From all reports it looks like Louisiana will be seeing the worst of the flooding come the end of May. We will be leaving Ecuador and arriving in the USA on May 29th.

MMRC has the opportunity to work with Can-Do.org directly in the flood areas to do whatever it takes to help.  We know that organizations like FEMA, American Red Cross, The Salvation Army, and countless other large groups are helping out with this relief effort, but sometimes you need a small group like ours to go in and work the gaps.

As it stands, we land at DFW on the 29th, gear up, and head out for Louisiana and Mississippi on the 30th.  Before we take a short break to rest and fund raise, we will be spending 10-14 days helping out anyone that we can, in any way that we can.

So…. let’s all come together and make one last push and help our own people. We have no idea what we will be seeing or getting ourselves in to, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.  All monies raised through your donations will be used on food, water and consumables that are in great need and shortage.

Please donate to MMRC today and help make a difference.

This one’s for the people at home.

It has been one hell of a year and I want to thank everyone that made it possible for us to help so many people in Haiti and Ecuador. Unfortunately, we are halting all operations right now since we have run out of funding and our future as humanitarians looks very bleak. It is so hard to write this blog entry as my mind is all over the place. I never thought for a minute that it would be so hard to sustain ourselves and help those in need. I know so many of you have given so much to keep us alive and I am eternally indebted to you. I have had the pleasure and the honor to work with some of the most talented and caring medical professionals available. Together we have been able to save the lives of 1000’s of people.

It is so hard to even consider the thought that I won’t be able to be somewhere in the world helping others. I feel like my guts have been ripped out of me and I am just a hollow shell. I honestly thought that I would be dedicating the rest of my life to serving others. I haven’t been sleeping much lately knowing that my time as a humanitarian would be coming to an end. I’ve been dedicating every minute possible in our little ED here trying to help the local docs and nurses treat our patients.

In the last 15 months I’ve worked in 2 amazing countries, Haiti and Ecuador. My eyes have been opened to the suffering and injustices that occur in this world. My limits have been pushed and I have been challenged to do better. I have learned more about myself and what I am capable of doing than I ever thought possible. All of this is due to the people I have been able to serve and those of you that have been patient in teaching me. Thank you everyone for your patience and love and for not only helping me become a better person, but also for being of service to your fellow man.

Haiti was very hard on me in the end. As many of you know, LP was arrested and it was 18 days of hell on me. Everyday I had to weigh the decisions I would make knowing full well that if I chose wrong he would either me imprisoned longer or punished. Those 18 days that he was imprisoned pushed me over the edge and after he was released I no longer cared about Haiti or its people. I was angry with everyone and everything. I felt betrayed by those we had been serving and saving and had no problems never returning to that island. It has taken some time and some soul searching, but my mind has been changed. Maybe someday I will return to Haiti and help if it is needed. Who knows what the future holds.

In February I had the chance to come to Ecuador with Bridget and Nick to launch a Cleft Lip/Palate surgical outreach program. I thought when we left we would receive a lot of support for this program since it was such an easy way to change the life of a child. Boy was I mistaken. Thankfully, a few of you have kept us alive out here long enough to identify the kids that need help. LEAP has come through in spades and they are handling all of the operations for these wonderful patients. There were 3 of you that donated for the program and we have earmarked those funds and will be ensuring that they are properly used. We are turning everything over to the hospital administration over the next 2 weeks so they can continue the program.

So the question is, what is going to happen to MMRC?

As it stands, we all have to return to the states and will be helping out with all the flooding that is affecting our country. After about 2-3 weeks of assisting I will be returning to AZ to start a photography job. My goal is to have it wrapped up in about 6-9 weeks and take all the money earned to get a team prepped and out to somewhere in the world that needs help. It may be in the USA, Libya or Haiti. Who knows, we will be playing all of this by ear.

I felt the need to tell all of you what is going on with MMRC as we have become a big family. I also have a few favors to ask from everyone who reads this.

1. Please reach out to every company you know and help us get corporate sponsors. We need the funding to keep everything running and if we can get 20 companies to donate $250/month that can keep us going.

2. When I get back to the states, I will need transportation and if anyone has a truck/car/SUV they can lend me for 2-3 months I would greatly appreciate it.

3. I need letters of recommendation that I can send out to potential donors. Can you please email me a letter with stories of what we have done together and a letter stating why someone should donate to us?

I really don’t know what else there is for me to say. I’m trying to keep everything running smoothly here, but it’s been hard with everything going on. I love all of you so much and want to thank you again for everything.

Please don’t give up on us as we may be down but we are definitely not out.

Much love

Paul

For the last 6 weeks I have been intolerable. Those around me have had to deal with my short temper, lack of communication and high expectations. I have been going through a personal hell and have had to deal with so many things that normally I would not tolerate. MMRC was founded on the concept that we get shit done and we always have an “all go, no quit” attitude. Since we arrived in Guayaquil I have had to deal with bureaucratic hurdles, red tape, empty promises and failing commitments from so many different people. My patience has been tested and my nerves have been fried. And why? What for? I often wonder, “Why would anyone volunteer to deal with all this crap?”

Well here is the answer….

Today we found our first 2 patients for cleft lip/pallet repair and I was just informed that we will be seeing at least 5 more tomorrow. All of the hard work that we have been doing is finally starting to pay off. We have been informed that there are over 500 kids with cleft lips/pallets that need our help.

That is why we are here. To bring together those that need the help with those that want to help.

I implore everyone that reads this blog post to please help this program succeed. Help us changes the lives of children like Alicia and Dalia, the two little girls whose picture you are looking at. We have been lucky enough to find these patience and will be finding so many more that need help. LEAP is helping us by providing surgical teams, and there are other groups that want to participate as well, but we need your donations to help buy the supplies needed for their care.

I did the math and we need to raise $175 per child to cover the cost of their surgeries. That’s it, $175 each.

Help us change the lives of these kids and donate today.

 

For any of you that know me, you know that I despise administrative work more than anything in this world.  We’ve been in Ecuador for almost 5 weeks and we finally have something to show for our work here.  Today we met our first surgical candidate for Project HMB.

Nancy is a 25-year-old mother of 3 beautiful children.  Last year, she was badly burned by thermal blankets when her body temperature dropped dangerously low after her C-Section.  She has not been able to walk properly since this incident.  Unfortunately, Nancy and her husband cannot afford to pay for reconstructive surgery to fix her leg.

MMRC is in Ecuador finding people just like Nancy that need our help.  With your donations we can change the lives of so many people just like Nancy.  Please, donate today at www.mmrcglobal.org

Hello Everyone,

We are in full swing here in Guayaquil, Ecuador and I wanted to let everyone know how things are going here.  We’ve been working our butts off to get this program running and things have been humming along.

We are living at Hospital Madre Berenice (HMB) in El Guasmo Sur, and this place has turned out to be an amazing base of operations.

With so much going on, I’ve laid out an update for all to see on what we’ve done.  Hope to see a lot of you soon since we will need all the help we can get once the program gets rolling.

Mission Objectives

MMRC arrived in Guayaquil, Ecuador on 3/3/2011 with two goals in mind.

1. Identify and establish a working relationship with a local hospital in which we could implement surgical programs for socioeconomically underdeveloped areas.  Surgical candidates would be those in need of procedures to correct cleft lip, prolapse uterus, hernia, cataracts, cysts removal, and burns greater than 6 months
2. Establish a rapid response network, in conjunction with PAHO (Pan-American Health Organization) to respond to any natural disasters that occur in South America.

Finding a Hospital

Upon arrival to Ecuador we spent 2 weeks searching the area for a hospital that would be suitable for our needs and that was willing to participate in this program.

Here is a time line of events regarding Hospital Madre Berenice.

• 3/10 we were introduced to Ivette Falconi of the Archdioceses of Guayaquil.

• 3/12 we toured Hospital Madre Berenice in the area of El Guasmo, Sur on the outskirts of Guayaquil.

• 3/17 I met with the Archbishop Antonio Arregui and presented him with a rough draft for the surgical program and our needs to implement the plan. He approved it.  Immediately following the meeting, I was taken to meet with the REDIMA Health Network (they oversee all clinics and hospitals in this region, and are governed by the Archdioceses) administration and they were informed of the plan.  Our initial meeting went well and they were very excited to implement the program.

• 3/18 we moved in to the hospital and began the planning and execution of this program.

History of Hospital Madre Berenice

HMB was built 15 years ago under the direction of Father Edward Veasey and maintained by the nuns. During his time, he focused much of his attention to recruiting foreign medical personnel to volunteer and help build it up.  They donated an incredible amount of effort and supplies, as a result, for quite some time this hospital was extremely busy and served thousands of people in the community.  It is my understanding that two years Father Veasey retired and returned to Scotland.  He turned the hospital over to the Archdiocese of Guayaquil and a new administration was put in place.

Tasks Completed

Over the last 8 days we have completed the following tasks:

1. Created a survey that can be distributed through the catholic churches on Sunday that will help us identify surgical candidates.  We plan to distribute 10,000 of them this week.
2. Open lines of communications with supply donors to begin receiving medical supplies and instrumentation for this program
3. Created an inventory of the existing supplies
4. Reached out to various groups that specialize in Plastics, General and OB/GYN surgery to determine their level of interest in participating in Project HMB
5. Contacted medical/surgical teams that we have worked with in Haiti to inform them of progress and scheduling availability
6. Established connections with another NPO, Solidarity in Action, to provide English classes for the administration/staff so they can continue this program when we leave
7. Begun creating supply needs lists for both the hospital in general and for the surgical program
8. Identifying grants that are applicable to our mission statement in Ecuador and begin preparing the data for submission.
9. Video taped footage for a promotional video for fund raising.  For this footage, I interviewed a local woman and one of the doctors here for their opinion on this program.  Both were positive.
10. Established protocols with the laboratory on pre-surgical lab work that needs to be done for each patient.
11. Adapted pre-op safety surgical checklists that will follow WHO (World health Organization) standards
12. Created a functioning computer network for our operations.
13. Created an expense tracking system for daily operations
14. Worked in ER to assist the medical staff

Project HMB Timeline

3/27 – 4/27:  Distribute and collect 40,000 public surveys, identifying candidates, perform physical exams, and begin scheduling candidates for surgery.

May 8, 2011:  First surgical team arrives

July 2011:  Begin integrating local hospital administration into the process of scheduling patients and volunteers as well as requesting donated medical supplies and medications.

September 2011:  Begin implementing exit strategy while working peripherally with hospital administration and only getting involved if problems arise

November 2011:  MMRC long-term volunteers begin exiting hospital

December 2011: All MMRC personnel vacate hospital and monitor project from afar

Funding Needs

We are currently low on funds and need to immediately generate $5,000 USD to ensure that we can stay here for another 2 months and ensure that this program launches.  Funds will be used to cover living expenses as well as expenses related to Project HMB.

Anything you can do to support this amazing project would be greatly appreciated.

Peace.

Big Paul

MMRC Global has found it’s first location to assist in South America. We are quite happy that it is an orphanage as providing health, safety, and education to children has always been part of the MMRC Mission Statement. Our first orphanage is located in Lima, Peru, and was recently assessed and treated by current MMRC volunteers Liz Allison and Jana Mervine. Extreme thanks to Solidarity In Action for placing Liz and Jana in Peru and bringing this orphanage to our attention.

Reports from the field:

From Jana:

The Lima orphanage consists of 15 kids that live there full time, and are all fed three meals a day. Clara is the head of the orphanage, which means she “owns” it, coordinates everything, and lives there with the kids.

There are additional kids (about 30+), that she supervises during the day and are who are also fed lunch at the orphanage. She receives enough food from another NGO to feed all the kids for the first 15 days of the month. After that, she is forced to scrape by on donations.

Longer term, if we can raise the money, we would like to either build another orphanage for her in the same area, or renovate/add on to the space she has. The space she has now is very limited. There is one room inside where the kids play (concrete floor, one picnic-sized table, and a good portion of the area is used for storage). There is no outside area to play in, and very little space inside to play.

A single room upstairs has 15 beds in it, and Clara sleeps there as well. Liz and I spent a lot of time there during our two weeks in Lima. We examined all the children, treated a few with antibiotics, many for lice, and one for scabies.

We also took 10 of them to the beach one day.

From Liz:

Saturday was my favorite day of all. We took ten kids from the orphanage to the beach.

The beach is not a cheap place, so in order to be able to pay for it all, we bought two loaves of bread, half a kilo of ham (not a whole kilo, because 1kg=2.2 pounds, which we realized we had gotten backwards when we saw the deli man heaping ham onto the scale in massive amounts), Oreos that were on sale, and bananas/water from the local market because it’s cheaper than the grocery store.

Early in the morning, Jana, Mayra, and I took the bus to San Genaro and picked up the 10 kids. We got cabs (because there were so many of us and the beach is about 30 minutes away) and were on our way.

They were so cute and excited with their little backpacks and flip flops and singing excited little faces.

The beach itself was great. The waves were ginormous. The biggest I have ever seen. You couldn’t get within 100 feet of where they were breaking they were so big. But the kids had fun going out as far as they could and then riding them in. The twin boys that are always crazy and all over everything at the orphanage were hilarious. They were terrified of the waves. They would never stand with their back to the ocean and they would barely let the water go above their ankles. It was pretty cute.

We played with them, fed them, played some more and had them home after about 5 hours. They were exhausted and happy. Good day. And we did the whole thing for about $40.

Not too shabby.

[Show as slideshow]

Please remember that we cannot continue here in South America without your donations. Our work here has just begun and every little bit helps. There are hungry and sick children here that need our help.

Paul Sebring Wins Runner Up!

Photo Credit: Cody Doucette

MMRC Global would like to thank everyone for their support in voting for Big Paul during the last few months for the Eagle Rare Life Award.

With a total of 4,942 (thank you!) votes, Big Paul qualified in the top 10, with a final decision to be made by the Eagle Rare executives.

MMRC Global was recently notified that Big Paul has won runner up in the category of Heroism. As runner up, MMRC Global will receive $1,000.  All funds will go to the new MMRC deployment in South America!

Huge congratulations to Master Gunnery Sergeant Charles Padilla for winning the grand prize of $10,000!

Thanks to all who voted and for continuing to support MMRC Global. We are very excited to be traveling with our volunteers to Columbia next week.

Stay tuned!

It is with mixed feelings that we write this update that Paul Sebring and Paul Waggoner have decided to go their separate ways in continuing their humanitarian efforts throughout the world.

Paul Waggoner will return to Haiti to finish his vital work, while Paul Sebring will take Materials Management Relief Corps (MMRC Global) and relocate to an alternate disaster affected region.

MMRC Global and Paul Sebring will remain here at http://mmrcglobal.org.

Paul Waggoner will operate under MMRC Haiti and can be found at http://mmrchaiti.org.

Please note that the separation is immediate.

This is a guest post by Justin Scott; thanks so much to him for letting MMRC reprint it here. (and to Justin’s incredible sister, Nurse Jessica Scott, for all her time spent with MMRC).

Originally published at : http://guessworktheory.blogspot.com/2011/01/two-men-called-paul.html

Photograph: Dieu Nalio Chery/AP

Cholera is a disgusting disease. Those who contract it experience an overwhelming tide of diarrhea and vomiting that without treatment dehydrates them to the point of death.

My sister Jessica the heroine recently returned from Haiti, where she has been serving as a nurse for the last six months. During her stay she got a call from a man named Paul Sebring, who asked her to come help at a Cholera clinic in St-Louis-du-Nord, a city that was badly affected by the recent Cholera outbreak. She said she would if Paul could square it with her boss. Paul did. She went.

Which is what Paul does most of the time in Haiti—he gets shit done. Paul was a fashion photographer in LA when the earthquake hit Haiti a year ago this month. Moved by the scenes he saw in the news, he called up some national aide organizations to volunteer. They told him to stay home and send money. He bought a plane ticket to Haiti. There he met another Paul with the same unstoppable desire to help. Paul Sebring’s imposing 6’4″, 250lb figure quickly garnered them the names “Big Paul” and “Little Paul” and together they drive through the Haitian landscape in a bent-up blue pickup doing whatever needs to be done. They are social justice vigilantes. Cowboy EMTs.

What needed to be done then was sterilizing the tiny Cholera clinic in St-Louis-du-Nord, where people were dying daily from the disease. While she was there, Jessica felt like she was fighting a daily battle against death and losing most of the time. Big and Little Paul brought in rags, water, and bleach, and spent the week cleaning up feces and vomit. Wiping down the walls and the floors, trying to exterminate the deadly bacteria. One day Big Paul asked one of the translators to go fill up a cooler of water while Jessica was nearby. The translator looked at the cooler with disgust and said no. “There are people dying here. We are all in this together, trying to help. Please go fill this cooler.” The translator said no. Jessica lost it.

“Are you f***ing kidding me?! Paul and I are here risking our lives to save your people and you can’t fill up a damn cooler?! I’ll do it,” she shouted, grabbed the cooler, and stormed out the door. Paul caught up to her and took the cooler. “Go back inside and help your patients. I’ll do this.”

Then there was the time Jessica needed blood for one of her patients. Despite the billions of dollars given the Red Cross for Haiti relief, there is very little blood available in the country. Much of what is available is hidden from poor patients who can’t pay for it so it can be given to wealthy ones who can. This is how Jessica first met Big Paul. She was out of options and out of time finding blood for one of her patients. His family had waited two days at the General Hospital for blood and been told there was none by The Red Cross. She had called everyone she knew.

“Have you called Big Paul?” a fellow nurse asked her.

“No.” She had heard of Big Paul. “A crazy American. Been here since ten days after. No medical training. Just gets shit done.”

She called. “Paul? Hi, you don’t know me, but I’m an RN in Carrefour. I need blood. I have a patient who will die soon without it. I heard you can help me.”

Thirty minutes later Paul texted back. “Be at the General at 7. Two units.”

And so it went for months. While the American news moved on from the Haitian earthquake to the BP oil spill to the World Cup to the Chilean miners to the November election, Big Paul and Little Paul drove around Haiti, putting out fires. Until December 12th, when “Little Paul” Waggoner was jailed for kidnapping.

A father had brought his sick infant to a hospital where Little Paul was volunteering. The baby died. The hospital workers asked the father if he could take the body. The father said he had no money for a burial, and told the hospital to cremate it. Then he set his sights on Little Paul, perhaps assuming an American aide worker would have money. He claimed Paul had kidnapped the baby, that he had used voodoo to steal its spirit and sold its organs for money. For months the father tried to find a judge who would listen to him, and finally, in early December, he did. For weeks it looked like Paul would be suffering in a Haitian jail while an investigative judge took up to three months to look into the non-existent evidence in the case. But this week an American grassroots support group helped free Paul. The judge received a signed affidavit by the American doctor who had worked at the hospital saying that the baby had died and the father had been allowed to view the body. Paul is now recovering from eighteen days spent in one of the world’s worst prisons.

Jessica hopes that this story won’t spell the end for Big and Little Paul’s work in Haiti. Little Paul has said he wants to stay in Haiti, that he has no life to return to in the US, but a statement released on his and Big Paul’s website is indecisive. If Little Paul does return to the US, it will be one more loss for a nation which suffers constant tragedy. But the Pauls have hope. Little Paul’s statement shares his strong belief that Haiti can triumph over the despair it faces, and his stronger belief that America must reach out to its neighbor and enable that triumph. With politicians holding up billions in funding in Washington and giant NGOs leaving tons of supplies rotting in Haitian ports with no workable plan for distribution, it is hard at times to see the vision he sees. But I hope we do see it. I hope more muscle-bound fashion photographers turn on their television sets and feel so overwhelmed by what they see that they buy a plane ticket and don’t look back. I hope more recent nursing grads read stories on the internet and decide that spending six months living and working in a Haitian hospital, saving lives and training Haitian nurses, is what Jesus would do. I hope I find it in myself to do as they have done.