiencing escalating conflict for many months, and the decision to proceed with our trip was constantly in question. Many members of our team decided to stay home out of legitimate concerns for safety. Flights were delayed. Bull was hacking up a lung…then Crystal, then Betty. We lost a bag of supplies at the airport that held medications without which surgery is impossible (we later retrieved it). The bank account got hacked the day before we left (resolved, but time consuming). But then our team landed in Haiti and we found what we always find: an incredible group of Haitian healthcare workers at Hôpital Bernard Mevs, a group that works tirelessly and skillfully to serve the severely injured in their community. A patient population that is strong and resilient and grateful and badly in need of care. An ability to adjust, overcome and carry on in a challenging healthcare setting. A familiar cat, that stays in the volunteer quarters and can’t get enough of our soft gauze in enormous plastic bags. By the end of today, our team, with several brilliant, Haitian, surgical residents, will complete 20 surgeries. We will treat 25-year-old Joseph, who has been living with a badly infected knee for over a year. Joseph was a driven agricultural engineering student, but could not continue to study with the pain in his knee. He can’t wait to get back to classes. We operated on Jasmin’s femur, which was fractured in a car accident ten days ago. Until he heals, he’ll continue to worry about losing the masonry income he feeds his siblings with. It’s an intense time to be in Haiti. Last Sunday was the 10-year anniversary of the earthquake that killed an estimated 200-300,000 people. A few of us were lucky enough to visit the memorial of the earthquake, located at the sight of a mass grave where victims are buried. Nearly every person in this country mourns at least one loved one. An entire generation of nurses was lost when the nursing school collapsed. In less than 30 seconds, a country was transformed. Many say it will never recover. But at 4:53 PM on Sunday, our team put down their scalpels and their drills and took a moment of silence to hold the earthquake victims, their families and all Haitians in our thoughts. And then we looked up to the sky to see a rainbow stretched wide and bright across the sky. There is hope everywhere here.
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14 Jun
Day 5 in Haiti
The NAVMC team landed in Port-au-Prince 5 days ago, and it has been non-stop since. From day one, this trip has been different. In recent weeks, President Jovenal Moïse has been implicated in two government audits on the misuse of billions of dollars in Venezuelan aid meant to help the country’s poor. Thousands of Haitians have been marching in the streets, calling for his resignation. On our short drive from the airport to Hopital Bernard Mevs, streets were largely abandoned, but burned cars, still-smoking tires and the remnants of roadblocks evidenced the civil unrest Haiti is enmeshed in. Our team is moving forward as usual. We ran a clinic the day after we arrived to find patients that our orthopedic surgeons can help, and the need here is overwhelming. Hopital Bernard Mevs is staffed with dedicated, highly-skilled medical professionals, but violence is making it too dangerous for many to travel to and from the hospital. There are staff that haven’t been home in days, and our team is happy to be able to provide some respite. We are also missing the Haitian surgical residents that have been an integral part of our trips in the past, who are unable to travel safely to Bernard Mevs. We are starting our third long day of back-to back surgeries, and the conflict is posing some logistical challenges. It’s difficult to get water, for example, so we can only clean surgical tools once a day. But the amount we have been able to accomplish so far is remarkable: 13 surgeries in two days. On day two we treated a woman who had been caught in the crossfire at a protest and had a gunshot wound in her shoulder. Yesterday, Dr. Martin and his team labored through a 4-hour surgery to put rods in the shattered femur and tibia/fibula of a motor vehicle accident victim. Our team is perfectly safe in the hospital, but we spend a lot of time caring for and thinking about the people outside of the hospital walls, where the dangers posed by the political unrest are nearly impossible to avoid. Thank you for your support. Molly Brown, Executive Director
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