I found Hands of Esperanza recently and immediately wanted to tell you about it.

It's a PA-run medical mission organization working in Guatemala, and what I love is that it isn't just clinics and go home. They're doing community development work too - building stoves so families aren't breathing smoke indoors, and putting together a multi-specialty medical center that stays after the volunteers leave.

Ashley and Erin came on to talk about how the nonprofit started and what led them there. If you've been looking for a way to use your training that goes beyond a job, or you're a student wondering how PAs end up doing global health work, this is a good place to start listening.

What we talk about:

• How Hands of Esperanza got started
• Medical mission work in Guatemala
• Building stoves and why respiratory health improved
• Creating a lasting multi-specialty center
• How PAs and students can get involved
• Doing this work responsibly instead of as a photo op

Resources:

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Free application timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

Pre-PA counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Free resume download: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-resume-download

Mentioned in this episode:

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You guys, I love talking about mission trips and this new organization that I just found out about.

It's not new.

I just found out about it.

I am so excited to share it with you.

A PA run medical mission organization.

Welcome to the Pre PA Club podcast.

If you want to learn how to.

Become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Alright guys, thank you so much for tuning in.

My name is Savannah Perry.

I am a dermatology PA and the creator of the PA platform, which is a blog, I guess that helps Pre PA students.

And now we have the podcast and a Facebook group and all kinds of stuff going on.

A conference coming up that is sold out by the way.

So unfortunately there are no more spots left for the Atlanta conference because we're very, very limited on space this Friday.

First year we're very thankful to South College for hosting, but because of kind of the size of their campus, we weren't able to have kind of an unlimited amount of people.

But if you have signed up, we are so excited and it will be so much fun.

Now, if you were not able to sign up for Atlanta, I have great news for you.

Be on the lookout for your opportunity to go to the pre PA conference track at the AAPA conference in Nashville in May.

It'll be on May 16th, which I am so excited about because it's gonna be awesome.

This is really the first time that they've done anything like this.

It's specific to pre PAs.

I'm not sure if there's a cost yet, but if it is, it's very minimal and so be on the lookout for more about that.

I'm gonna be posting about it on social media.

We'll be sending out emails about it and so mark your calendar, see if you can make it.

That's also when we usually have a huge social media PA event with which was awesome last year.

I mean there were almost 200 people there.

So many awesome PAs and it was just a great time of networking.

So if you can make it to Nashville, I would love to meet you.

I will be there for the weekend.

I will be there at the Pre PA conference.

I'm doing also some talks on Sunday at the studio student portion.

So it's going to be great.

But again, I would love to see you there.

So yeah, that'll be awesome.

And then in July there's the Northeastern Prepa Conference in New Jersey and I was at that last year looking like I'll probably be there again.

This year trying to finalize some stuff, but that's another option.

And then journey to PA School.

Anthony host a Out west conference in April.

And so I'll post more about that too.

So there's a lot of options when it comes to prepa conferences.

You just gotta look for them.

And I try to share them when they come my way.

All right.

Okay.

Before we talk about the guest on today's interview podcast interview, I want to talk about our sponsors real quick.

So, number one is mypa Resource.

And if you're applying this cycle reapplying, it is time to work on your personal statement.

If you need help with editing that.

That's where my PA Resource comes in.

They have a free workshop, which is awesome for helping you get started writing, but then they also have editing services from pas.

I am one of them.

I am an editor.

And so you can actually, when you kind of pick your service, you could request me, but you don't have to.

But there's a lot of options there.

You can use the Code Future PA if you do need help and want another set of eyes who kind of know what they're looking for to look at your essay.

And then there's PA School Prep, which is an option if you are planning on applying to PA School.

I mean, if you've gotten into PA school, Sorry.

And are kind of waiting in that waiting phase and you want to brush up on some stuff.

So PA School Prep covers anatomy, physiology, med terms and gives you a nice little online course to refresh on those, as well as some textbooks just to help you succeed once you get into PA school kind of those first few weeks.

And you can also use that Code Future PA for a discount there, as well as on any service at the PA platform, including the PA School Interview Guide, the course, any of those kind of paid services, pre PA assessments, mock interviews, you can use that code.

And then just make sure you're taking advantage of all of the free resources we have too.

I mean, there's tons of videos, obviously, this podcast.

And then if you go to the paplatform.com and kind of look in the top right, you'll see all of our free downloads and there are a lot of them now.

And if there's something you think would be helpful, let me know.

I've got some stuff coming up next month as far as resources that I think will be kind of cool.

So.

All right, so today's guest, they reached out to me on, I think, Instagram, and I never heard of this organization, but it's called Hands of Esperanza.

And I'm going to put all the links in the description, so don't even worry about that.

You'll find them there.

But, you know, and whenever, to be honest, on Instagram, when people reach out, I'm a little bit skeptical, but I looked into this and I was like, this seems legit.

They seem really cool.

And it is a PA run non profit that goes to Guatemala and helps with healthcare and so much other stuff too.

So you're gonna hear all about that in the interview and how awesome these girls are.

So Ashley and Erin were willing to sit down and talk with me, and I think that this is something that the PA platform and the pre PA club we're going to partner with in some way.

I'm not exactly sure what that's going to look like yet, but I know personally I plan on supporting them because I just love their passion and how much they're able to take action and actually help people.

And I know sometimes with, like, donating, it's hard because you don't know where your money or your items are going to.

But this seems like such a great opportunity.

So I'm going to introduce you to Ashley and Erin, and I hope that you'll check out Hands of Esperanza.

All right.

My name is Ashley Sweatt.

I'm a physician assistant in Atlanta.

I went to PA school, where all of us went to PA school, actually, at Nova Southeastern in Orlando.

I went into surgery.

I've had a couple different experiences, but I work in transplant and hepatobiliary surgical oncology, which is a mouthful, but that's where I practice now.

And we are on your podcast today to talk about our mission work and our nonprofit in Guatemala.

My name's Erin.

I live in Tampa, Florida, and I currently work in the emergency room as a PA A little easier to say than Ashley, but I also went to Nova Southeastern University in Orlando, and I'm on the podcast for the same reason.

So working on the same mission with Hands.

With Esperanza.

Okay, can.

So when did y' all graduate?

Okay.

No, no.

That's when you started undergrad?

2015.

Gotcha.

Okay.

And I was 4 14.

All right, awesome.

So can one of you give me, like, the synopsis or I guess the mission of Hands of Esperanza?

And I just want to know how this kind of got started.

Like the story.

Yeah, I'll start because it's.

We'll try to give you the Brief synopsis.

So we have been kind of a group collectively for the past five and a half years.

And a lot of us, you know, when you pursue medicine, sometimes you have.

This interest in global health.

And a lot of us felt very passionately that we wanted to do something, at least in our time there as students, while we had more free time and we had these divided breaks in between semesters.

And so we were kind of like, you know, this is something that we would like to create and make a legacy at our program.

So we started brainstorming, and we had a few very trusted advisors there at.

The program at the time.

And so one of our professors there, she said, well, hey, this is where we go with my church.

And we actually do medical work in Guatemala.

We trust the people there.

We have an organization there that we work with.

Would you guys want to go?

So that's where it all started.

We had one PA and we had one nurse that went with us.

So we did three days of remote rural clinics, and then we did a few days of volunteering in the hospital,.

Seeing the local orphanage there.

And so immediately after we went, there were a handful of us after that just said, like, this is not something that I think that we can walk.

Away from and never come back to.

This is something that I really feel like is going to be a part of our lives forever, to be quite honest.

And so the next year, the class overwhelmingly was like, we want to go back to where you guys went.

Let's make this a legacy.

And so from there, every year, they've gone.

Erin's class was the third class that went.

And then when she graduated and some of her classmates also who are members.

Of our organization now graduated, they have also become members of the nonprofit.

And the reason why we did that is because we are fundraising for our largest project in Guatemala, which is to build a multi specialty medical and surgical center within the community that we serve that will allow us to provide more sustainable access to health care for the patients that we treat.

Because right now we hike to the villages, which is very intense.

Yeah, we carry all of our medical Supplies.

We do this because we're young and.

Healthy right now, but some of us.

Are turning, you know, a little older.

And, you know, our patients are older, too.

We actually had a post today about.

One of our oldest patients, who's 80,.

And it's very difficult for them.

They do this every day when they need to get somewhere.

But we would like to be able.

To provide them with the opportunity to.

Come and see us in a more accessible environment year round when our groups.

Like us are not able to be there.

And so that's why we formed.

And yeah, I'll let Erin talk a.

Little more about it too, because her.

Involvement has, you know, pretty much been there since the beginning, at least since.

The beginning of the organization formed.

Yeah, it's actually really crazy because I.

One of the reasons I went to PA school was so I could do global medicine and start going on mission trips and make an impact not only in the United States, but in other countries as well.

And I remember Ashley came and presented to our class, you know, trying to promote the mission trip, get us to go on the mission trip.

And I was like, wow, this is so amazing.

And then like, PA school gets so crazy.

We've all done it.

And I was just like, how am I going to fit in this mission trip?

Like, on top of all this studying and everything?

So I originally decided not to go.

And I was, like, thinking about it for weeks and I was like, I can't not go.

Like, this is why I went into medicine.

And then once I saw Guatemala and saw the work that they were doing over there, I, like, have not been.

Able to leave it.

So.

So that's kind of how my role got started.

Once I went for the first time, I just knew I couldn't not go back again.

So I went back last year and.

The year before that as well.

So how many times a year are y' all making it over to Guatemala right now?

It's just once a year.

So every August we go for like, 10 days.

Yeah, it's up to.

But probably with the clinic, we'll start going more often because we'll have more opportunities and like a stable place for.

Us to set up lots of goals.

For when we actually have the infrastructure to be able to do that.

You know, it's difficult for us to be able to bring groups that can, you know, do a little bit less with their mobility.

We're asking them to bring in all this equipment to do, you know, more advanced things that require more surgical equipment, things like that.

We have a cleft Palate group that comes right now that works with the organization.

And that's obviously not something that you can bring to a very remote area.

It requires a lot of equipment and a lot of personnel, anesthesia, things like that.

So when we're able to actually bring groups into the clinic, we'll have more groups coming more times of the year.

That will be able to provide more specialty care.

And then we will actually have people in Guatemala, we have local doctors and nurses that have offered to provide services.

At the clinic for free or reduced prices at no cost to the patients.

And so that's something that we're really excited about, too.

But, yeah, we all want to be there more than, like, 10 days out of the year.

It's just not possible.

Yeah.

Okay, so what.

So what happens on your mission trip?

So I've been on a couple.

I went to Kenya on a medical mission trip and El Salvador.

And so I think it's.

I don't know if it's.

I'm gonna say I think it's hard to explain exactly, like, what to expect, but what.

What's kind of the breakdown of the trip?

What does it look like?

And I guess start there.

Okay.

It's a great question.

And I think ours is pretty unique because we already touched a little bit on, like, the remoteness of the clinics and how we set up real clinics.

But for us, we.

What we really wanted to do was offer the PA students an opportunity to be able to see patients and kind of use this as their first clinical experience, because they're doing this in between their didactic year and their clinical year.

So they've learned everything, right?

You've studied everything, you know, how hard of a time that you've had in PA school and how many books that you've read.

And so this is really their first.

Opportunity to use all of those physical diagnostic scales and everything.

And so our first day when we get there, when we actually set up a clinic, we'll hike to a remote village.

Depends on the length.

Usually the Guatemalans say about half the time that it takes us.

So we get there, we unpack, we set up rooms, we try to triage patients into an area that they need.

We have primary care, we have pediatric care.

We have an obstetrics and a gynecology room.

And we go from there.

We typically see around 2 to 300 patients a day, depending on how many show up.

It's not a steady, like, flow.

Sometimes we get these bursts of people because they're walking from different villages, and it takes them like Three to four.

Hours to get there.

And sometimes people are waiting for us.

When we get there first thing in the morning.

So it's just kind of like.

It's a little chaotic.

What would you say, Erin?

The first day?

Especially the first day.

But once the students kind of get the hang of things over the course of the week, we actually see a little bit more organization.

So that's kind of the breakdown of the rural clinic days for us.

We.

We have gotten to the point where we are actually able to do four of those days.

And the locations that we're using are most often a school that they allow us to use, which is pretty rudimentary.

It's usually four walls with open air and either a dirt or a concrete floor.

And we set up our exam stations on desks that the students usually use.

If you're lucky, you'll have desks and.

Maybe some tables and chairs.

And then we go from there and we tell students, you know, you're not going to have lab values, you're not going to have X rays.

You're going to have to go based.

On a lot of your history taking.

Ability and your diagnostic skills.

So it's really a good learning experience for them there.

So we do that for four days, and then we actually have a full day where we go when we volunteer at the hospital.

And so they get to participate in emergency room triage and acute care.

They get to participate in labor and delivery.

They also get to scrub into some.

Surgeries, which one of our members got to do her first year as a student, and she actually went into surgery.

I don't know if that's why, but.

It was actually really cool.

She got to scrub into the procedure.

It was a hysterectomy.

And then they also get to do wards and see the inpatient side of things.

They'll participate in rounds and stuff like that.

And then there's a few other things.

On the other side.

But for most part, that's the actual mission work that our students are able to do.

We also do some stuff while we're in the villages as well.

So our main focus is medicine, but one of our other focuses is actually building stoves because we see a ton of respiratory problems because their only option right now is to cook on open flames.

So they have open fires in their homes and they're constantly breathing in smoke.

So one of our projects is building these stoves that have actual chimneys and allow the smoke to escape from the house.

And we've built.

How many did we build last year?

25 Last year.

Yeah.

We've been there for the past four or five years, so we've definitely made an impact on the village in that way.

And then we'll also paint the school.

Really just do whatever they need help with in the village with the extra.

Manpower that we have.

We've also built some water filtration systems because a lot of them have, like, worms and different illnesses that are coming from the water, because they don't even understand that boiling the water is healthier.

And then we'll build these filtration systems that they can just put in the water.

Then I'll filter it for them.

They can turn this tap and get fresh water.

The filter lasts for about 20 years.

And so once we are able to install it, then they're set up and we educate them on how to use it.

And I'm glad Erin brought that up, because preventative and preventative medicine and public health education that we try to give them while we're there is really important.

And these patients don't actually speak Spanish.

Most of them speak a Mayan dialect called Kokomchi.

So it adds to the complexity of what we're doing there.

You're going from most, 95% of our volunteers only speak English.

They don't even speak Spanish.

So we go from.

From English to Spanish to Bo Komchi.

There are also two other Mayan languages that are spoken there called quechi and Achi.

So if you get one of those patients, you have to find an even more unique translator.

But it's a very unique experience, and it's one that I think our students come back from this trip saying, like, oh, my gosh, how is this even something that we're allowed to go do?

This is so cool.

We really think this is mission trip.

That, you know, we haven't been on before, we don't see with other programs.

So it's actually really cool.

And we're very thankful that we found it and been provided the opportunity to continue going.

Yeah, I'm super impressed by just how organized everything seems and, like, the logistics and, I mean, this is way cooler than I even thought.

And you answered my next question about language barriers, because I was like, there's probably something there in the clinics.

What do y' all see as far as medical need?

Like, what?

I guess, what medical conditions are you seeing most commonly?

How are you actually able to help them from a medical standpoint?

You wanna answer that?

Sure.

So, like I mentioned before, with the respiratory problem, a ton of that because of the smoke inhalation so we are able to bring a nebulizer, give breathing treatments, which does help a lot.

And then we see a lot of worms from the water.

So we'll bring different deworming treatments.

And then really, one of our main.

Jobs is education, too.

So we're not just handing them a medicine or handing them this nebulizer treatment and saying, okay, go on your way.

We're kind of explaining why they're feeling.

This way, or, you know, you need.

To boil your water to get rid of these worms.

Or they'll have, like, scabies, and the whole family will have scabies.

So we can't just treat one of the patients.

We have to get the whole family there and then explain to them you need to boil your sheets and just ways for them to get rid of.

It in the house.

But I would say that's the majority.

Yeah.

Lots of upper respiratory issues, GI issues,.

Lots of aches and pains, you know, because they're doing a lot of manual labor.

And so I've never seen someone so happy to just receive Tylenol and a.

Lidocaine patch in my entire life, which I'm sure we'll touch on later.

But it speaks to the gratitude of.

This patient population when you see them smile.

We do get some things that we're able to take care of in the field that are, know, require a little.

Bit of a procedure.

We've had abscesses that we've had to drain.

We've had some very, very superficial lipomas that we've taken off, stuff that we all try to do with respect to where they're going to be traveling back.

To where the location of the lesion is.

Stuff like that.

Next one on this year, too.

Oh, yeah, We're a very long time.

It was.

Yeah.

And just things like that, you know,.

Foreign bodies that have been stuck in people's feet that are causing them a lot of distress and they can't walk to and from their villages like they want to, you know, stuff like that.

So little things like that.

Oh, lots of foreign bodies in the ear.

And they're usually insects.

Oh, no.

Yeah.

Gets the students to all gather around.

And see, like, what did you find in the ear?

Cool stuff like that.

And we have some things you wouldn't in the United States.

We had a nice machinery murmur last year, and all the students came around and listened.

So lots of very interesting things, but.

Most of the stuff is pretty basic.

And I think the biggest barrier that.

We encounter is having to deal with the nutritional problems because we're not going to be able to fix all of that.

This is a very poverty stricken area.

About 83% of the population lives below the poverty line of Guatemala.

And, and so telling them, okay, you.

Need to eat a healthy diet and you need to stop eating the things that are causing you to have GERD and stuff like that is very difficult because they only eat what they have and they eat very little of it.

Actually, something that's really cool too is I spent a lot of time in the OB GYN clinic and we've seen.

A lot of STDs in the OB.

GYN clinic and the number of people.

With STDs has dramatically dropped since we started going there.

Wow.

Because we started treating them and educating.

Them on how they're transmitting these diseases.

So I'd say this year like by.

Far was the least amount of STDs we had seen.

They had known about it.

STDs, worms and upper respiratory infections, we.

Saw a lot less of this year.

So from the time we started five years ago to this year, because of.

The public health initiatives, health education, I really think it's made an impact in the communities that we've been revisiting.

So very encouraging.

We'll also bring like toothbrushes and educate them on how to brush their teeth or reading glasses.

It's amazing when somebody finds a pair of reading glasses, you know, they haven't been able to see well for the past few years and they'll put on one and they'll just be amazing.

That is so cool.

Okay, so as I'm just gonna ask you all the questions that I get all the time about mission trips.

What can a PA do on a mission trip?

Do you still have to have a supervising collaborating physician?

Are there any just limitations you feel like, or do you kind of just go there, practice the way you would normally practice and you're good to go?

That's a good question.

We the most, I guess I should say the barriers that we encounter most often with that are in the United.

States, when we're ordering medications to take.

With us, we have to have a.

Prescriber, a physician prescriber, usually sign off and have them delivered to their office, which we do.

And after we get to Guatemala, we're.

Not required to have a physician accompany us.

We actually have all of our medical.

Licenses registered with the Ministry of Health there.

So what we're doing is very kosher.

We're not just coming into their country and saying, I'm going to treat you.

My name is so and so, you know, I'm a doctor.

We're not telling them anything that's not true.

We tell them what we are, and.

They understand that some of the people we're taking are students, but they're supervised.

And the organization we work with there.

Actually takes all of our licenses and does all of that for us.

And they make sure that the country and the Ministry of Health know that we're there.

When we practice medicine.

It's a little bit different if you're.

Going for, like a surgery trip or something.

They do require, obviously, a surgeon and an anesthetist or an anesthesiologist with an anesthetist or CRNA or something like that.

But for us to be able to.

Practice basic primary care medicine, they actually.

Do not have any laws that say we can't be there without a temporary physician.

So it's obviously based on country, but.

For us, it's not a limiting factor there.

And I don't ever feel like we're lacking in the department.

We have so many specialties across the 15 PAs that we have everyone.

I mean, we have ICU, we have.

Pediatrics, we have a lot of ER,.

A lot of surgery.

Everyone's kind of spread out.

And we have people that even have some background before they were in PA school.

That helps a little bit.

So have a wide breadth there.

And then we also do have physicians.

That come with us on the trip, but they're usually volunteers and they do add a lot to our team, but we never rely on them and feel like we're dependent on them to help us and tell us, you know, what to do.

Awesome.

Okay, so my next question.

Well, okay, first of all, are there any opportunities for people who are.

Okay, I guess different levels here, pre pas, undergrads, PA students at other schools.

Are there opportunities for people to get involved either by going on a trip by.

I mean, in my mind, like, I'm already brainstorming all these different ways by fundraising by, like, collecting supplies.

Like, how.

What are the ways that people.

Like, I love that this is a PA organization, which is so cool.

But, like, what are the actual practical ways that people can help?

That's a great question.

And I thought about it before because I think that there are so many ways.

And the first way, honestly, that people.

Just listen to what we have to.

Say and they help us spread awareness about our mission.

And then the second way is donation.

And that could be financial donation, that could be donation of supplies, or that could be donation of your time as a volunteer.

And actually, on Our website, we have.

A list of commonly used over the counter medications and supplies.

And then if you don't see something.

On there or you know, you have questions about the expiration date or something like that, we have information on our website where you can actually reach out and contact us.

Or you can send us an email to kansasparanzamail.com Very easy to remember.

And you can send us an email.

And ask us questions.

And then the third one, volunteering time,.

We have the organization we work with in Guatemala is called Living the Same and they support trips year round.

So we may be going on medical.

Trips, but they have groups that come all the time that maybe, you know, focus on.

They have students that come that are high school students from churches.

So it doesn't matter what your age is, what your level is, they don't necessarily hike to the same villages.

So the athleticism and, you know, the.

Requirement there doesn't have to be the same either.

But there's tons of opportunities.

And, and if people are interested in.

Setting up a trip where they maybe.

Could do stoves and that's their contribution or water filtration system or they volunteer orphanage or the local nursing home there, there's a lot of opportunities.

And if you're pre PA and you want to do something with public health education that doesn't necessarily involve actually treating patients, that's certainly somewhere that you could get involved.

And we can always talk to Rudy with Living to Serve and see if there's an opportunity there for people to set up a trip.

But there are lots and lots and.

Lots of opportunities and we're always happy to field any inquiries if anyone has one.

Yeah.

And honestly, the Rudy she was talking.

About with Avis, Living to Serve is.

Like the nicest human in the whole world.

And anybody who wants to help in.

Any way, he will find a way.

To get you there and get a.

Group going for you to be able to help.

Okay, awesome.

So definitely spreading awareness, which we can do.

And then how.

So a stove, how much does it cost to build or install a stove?

I guess around 200 to $250 per stove.

And what I think is really unique about the stoves, they've done research with countries and when there is actually an.

Incentive for the people receiving whatever it.

Is that you're donating, when they actually have something invested in the project, they're.

More likely to use it.

And so they did this project with mosquito nets in Africa and when they came back, if they had just given.

Out all the mosquito nets,.

The people that were giving the mosquito nets, were.

Using them for other things.

They were using them for shopping bags to carry groceries to and from their villages.

They were using them for fishing nets, they were using them for all kinds of things.

Even though they had provided education and they had provided these life saving mosquito nets.

So once they said, okay, well you.

Guys need to contribute 5% of the.

Cost of these mosquito nets, suddenly the.

Rates of use completely changed and dramatically when they came back, all these people were using these mosquito nets for the intended purpose.

So that's one thing that this community does.

They're incentivized to use mosquitoes.

And so they contribute a very small amount, which again we said that the poverty line is very high here.

But they contribute to these stoves and.

They actually come and they pick up the stove materials and they deliver them to their houses, which if you've seen these mountains, that is the biggest contribution they could make.

But they're pretty rudimentary, again I'll use that word.

But they're basically cinder blocks that get stacked.

There's a place where you can put the wood and you white it and then piece of up and then there's.

A large metal slab on top that has little burners almost.

And then where the wood heats up.

In the center has an outlet that's.

A very thin piece of metal and.

It goes out of the roof.

And then there's a protective wire on the outside to prevent kids from burning themselves by catching other animals or things like that.

So that's it.

And that's what you get for between 200 and $250.

So if people contributed that much money, that's how much you get for a stove.

That's what a lot of our money that the students raise for their admission trip every year contributes to that cost.

How much are y' all anticipating the clinic will cost?

Our estimated cost right now is for a two level multi specialty clinic, including.

A surgery center would be $450,000.

And we've already purchased, purchased the land.

And we've already started construction on the perimeter walls.

And so that was a large chunk of the money.

Land in Guatemala is actually not cheap.

And so we are, we have collected $50,000 so far and we are very.

Fortunate that we have a company that wants to double match our donations.

So we are very close to our.

Goal in order to double match to get the $450,000.

So we've got about $100,000 left to go.

Wow, that is awesome.

So, okay, well, and that brings up another limitation.

So A lot of people worry about the finances of going on a trip like this.

Do y' all have any thoughts or advice on how much a trip would cost to go on?

And then, like, fun, like, how people can justify the cost or make it happen?

Well, ours actually, like, isn't that expensive.

Compared to other mission trips.

Yeah.

It included the whole stay while we were there.

It included each meal besides, like, snacks.

When we're at the villages.

So it's everything.

Everything's included.

And the way that I fundraised when.

I was in PA school was through.

A GoFundMe family members.

And I actually raised the money pretty.

Quick because once people hear about what.

We're doing over there, they get pretty excited and aren't willing to donate.

But compared to other mission trips that I've heard about, usually the price is like double that.

And the fact that everything's included, I think kind of justifies it a little more, too.

Yeah.

If you just do a quick Google.

Search on the cost of trips to Central America, ours is right at the.

Bottom for how much it costs to include your flight.

It's really on par with things in like, Nicaragua or Honduras and stuff like that.

If you're going to go somewhere like.

Africa or India, where there's certainly a.

Need, the flights are obviously longer and.

It's just going to be higher cost.

So for us, that was the lowest cost that we could keep it at.

Including your flight, we thought was a really good.

All right, so y' all said that this is a lifelong.

Like, you feel like this is something you'll participate in for life.

What do you see as kind of the future of Hands of Esperanza?

I personally, you know, the clinic is.

In the forefront of everyone's mind right now.

And I think that's what we're really.

That's what we're really focused on.

Once we have the clinic, I would love to see us be able to.

Provide more specialty care for people in this area.

We've seen crazy things that they just.

Don't have the providers the means to provide for there.

Maybe it's something advanced surgically.

Maybe they need, like a head and neck surgery.

We saw a child last year who needed craniofacial specialists, and those are just that are not accessible in this area.

The area we're in is six hours away from Guatemala City.

There are certain labs that the hospital is not able to do at their main hospital that has to be sent to Guatemala City just In order to.

Have labs run, tsh, for instance, takes two weeks.

So stuff like that, we want to.

Be able to bridge that gap.

Whether it's lab work, whether it's being able to bring specialty care, you know, those are lost long term goals.

And the other thing is we want.

To just be able to provide sustainable health care for them.

Preventative care, screenings.

There is a very high rate of death from cervical cancer in women in this population.

They don't have screenings, they can't afford it, and they don't maybe know about it.

So if we could just do something.

As simple as offer free cervical cancer screenings and testing, you know, that would be something that would dramatically impact these women.

So big long term goals there, we.

Have a lot of them.

But those are kind of the things.

That are on the forefront of my mind right now.

I agree with that and just I'm.

Obviously more focused on the sustainable projects as well, just because that's one of my major roles.

But I was talking to somebody who had grown up in Guatemala when I was there last year and she made.

Us aware that there's a lot of.

Kids in the villages who actually pass away simply because they won't latch onto their mother.

So they have no way to feed them because they don't have formula.

So just stuff like that that's so.

Simple for us to contribute to.

Like we're looking into getting breast pumps donated.

So if there are those children who are having trouble latching, they will have pumps where they can feed their children.

That's a simple way to help them.

And just finding more little projects like that besides just the healthcare stuff as well.

And in the future if we bring.

Groups of PA students, especially from other programs, when we're able to expand, we would love to have that.

We know there are programs where I'm at in Georgia that do you know you can have your OB GYN rotation in Peru.

And I think that that's incredible because that offers so much insight into what other patient populations are like.

We're so limited.

If you only do your rotations in.

America, in your little city in America.

And I know that programs try to.

Do a good job of making sure.

You have a little bit of rural.

Exposure and you know, you see some inner city stuff.

But I think sometimes we're just limited.

Maybe you're like us in Orlando where.

There's a lot of other programs competing for the upward regions.

And so if you're able to broaden kind of what you see and what you're exposed to, then maybe that can shape who you are as a provider.

And allow you just to be a.

Little bit more understanding of maybe what type of patient that you're treating.

Because I know.

I'm sure Erin has in the ER.

In Tampa, but I know for sure, in my job, in all the areas I've worked in, you get a patient who comes in and only speaks Spanish and maybe is from Central America.

And I think there's a little piece of me now that, like, I understand that patient a little bit better.

And I'm not going to be one of those providers who's like, oh, I'm going to talk over them because they only speak Spanish, and I don't speak Spanish.

And just get the translator in here when you can.

But we're going to, you know, just kind of breeze over them on rounds.

That's never the kind of patient.

That's never the kind of the provider that I want to be.

It's so easy to be that if you don't have that kind of relationship, I think, or that kind of exposure.

So we would love a whole.

Long story short, we would love to.

Have more opportunities for PA students to be exposed to outpatient population and come work at our clinic when it is an actual clinic.

Yeah, and PAs too.

Yes, and PAs too.

I just know I'm a completely different provider and how I practice, because I've been over there, and you just see so much that you just wouldn't be able to see here.

And just the appreciation that there's.

Yeah.

Okay, so what?

Okay, what?

One tip.

So someone who's never been on a mission trip, what one tip would you give them?

I'll say mine, too, but y' all go first.

I would say my biggest thing, I.

Say this every year, is just being flexible.

Shoot, that was mine.

Oh.

Because literally, you would think that you have a certain role, and it's never how it works.

Like, we'll get to the clinic and we just.

A triage is not going to work.

That day just because of the setup of the clinic.

And we'll throw you into a provider.

Role instead of desk triaging, or we'll.

Throw you into playing with the kids,.

Because there's a lot of kids in that village.

So just being flexible.

And that's honestly what it is to.

Be a PA as well.

You know, you're never going to walk.

Into work and be like, oh, well, I'm only gonna do this.

Sometimes a doctor will need you to help with this.

Sometimes another PA will need you to help with this.

Sometimes a nurse Will need you to come help.

So I'd say definitely flexibility.

Yeah, mine's very similar to that.

But go into a mission trip being very open minded and not having any expectations because if you go into it thinking that you know what to expect, you're gonna miss out on whatever it.

Is that you're experience.

And you're also probably gonna be wrong.

Every mission trip I've been on, you know, I've been on this will be my sixth year going on this trip.

But I was on multiple medical mission.

Trips before this other countries.

And Guatemala was completely different from Ecuador,.

From the Dominican, you know, so if you go into it with a very open mind, just saying like, let this change me, let this shape me, you.

Know, let it be what it is.

I think people will have a really awesome opportunity.

Yeah.

And definitely probably get more out of it.

That's.

Yeah, mine is along those lines.

When I went to Kenya, it was a Durham specific trip.

And out of 12 of us, I was the only one who brought a stethoscope because they were like, we're just seeing Durham.

And I was like, no, no you're not.

I can guarantee you that.

So we turned into more of a multi specialty co clinic for those few days with one stethoscope.

But it looks good.

That's like my world.

Yeah.

All right, well, where can everyone kind of find y' all and get more information and contact you and all of those fun things?

So Our website is www.handsofesperranza.org and for those of you who maybe are not bilingual, Esperanza means hopefully.

So that's why we chose the name because we are not necessarily the Hands of Hope.

We think that hope is a two way street.

So when we're there, we hope that.

We offer them a little bit of hope, but we also get that in.

Return from our patients.

They give us a renewed sense of.

Faith in what we're doing and how we're practicing medicine.

But Esperanza, if you don't know how to spell that is just Google how.

To spell open Spanish.

But I'll link to everything, don't worry.

Www.handsofesperranza.org and there's multiple tabs on there.

You can find ways to donate, find.

Ways to get involved, and there's also.

A contact me button on there if.

You're looking for specifically how to just send us an email.

Our email is hansavesveranza.com and our Instagram is anzabethparanza.

Yes, we frequently update and we would love to have you guys follow and stay in tune to what's happening with our clinic.

And Erin will be updating, so follow along.

We also are on Facebook, too, for those of you that are still on Facebook.

My cousin told me that's for old people, so.

I still use it.

Me too.

All right, well, thank y' all so much.

Thank you so much.