Wings of Angels

WINGS OF ANGELS 2011 PROJECTS

2011-08-20T12:14:00.000-07:00

Solar water heaters for the very poor who cannot afford propane proved critical during last winter’s 1 degree low. We use the steel inner tank from used water heaters, place it in an insulated crib, cap it with a plexi-glass lid and forever, hot water without cost, so important for our good folks. The photo shows the simple but effective unit. One unit installed, with materials: only $145. Used but suitable inner tanks are hauled from Utah by Rotarian Ralph Bair. Installation labor is provided by our WoA team.

Electricity is unavailable to thousands. Because the high desert skies are sun-drenched and clear, we are promoting individual solar electric generation. We have installed a prototype on the roof of a special friend, blind musician Esteban, who is employed by the town’s water company. Esteban is very bright and well-educated. He is able to describe to neighbors how the system works. He encourages them to save for the opportunity. If they can save $275 (the cost), we will install the system for them. In the photograph is Fred Berthrong, of Logan, Utah Rotary, a retired Navy nuclear engineer. He bought and installed the first system. If donations arrive for more electric systems, our team will install them.

EMT Training Brings Lifesaving to Sonoran Highways

Mexican highways are narrow and dangerous, but unknown to most travelers is that no emergency support is available, no first responders will appear. In November 2007, Director of the Technical University Domingo Trujillo, his wife, and three teenaged daughters were driving home from Juarez along the Mexican highway to Agua Prieta. A terrible accident happened. The three girls were badly injured, two dying in the ambulance dispatched to the scene from Agua Prieta. The ambulance was only a van painted as an ambulance without equipment and the Cruz Roja team were not trained. Wings of Angels has responded to this and similar tragedies by partnering with a Douglas fire fighter and Arizona and Utah Rotary clubs to provide first-rate EMT training and ambulances for the region.

The Top 10 Things an EMT needs to know:
1. Scene and personal safety
2. Airway management and oxygen therapy
3. Patient assessment
4. Bleeding control and shock management
5. Soft tissue injuries and burns
6. Cervical spine injury management
7. Fracture management
8. Head injury management
9. Special populations (the elderly and children)
10. Special operations (extrication, hazardous materials, incident command, triage)
-- From the EMT training program

EMT TRAINING IN ACTION
by Captain Manny Ayala, Captain
Douglas, Ariz. Fire Dept.
August 8, 2009

Last year we completed the EMT class in Agua Prieta, Sonora. Sixteen people graduated from this class; they received the same training an EMT would receive in the United States. Thanks to the City of Hyrum, Utah and the Arizona Department of Health Services, we were able to donate two ambulances to the Agua Prieta Cruz Roja volunteers. In addition, through the generosity of Wings of Angels Foundation, we purchased personal medical equipment for each one of these students, which was presented during their graduation ceremony. Quite honestly, I had my doubts about how much of an impact we would have on the EMS system in Agua Prieta. I had already trained about 40 EMT's from all over the state of Sonora, but most of them had left Cruz Roja before passing on their skills and knowledge. In addition, Cruz Roja would not recognize them as EMT's, since their system allowed only EMT'S trained in Mexico City to be certified.
On July 5th of this year, while off duty, I received a call from Mario Novoa, Douglas Fire Chief. He reported he had received information about an accident in Mexico with multiple patients. The person who called him advised him to expect about 18 critical patients coming into Douglas. Given my relationship with Cruz Roja, he asked if I could help coordinate the transport and care for these patients.
I responded to the Douglas Fire Department and started calling Cruz Roja for additional information. I was told the accident involved a head-on collision between two vehicles, with two adult fatalities on scene and approximately 11 children injured, some critically. Fortunately, we learned that only three patients would be coming to Douglas.
We dispatched units to the port of entry. After all the children were transported, my DFD coworkers told me that all of those patients were properly immobilized, had IV's in place, their wounds were properly managed, and shock prevention measures were in place. Happy to report, to the best of my knowledge, all three survived without any permanent damage. We must have taught them something right!
On Sunday, August the 2nd, while on duty, I was notified by Cruz Roja of another accident with multiple fatalities and injuries. This time it was a collision between an SUV and a semi trailer. After the collision, both vehicles went off the road, and the trailer landed on top of the SUV. I saw the pictures in the AP newspaper, and they were horrific. They advised they would be bringing two teenagers with critical head injuries to the US. Again, both of these patients (a 14-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl) were properly immobilized, had IV's in place, and even better, they had both been intubated. Both were receiving proper oxygenation. And, best of all, all the volunteers were wearing gloves and other personal protection equipment. Something else that surprised me: a female doctor was in the ambulance with the 14-year-old boy. She gave me a very professional and complete report on the patient's status and treatments he had received. I do not know if these patients survived. One newspaper said the girl died, another said the boy died, and a third newspaper said they both died.
I had an opportunity to talk to the Cruz Roja volunteers after the fact, and they told me that since they started implementing advanced trauma procedures, the doctors are more respectful of their work, and are more willing to help them. For the longest time, ambulance volunteers were seen by Mexican doctors as nothing more than patient loaders and transporters. Conflicts between the two sides were frequent, and if any Cruz Roja volunteers attempted any advanced procedures, they were promptly threatened with legal action for "practicing medicine without a license." I know; I lived through that era. Now doctors are accompanying patients during transport, riding in the ambulance, stopping to render aid at the scene of the accidents, and helping train the volunteers.
Later that same day, we were called again to the port of entry. A teenager from Douglas was involved in a rollover in Agua Prieta, and he had critical head injuries. Again, the patient was properly immobilized, treated, intubated, and a different doctor was in the ambulance with him. Unfortunately, his injuries were so severe that they were non survivable, and he died shortly after being transported.
As you can see, the training program that you helped put together has not only saved lives. It has helped change old attitudes towards the ambulance volunteers. It has motivated more people to do more things for those who suffer injuries. These changes were long overdue, and although they are happening very slowly, THEY ARE HAPPENING. The ones who will benefit are the patients who find themselves in need of these services.

EMT Advanced Training/Cardiac Intervention, June 11, 2011
61 EMT’s and bomberos representing Cananea, Esqueda, Huachinera and Agua Prieta attended Captain Manny Ayala’s presentation

Continuing progress for emergency care

In cooperation with the Douglas Fire Department and Arizona and Utah Rotary Clubs, we are forming Mexico’s first Urgent Care Center to serve the little villages and towns within the remote Sierra Madre, all which have access to the town of Huachinera (founded in 1650) at the epicenter of the region. We have the support of the town mayor, a doctor has signed on and Logan Utah Rotarians have donated an ambulance. Several of the recently trained EMT’s will sign up to serve there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sonoran Crisis Intervention Clinic

Now in its thirteenth year, continues to provide monthly services for those not cared for by any other agency or group. We are popular throughout the region and receive patients from as far away as seven hours because others have assured them that Wings of Angels will help them. They arrive in great anticipation and we give them support and comfort. Our Medical Director is an experienced nurse practitioner with previous service in Yemen and the Navajo Reservation. She has seen everything, and fits right in.

We are able to provide so many things missing from the culture of the poorest in Mexico because we have a competent, skilled core which has been together for more than ten years. We are able to do this on an annual budget of $35,000. As you know all the US participants are volunteers. Our donors are thrilled to participate. If you are able to support us in any way, not a cent is ever wasted.

Angels Foundation
EIN: 860989829
1552 12th Street,
Douglas, AZ 85607
364-5176
602-326-0057- c

WOA Foundation

2010-08-10T08:55:00.010-07:00

Our belief is to Rescue, Stabilize and Transform the poor and more-than-poor of northern Sonora who are not being served by any agency or group. We are located in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, a very poor border town of 200,000 across from Douglas, Arizona. Since 2000, the Wings of Angels Crisis Intervention Clinic in Agua Prieta has held 115 consecutive monthly clinics (10,000 patient visits) staffed by volunteers, medical doctors and nurses who provide medical and dental treatment, administer care and deliver medications, arrange surgeries, provide glasses, prosthetics and orthotics, provide family counseling and mentoring, formulated milk, diapers, physical therapy and equipment, wheelchairs, blankets, fresh produce from the Wings teaching garden, support for education, and winterized shelters. To understand the lifestyle of the poor and more-than-poor it is helpful to read the somewhat shocking descriptions below.

The Poor: A poor border family consists of a reasonably whole unit with mother, father, a grandparent, and several children. Good family values are generally in place. The father has a job and makes $50-$70 a week. The family has water, an outside toilet, perhaps electricity or several lights and a television,sometimes powered by a car battery. The diet is principally flour tortillas, beans and rice with intermittent additional food sources. (With this diet, the incidence of Type II diabetes is high). The family does not own a car. The children go to school until the cost of books and uniforms prevents their attendance. The adult members of the family have been educated, generally through junior high, while living in the Mexican interior. The number of poor in Agua Prieta is estimated to be 42,000.*

The More-Than-Poor: In the second category, the more-than-poor, the family unit is haphazard, and can include death, orphans, and serious physical or mental limitation. The living environment does not protect from desert heat or freezing winter temperatures. The food supply is intermittent. No one in the family is employed. Family members may engage in crime, drugs and delinquencies. There is no support for school attendance or achievement. There is no electricity or propane to preserve or cook foods. There is no knowledge or awareness of helpful resources in the community. There is no medical support. There is no nutritional support for mental and physical ability to work. The number of more-than-poor is estimated to be 42,000.*

*These figures and category descriptions are cited by Juan Dominquez, Executive Director, DIF (all PAN government social programs), Agua Prieta, 2003-2006

Hector Bravo begins his new, normal life at the Wings of Angels Sonoran Crisis Intervention Clinic. He has been with us beginning as a one year old.

2010-08-03T17:03:00.000-07:00

Rescue, Stabilize and Transform

2010-07-29T12:13:00.004-07:00

I am a volunteer with Wings of Angels Foundation and I attended a clinic they held in 2005. That day a boy came to the clinic without arms. His father brought him from Vera Cruz because someone told him Wings of Angels would help him. I leapt to my feet and called out "….this one is mine".
Martin was playing on a roof carrying a long metal post. Suddenly the electrocution happened, searing his arms and exiting through a leg at the knee. Neighbors rushed to help but it was fifteen minutes before the power was disconnected. As the host of many dramas to come, Martin somehow lived through this event. He was rushed to Vera Cruz were surgeon Dr. Maximilliano Chimalpopoca did procedures to save his life and what was left of his functioning body. How was it that this child could endure the devastating pain?
Xrays provided information about where arteries were sound in each arm and it was at that point the burned limbs were removed. The doctor thoughtfully provided a Power Point presentation for subsequent medical personnel to have full knowledge of the case.
The child survived and returned home. Another life blow hit as the mother abandoned any interest in the child and left the home. The father, Martin Choncoa, was to rise as the indefatigable hero. Calling for help from his friends Rafael and Claudia, far away in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Martin and his father made the 36-hour bus trip. They were received warmly. Claudia soon began schooling Martin in daily classes although Martin could not hold a pencil or write. The senior Martin, fighting daily tears, searched for help and found it from the town's young physical therapist Fernando Vasquez. In his call to us, Fernando said "this is the last patient you will receive tonight and he is the most important patient you will ever treat. Please do not leave without seeing him. We will be there shortly."

Collecting our wits, we formed a plan. The first support would come from Sander Nassan, founder and benefactor of Prosthetics, Orthotics, Associates (POA) of Scottsdale, Arizona. Martin's trip to Phoenix would be an all-in-one, preparing and fitting a mechanical arm. Octavio Torres, teen son of the Wings of Angels Sonoran Crisis Intervention Clinic Director asked to travel with Martin and introduce him to what life is like in the US for a kid. They had carte blanche at the hotel which provided a free room, a credit card for video games Martin played with his feet, and at night all-you-can-eat at Red Lobster or Chili's or Olive Garden.
Next, it was necessary to treat the damage done by the exiting current. His leg was locked at 45 degrees. Monte Hessler, chiropractor and trainer for the San Francisco Giants, took a look at the leg and recruited plastic surgeon Dr. Ian Parker and the Specialty Surgical Center to repair the problem, all donated services. A nurse confided to us that during recovery Martin called out again and again for his mother.
Monte took his friendship for Martin a step farther and asked third baseman Pedro Feliz to welcome Martin and Octavio to the Giant's bench on game night. Carlos Chavez of the Arizona Republic filmed that event and the surgery. By this time Martin was attaining fame in Phoenix as newspapers acclaimed this kid's spirit and the generosity of local surgeons, the surgical hospital and the skilled prosthesis expert who built Martin's mechanical arm.
Time went by. Martin entered school and had no difficult participating. He won student of the year and a little scholarship. Now that the leg was normal, he could run and play soccer.
Martin senior became a reliable worker within the Agua Prieta municipal workforce and established such a relationship that he and his son received a tiny (140sf) full-service home as a part of the municipal plan to place especially deserving residents in suitable homes. Wings of Angels added 400sf more.
Then the world collapsed. Martin entered a deep depression as his teen boy hormones raced and he said "no woman will ever love me because I do not have arms…" This went on and on and we were very concerned yet quite helpless. We established the Saturday Art Class for disabled children and adults, in part to prepare Martin for a possible future in architecture or engineering. His first art (enhanced by the artist and class instructor Abel Verdin) was sold after many escalating offers to purchase were considered. One Saturday morning turning the corner to the art class, I spied Martin necking with a girl outside. I cheered, the black days were over!

Fast forward: Martin joined the Youth group at a local Catholic parish and sings in the choir. He earned a scholarship for high school, and announced to El Imparcial, the local newspaper, that he was planning a career in architecture. Scholarships for this endeavor (three years out) will surely flood in for this magnificent child who has brought us years of nearly inexpressible joy.

The Hermosillo Mother’s Club

2010-07-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

The ladies from Hermosillo began arriving with their disabled children at our monthly clinic in August, 2009. It is a five-hour trip. They asked for our help because friends told them we would give their children the best care. Manuelito was not able to hold up his head on his first visit and Jesus Angel was a limp little boy cradled in his mother's arms.
Our founder and physical therapist, Marge Conroy, designed special therapies for each child. And, she was able to send them home with extraordinary pieces of therapy equipment provided by Denver medical vendors and hauled four times a year to us by Ron Becker, our engineer and board member. With the new training and equipment, the mother’s were able to form their own group in Hermosillo. They baby sit for one another and have learned the therapy regimen for each child.
The Hermosillo Mother’s are sophisticated and can take advantage of materials available in a more cosmopolitan environment. This program is a fine example of propagation wherein the initial training of the tasks to be accomplished are taught, followed by spontaneous, creative expansion.

The Angel Treasure

2010-07-27T13:58:00.002-07:00

Angel and Martin at Art Class

It is difficult to remember that this eight- year-old was born with one arm and no legs! He is oblivious to hardship. His handsome, dimpled, smiling face is irresistible. He endures our frequent cheek kisses with patience.
He lives with his mom Alicia, two sisters Nora and Edith, two brothers Florentino and Jesus, and his grandmother Alexandra, (72) and great-grandmother Maria (90). They recently lost their house due to an unwise decision made by the father to borrow $7000 against the property. The creative grandmother, realizing the equity remaining in the property transaction, asked for and received a partially built two-room home located on the outskirts of Agua Prieta, an undeveloped area without water or electric services for everyone. There are two rooms, a bathroom, and a very large yard. Before the project start, we secured a firm title in the name of the grandmother and Angel.
Every year since 2005, the Rotaract (college) and Interact (high school) Rotary Clubs of Logan, Utah, raise money to build a home for a deserving yet desperate family here in Aqua Prieta. Their drive is nineteen hours, their work is scheduled for three days, and their return home begins at mid-point on day four. The crew is directed by Wings of Angels Mexican constructor Marcelino Enriquez. Work began in April, 2010. A large main room was constructed including electric wiring and plumbing for the future services which are expected. Alicia is an avid gardener and half of the site was tilled and prepped. Gutters (prepared in Logan) run around the roof collecting rain water in tanks for irrigation and use in the toilet.
In early summer the family moved into their new home. Alicia noticed the cool interior temperature. (We include insulation and dry wall under the tin roof in the houses we prepare which is not a standard practice in Mexico). Alicia has chilies, chard, and squash growing. A special low window in the new room enables Angel to see everything happening outside from his wheelchair. And Angel has a table garden for his personal use. A new concrete path allows his easy access.
As you may remember, we created a Saturday Art Class for Martin, Esther who suffered a stroke at 13, and others including adults with disabilities. Martin is learning design and drafting techniques to pursue a career either in engineering or architecture. Angel is especially good at mathematics and may follow Martin in a similar career. Martin and Angel have become very good friends and we expect Martin to guide Angel through the more difficult days to come as a teenager. It is breathtaking to remember that between the two of them they share one arm and two legs, precious and invincible, and a great example for those with a tendency to whine and not enjoy life at any age.
____________________________

The collage shows the original house (top and bottom center), preparing the garden soil and cesspool, Angel painting his bedroom, the “school room” he and his friends America and Melissa built for themselves (middle left). Melissa teaches the other two eight-year-olds English. Inside the new great room Jeff Larsen of Logan, Utah Rotary, leads the build-out crew of college Rotarians. Lower right we see Angel and his sister Edith at the Wings of Angels Saturday Art Class.

We Can Fix Almost Anything...!

2009-07-11T07:08:00.001-07:00

Two women have been touched by an angel—or rather, by Wings of Angels—in the tiny rural community of Fronteras, about 30 miles south of the Arizona border. The help they received already has begun to lift them out of the poverty and limited opportunities they have faced for years. One woman was gifted a new hearing aid and the other, crippled by arthritis, received a motorized wheel chair.

The hearing aid for Myrta Teresa Rico Armenta, age 38, has enabled her to move from a factory assembly line to a new office job more compatible with her education and skills. Myrta has suffered progressive hearing loss since age 8, when she was hit by a car and dragged down the street by the vehicle, lacerating her left ear and the side of her face. At age 12, her hearing deteriorated further when she contracted meningitis.

Because Myrta wasn't born with a hearing impairment, she didn't have a speech impediment. Since she could read lips, too, few suspected her disability, which she worked mightily to hide because of rampant job discrimination in Mexico. Myrta worked for years as a secretary in an Agua Prieta office, struggling to save the $1,800 doctors said she needed for a hearing aid. Myrta's hearing worsened during her employment, however. It was eventually discovered by her supervisor, who then harassed Myrta into quitting her job. When her husband lost his job shortly afterward, the two were forced to jump the border, working illegally in Willcox, Arizona, harvesting tomatoes.

But even this seasonal work evaporated when Myrta's passport and visa were stolen during the couple's return visit to Mexico. Without these documents, Myrta couldn't go back to her job in Willcox. Myrta's husband wouldn't leave without her. He works odd jobs in Agua Prieta when he can find them, hoping something permanent will come along soon.

With no job, no income, and her hearing steadily worsening, Myrta's future would have been bleak if her mother hadn't fortuitously been the president of a women's cooperative in Fronteras which was formed to create jobs in their impoverished community. The group gave Myrta a job in the town's only factory, dismantling obsolete computers and other electronics for recycling and resale (see Myrta at http://tv.azpm.org/kuat/segments/2009/7/7/kuat).

Now that she has a new hearing aid, Myrta also has a new job. She has moved across the street from the factory to the office of the local cattlemen's association, where she does secretarial tasks and runs the town's internet café. Myrta can't stop saying "thank you" for the opportunities that have opened up now that she can hear.
Compared to Myrta, opportunities for Maria del Refugio Zamora Sánchez (called "Cuquis" by her friends) were even more limited. The 59-year-old has been crippled for years with arthritis, worsening to the point where she became wheelchair-bound. Even with her twisted hands and her inability to stand, Cuquis made tamales and tortillas for sale in the local mom-and-pop stores. She also sold phone cards and Avon products to the neighbors.

Cuquis' husband Antonino grew alfalfa in his small farm plot. He delivered his wife's tamales and tortillas to customers when he wasn't in the field. He also wheeled Cuquis around Fronteras from door to door so she could collect money from her Avon customers each month. Soon, however, Cuquis began needing regular trips to medical clinics in Agua Prieta to deal with her progressing arthritis. Antonino had to sell his field so he could buy a minivan for the one-hour trip up the highway with Cuquis and her wheelchair.

When Cuquis learned about the Wings of Angels clinic last month, she was praying for a motorized wheelchair so her husband wouldn't have to push her through the streets of Fronteras. If she could get around on her own, she reasoned, Antonino would be freed up to find work. This was especially critical now that he had no field to generate the income needed to pay gasoline and maintenance bills for the minivan.
The $2,000 wheelchair Cuquis needed was beyond her economic reach. The one available at Wings of Angels was perfect for her, but it had no batteries. If Cuquis could come up with the $200 for the golf-cart-type batteries, she was told, the chair was hers. Cuquis didn't have the money but was undeterred. Within two days, she had so moved her congressman that he paid for the batteries out of his own pocket, on the condition that she pick them up in Douglas, Arizona, where they were purchased.
Cuquis and Antonino went in their minivan and got the batteries, then showed them to the folks at the clinic. They were promptly installed in the wheelchair which the couple gratefully took back to Fronteras. The neighbors say Cuquis is rarely home now. She is always tooling around town, plying her tortillas and tamales, collecting on her Avon sales, and going to church every morning. Antonino has found odd jobs in the local cornfields and on nearby ranches. Now that Cuquis can move around independently, she can't stop smiling. But Cuquis will tell you she doesn't ride a wheelchair. She's carried everywhere, she says, on Wings of Angels.

The Winter Was Cruel

2009-04-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

Winter 2008-2009 was cruel but not unusual. We weren’t able to keep up with it, too many drafty shacks, too many propane tanks to buy,and too many more to fill. We didn't call the coroner this time to ask how many died from exposure. We couldn't stand to hear that news.

But get this tale....Ron Becker is an uncanny inventor and when he is not gathering wheelchairs and pt equipment for WofA in Denver, he is putzing around in his garage, making things from other things. (Once for a town parade, Ron made a mobile coffin from two wheel chairs and a joy stick. He lay prone in the coffin, his toes just sticking up,drove the parade route, and won the prize). Last year, Ron made his first solar water heater. With the help of our equally creative constructor, Marcelino, they put the collector on the roof of Uvaldo's, whom you know. (At Christmas 2008, Utah Rotarians,the Cannell family, built Uvaldo's new room. It was freezing outside, so cold the bond beam pour had ice crystals and couldn't cure. The family's water supply in winter is ice water andunbearable.

It was a terrific thrill last month, standing by the faucet in the new room,waiting for the warm water to flow, and it does. And it's free! No propane tank to buy. No propane heater to buy. No tanks to fill.

Last week Ron and Marcelino built prototype No. 2. Materials were $175, a one time cost! This collector goes to the roof of the RotarySpring Project recipient Maria Alarcon and her family.
101_1127.jpg

Another Spring Break in Agua Prieta

2009-03-30T06:28:00.000-07:00

Editor: Nora Zambreno

A group of Logan Rotarians and USU Rotaract Club members completed a service marathon from Logan to Agua Prieta, Mexico, and then home again in just three days. Fred Berthrong called it "an extreme makeover of a hovel" while Dottee Watkins exclaimed it was a "valiant" effort. Read on for both Fred and Dottee's synopses of the visit.

Fred: Add one Jeff (Larsen) and a Ralph (Bair) plus seven Rotaractors (five chicas and two chicos), and what do you get? You get an extreme makeover of a hovel into a livable home with an inside bathroom and shower, toilet, sink, plus a new room for a kitchen, a thorough cleanup job, a closet for all the clothes that were in piles on the floor, a newly painted bedroom and bunk beds for two lovely daughters (ages 8 and 6), plus another bed for someone else. The parents have a new bed to replace the sway-backed mattress on the floor. The beds were made possible by a generous donation from Brian Smith.

The real impact was made in building a eight-foot-high brick wall around the front yard with a security gate to both protect the children and to keep them contained. It was a mess and now it is a livable front yard complete with a brick patio and garden space. It was amazing what we accomplished in three days. We were also able to finish the plumbing in the bathroom of the house that the Interact Club built last year, and it is only two houses away from the one we tackled this year. So there you have it.

Dottee: The team of ten from Utah confronted a terrible task in transforming this awful place into something livable in three days! The group was absolutely valiant in their non-complaining, vigorous, focused enthusiasm although sunburned, muscles cramping, hands cracked, and painful.

Fred installed pipes and fixtures for Clothilde's bathroom, which had not been finished since we were there a year ago.

Then Fred piped and installed fixtures in Maria's home. The crew re-roofed the shack, built a stunning ladrillo security wall around the property to enhance the space for the little girl artists and their autistic brother, which will contain him. There is a sunny space with a brick floor on the patio where everyone can assemble to eat and to study. The donated beds were set up as the last act.Congratulations, Rotaractors and Rotarians! We are grateful, and we are proud of you. More information will follow about Logan Rotary's collaborative efforts and accomplishments in Agua Prieta in future editions of the Rotator. Stay tuned!

NOTE: Dottee Watkins is a Rotarian and our contact with the Wings of Angels Foundation Crisis Intervention Center in Agua Prieta, Sonora, which shares the border with Douglas, Arizona.

YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD A STORY LIKE THIS….

2009-02-09T01:24:00.001-07:00

You may remember our friend Maria who had a terrible problem with alcohol. But for the last 18 months she has been “dry” and very happy. Several years ago we built a nice house for Maria and her husband Marcel. It includes two rooms built of ladrillo (fired adobe) which is a great insulator. Also, we built a tiny little chiminea which keeps the house warm in winter. You will remember that Marcel lost his legs when he was 18. For ten years we have known Marcel and Maria as they “worked” the line which leads to the Port of Entry back to the US. The line has many “workers” and they are all our friends. We have helped all of them over the years with things like legs, medicines, free dentistry, and emotional support.

Maria died this week, a painful, awful death from cirrohsis of the liver. The funeral was yesterday. It began at the funeral home, then a procession followed the limousine to the border where Maria spent so much time in her wheel chair hoping for a little money, and finally to the cemetery. All the “workers” (more than 25) were there to send her off in style.

Introducing Our Gardener, Bernardino Enriquez

2009-02-09T01:21:00.001-07:00

Sun, soil, and water! We provide the seeds and the talent,Bernardino Enriquez. Educated in the gardens of his mother andgrandmother in the Mexican interior, Bernadino farms a huge Wings ofAngels vegetable garden in the heart of the Ladrillero barrio. Atevery seasonal harvest he distribute's to the very poor and to thevery old.
Bernardino is a teacher. From him, little Hector Bravo learns howto farm his little raised table outside his family's kitchen door.With this educqtion, Hector will always be able to feed his family.
Seed donations come from celebrated seed growers who support our work, Renee Shepherd Seeds and Seeds of Change. Teaching the poor to growtheir own food is fundamental to a basic quality of life.

MASH

2008-12-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

MASH -- Mexico: An Appropriate Team Comes Together To Do What Must Be Done Every Month at the Crisis Intervention Clinic, Agua Prieta, Sonora, MX.

-by Dorothea Watkins, President and CEO, Wings of Angels Foundation

Hermosillo, the capital of the Mexican State of Sonora, is four hours away south of our Crisis Intervention Clinic, and yet five cars arrived for our November 7 clinic carrying families and disabled children. Five days before our clinic, Ron Becker arrived from the north, eight hours away, with a load of children’s fitted wheelchairs donated by Denver medical vendors. Our founder, Marge Conroy, skilled physical therapist, was able to fit each child with a perfect chair including suitable neck braces, harnesses, foot rests, etc. This is a very nice story, bringing together the materials from the US and providing special care to children and families for whom there is no one else to turn. It is sensible and efficient. But, yes, you are right to wonder why a large city, a State’s capital, does not have the capacity to provide care and treatment for fundamental life crises such as these?

As our monthly Clinic services grow, more medical volunteers join us. We are now able to give individual, very personal, attention to Type II diabetics to strive for their release from the disease. This is vital because each month we are asked for one or more prostheses for yet another amputation caused by the disease. (Douglas, the US sister city of Agua Prieta, has the highest number of diabetics per 1,000 in the United States. We suspect the Agua Prieta numbers are even higher).

Birth trauma children represent 50% of our clinic patients. Most are convulsive. We are able to treat and stabilize these children soon after we are brought together. Recently we have asked the Logan, Utah/Tucson, Arizona/ Agua Prieta, Sonora Rotarians to provide an International Grant to support our monthly prescription needs. Currently, two hydrocephalic children are awaiting shunt placement. Although one child is three and the other is five, neither have previously received this critical support.

Our friend Ovaldo is a guard at a maquiladora in Agua Prieta. Four weeks ago a robber struck Ovaldo in the back of the head rendering him unconscious. The thief then broke Ovaldo’s arms (four places) and stabbed him several times in the upper body. Ovaldo was transported to a company hospital three hours away in Nogales, Sonora. When he returned to his home, we suspected that the arms were improperly set which we were able to confirm after xraying the breaks. A second company doctor was asked to reset the arms. Subsequent xrays confirmed more improper casting. At this clinic, Ron Becker (former Navy Corpsman) and a young student training to be an orthopedic surgeon, reset the arms, and confirmed by xray that the four breaks were now in proper position.

Many other medical transactions were a part of this long, great day. Our medical volunteers include a neurologist, two doctors finishing their residencies, two nurse practitioners, and five nursing students. The clinic is managed by Nohemi Noriega Torres, Wings of Angels Board Member and Vice President. The database is maintained each month by former Judge Jane Bayham of Phoenix. Mentor Director Claudia Ornelas provides translating services.

A Worthy Sunday

2008-12-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

Juan Carlos Salmon is nine and has been our patient since his first
year. Ron Becker found this highly fitted stander/walker in Colorado.
Yesterday, our donor and physical therapy specialist from Phoenix
came on her first trip, and put the two together. Juan Carlos has
strong shoulders and head support because of his mother's diligence.
He needs to build his legs which at the moment are twisted and
non-responsive. As you can see, that all will change. Juan Carlos is
bright and immediately understood the new adventure.

Juan Manuel Hernandez is 31 and severely crippled. Most of his body
doesn't respond. However, he designed a bike/wheelchair for himself
which he propels with his right hand on the bike gear, now above the
handle bars. He wants to have a background in computer training to
get a job. We see him in the line and he has become one of our
favorite friends.

And Now, The Next Triumph, Saving Lives Along The Northern Mexican Highways

2008-10-14T08:55:00.000-07:00

-- by Rotarian Dorothea Watkins, President and CEO, Wings of Angels Foundation

The Logan, Utah Rotarians know the critical problems of Mexico because their Rotaract, Interact and Rotary Clubs make every effort (including a nineteen-hour drive) to help remedy what they know to be a country in extremis. For all of this decade, Utah Rotary teams have arrived in Agua Prieta, Sonora, to bring the poorest out of their tragedy be it a burned-out house, a shelter for the family of a hard working crippled dad, a safe and decent home for a man without legs, or materials to support the Wings of Angels Foundation’s monthly Crisis Intervention Clinic which gives medical treatment to the Mexican more-than-poor. The remarkable skill of the college and high school girl Rotarians who can put up a home over a long weekend, who are able to mix mortar and lay straight lines of adobe brick, assemble and nail down tin roofs, efficiently and joyfully accomplished, is exemplary.

Wings of Angels brought a new opportunity to Logan’s dynamic Rotarians, found a way to save lives along the vicious northern Mexican highway, one lane, dangerously narrow and claiming victims every day. The ultimate highway horror of three teen girls dying in November, 2007, because they did not have EMT service, was the final straw!

Time to examine the problem and render the solution! Cruz Roja, the Mexican city ambulance service in Agua Prieta, had three vans (300,000 miles on each) and no medically trained staff. Douglas, Arizona Fire Captain Manny Ayala, just a few blocks away in the US, proposed 42 night classes beginning April, 2008 in Agua Prieta, for Cruz Roja teams, and promised, upon completion, certification as EMT skilled medicos.

During these months of preparation, the impossible dream came true! The town of Hyrum, Utah, agreed to donate a used but pristine condition fully-equipped ambulance to the Agua Prieta, Cruz Roja. Rotarians David Simmons and Jeff Larsen volunteered to drive the vehicle to Douglas.

Graduation was accomplished September 12, 2008 as sixteen finely-skilled EMT candidates were confirmed. The evening was triumphant. The grads could barely contain themselves, standing and cheering each time Manny Ayala’s name was mentioned during the ceremony. Tami Pyfer, Rotarian and City Councilwoman of Logan attended. She brought the Logan Fire Chief and a fireman to the celebration (The following day the two toured the bombero stations in Agua Prieta and made lasting friends with that group whose needs are great). The ambulance was presented. So many valuable materials were offered in the ambulance that there is enough to furnish materials for a second ambulance when that becomes a possibility.

One wag offered “Can you imagine creating a solution like this IN MEXICO in only ten months, less than a year? Amazing!”

Stories from the Mexican border

2008-09-03T00:31:00.000-07:00

The Wings of Angels Foundation work hard to ease the life on the Mexican border. Here are some of the stories we are thrilled to share with our donors, proving that our hard work pays off!

The Mexican Border No One Knows!!!

…9 Tales from the Wings of Angels—a dramatically creative foundation of U.S. volunteers, working hands on, in Mexico to meet critical needs of the Mexican border poor!

1. Legs for Leverage

Can cheap Amazon.com books plus the promise of a “free leg” entice Type II diabetes patients to kick their disease? Staff members at Wings of Angels free clinic in Agua Prieta hope so. The incidence of Type II diabetes in the combined populations (200,000) of the northern Sonora town of Agua Prieta and its U.S. neighbor, Douglas, Arizona, is 40%. This tells us that whatever intervention methods are currently in place are not working. Our border clinic now has five candidates in trial programs that uses copies of The South Beach Diet (available in Spanish for $1.50 on line) to explain why one must eat certain foods and give up others.
Not one of our diabetes patients has had a chemistry class, but it’s hard to resist this offer: “If you read this book, understand the diet, stay on the diet, check your blood sugar weekly at our clinic, and get over your disease, WE WILL GIVE YOU A FREE LEG. Actually, it is even better than that, you will not lose the other leg and you will retain your eyesight.” Without some understanding of the chemical changes and consequences that come with diabetes, patients can’t see the relationship between what they eat and why they are sick. Hopefully, our trial will provide the education—and create the sweet blackmail—needed to encourage our Type II diabetes patients make the changes that could mean keeping a leg or not go blind. We think we are on to something here!

2. Chilaquiles, Marciel and Maria vs. Drugs and Alcohol

Chilaquiles, Marciel and Maria, all citizens of Agua Prieta, are fighting addiction to drugs and alcohol because the payoff is feeling good - and Wings of Angels has shown them someone gives a damn. “Chilaquiles” (as he calls himself) is friendly, about 40 years old, and has been on drugs for all his adult life. He speaks English with us as he washes car windows in the long line returning to the U.S. We talk about his bad teeth and our free dental clinic just four blocks from the line. Two weeks ago he appeared, announced he was drug free for 24 days, and would like to have his teeth repaired as one of the things he must do to achieve his goal of good health and a clean body.
Maria has severe liver damage from her years as an alcoholic. Her husband Marciel does not have legs, the result of an accident when he was 18. The couple, both about 50, also work the line each day in their wheelchairs. We built a solid fired-adobe house for them in 2005, and they continue to smile and thank us for their new life. They tell us when something is wrong, and what we might do to help. Actually, they tell us what is right also; They are warm in the winter and safe for the first time in their lives. They recently were able to install a reservoir roof tank and now have a source of water. When we threatened Marciel with the worst kind of horrors to keep him from selling their house in some fit of madness, he understood. When Maria has some liver or related distress, on our next trip, we drop meds in her lap as we wait in line. Last month, Maria announced that because of Wings of Angels, she has been clean and sober for one year! We didn’t expect this but are deeply touched. They know that we love them.

3. Wings of Angels Free Dental Clinic

There are 40,000 more-than-poor living in and around Agua Prieta. Government services are limited, so care for everything one would hope for—for them—is not available. The most critical need for these poor families is someone with enough health knowledge and equipment to provide for basics like dental care.
Dental care is critical to prevent loss of teeth, ensure proper nutrition, and maintain body health at every age. A person’s oral health can be a direct influence not only on their physical health, but on emotional health as well. When people can eat their food effectively they feel physically healthy. When they have a higher self-image because their smile is attractive, they have a greater chance of bettering their position in life.
Wings of Angels operates a fully-equipped free dental clinic thanks to the generous support of Dr. George Sayre, DDS, of Houston. Dr. Sayre, famous in his own right, was recently honored as Houston Citizen of the Year. Along with maintaining his full time Houston private practice, Dr. Sayre serves as the volunteer Director of the Houston Homeless Healthcare dental clinic. He provides the Wings of Angels clinic with state-of-the-art equipment and materials through his affiliation with the national Dental Advisory Network. This support enables our young Mexican dentist, Dr. Eric Moreno, to utilize more advanced remedies and resources generally not available to Mexican dentists.
The Agua Prieta free dental clinic is up and running. We would love to extend an open invitation to all licensed dentists in the U.S.—especially those in Arizona and its surrounding states—to utilize this dental clinic whenever they find the time to volunteer their services. Can you help bring a smile across the border?

4. No Place for Disabled Children

We see most of the disabled kids in northern Sonora at some time in their lives at our monthly clinics. Soon Wings of Angels will open one of the first and only “day care centers” for disabled poor children in Mexico. Mothers of the disabled children are scheduled to volunteer two days of the week, leaving three days to rest and work. There are patients like Erika Corral Lopez, who survived meningitis and is physically reconditioned, but lacks stimulation and awareness. Children like Erika will receive the more precise care needed to meet intense therapy requirements. Many children need this center because their parent-caregivers lack the education and therapy skills to improve what might otherwise be improved in their conditions. Equally common themes include exhausted mothers or very poor family units in which both parents cannot work because one must always care for a child with special needs. We need help from those professionals skilled in assessment and communication skills as well as some of the splendid array of toys and gadgets already created for this purpose in the US.

5. A Road Too Narrow

What if you called 911 but no one came? Wings of Angels is working to provide trauma care for northern Sonoran highway crash victims. On September 12, 2008, Cruz Roja in Agua Prieta will graduate 16 EMT/Paramedic students. This is a first! These students have been training with Douglas Fire Captain Manny Ayala for five months. They make up the first fully-trained and supplied response team in northern Sonora. As their prize for outstanding work, these volunteers will receive a completely outfitted Silverado 3500 ambulance courtesy of the Hyrum, Utah City Council. They will know how to use all the equipment and supplies. Imagine their joy when the first life is saved!

6. Mexican Sign Language (MSL) Classes Resume in September

Dr. Don Cabbage, World Society for the Deaf, returns to Agua Prieta from October 6 through 10 to train fifty children, parents, their extended families, and teachers from throughout northern Sonora in the sign language of the deaf used in Mexico. This is Wings of Angels sixth MSL Intensive, and we can’t wait. Little children with near-complete or complete hearing losses most often act out in disturbing ways. Imagine the frustration of not being able to communicate with those who love you, even with your own parents? Thanks go to a very special supporter for making this class possible. The September MSL Intensive has been endowed ($3,000) by Gil Gillenwater, a twenty-year veteran of outstanding works of compassion in northern Sonora.

7. Wings of Angels’ Call-to-Action Motto “Rescue, Stabilize and Transform”

A pregnant mother, her 1 ½ year old boy, a 3 year old girl, a 6 year old girl, an 8year old girl, and an 11 year old brother all live in a shack without windows or doors. It is an all too familiar picture. There is no electricity, water or sewer. Everyone sleeps on the floor.
Thanks to Wings of Angels this family was rescued. Our board member Chris Pignotti, US Digital Media, offered a year’s rent for an apartment with utilities in a decent (less dangerous) neighborhood. We have donated a propane stove, and a refrigerator. The three little girls now attend La Divina Providencia and return to their new apartment only on the weekends (this at the request of the 6 year old). The children are entered in school. In addition, the mother has agreed to sterilization at the birth next month. This family is now stabilized. Transforming heart-wrenching situations like this takes time, patience and a venerable mentor—but it can be done. The call-to-action motto is changing lives, one family at a time.

8. College Rotarians Show Off Their Skills

The Reyna family of five lived in one room after a fire destroyed their two-bedroom home. Dad saved the money from his job in a Mexican auto parts store and built a stem wall, hoping he could eventually build back his home. The Utah College Rotarians (mostly girls and experienced builders in their third appearance here) came to lend their hands. They built a huge new room and screen porch. They noticed mom Clothilde’s little garden, and created a big new patch with great soil.
Today the Reyna family is living without chaos. Dahna Reyna is eight years old and suffered severe birth trauma. She is one of our kids (and will attend the day care center). The older kids (young teens) are attending our Saturday art classes for talented kids, and everyone is doing well. This is an exceptional family with more education and able to take advantage of this great new gift.

Sunday Daniella moves in

2008-07-14T08:23:00.000-07:00

It has been a very good week, soothing and happy, with wonderful little events bringing zest and excitement to us and to the little lives with whom we have recently teamed.

Funding in place, Juan Dominguez found an apartment on Wednesday for Daniella, Relely and their family with electricity and a bathroom. In the following days, their mom cleaned the apartment and they moved in their few possessions. The girls are really excited about having both lights at night, a bath and a toilet. On Friday, when the mother visited our clinic to express her thanks, our Mexican director, Noemi Noriega was grateful to see the mother clean and happy, already looking years younger. Today, Sunday, the family was given a nice bedroom set including a large dresser and a double bed. The six of them will be sleeping in the same bed tonight.

Juan Dominguez with the bedroom set for Daniella, Relely and their family

In the recent week we have also been doing “rounds” to check up on our Agua Prieta friends. Tiny little Plinia of Chiapas has been a friend of Board Member Chris Pignotti’s ever since their first meeting four years ago in one of the newest barrios growing south of the city. Plinia was missing her front teeth and seemed to be the age of 13. She was with three little children and seeing them together, Chris reached out to what he realized was their plight, insufficient food. He gave Plinia $200. She flushed with joy and in her sweet way said in English, “God Bless You”. Fast forward, Plinia fooled us all. She was really 23 and these were her children, but there is more to tell. Rather than spend the money on food, Plinia bought concrete and gathered rocks and sand from the deep arroyo near their terrible little shack and built a substantial footing for a real room. Of course we were flabbergasted, and Chris said “Plinia, take another $200 and if you would like, we will help you buy ladrillo (adobe brick), and we can bring used windows and doors and we can all work together to help you build this fine room, safe for your family.” It all happened with the help of Colorado volunteer Ron Becker and our Mexican constructor Marcelino Enriquez. We stopped by Plinia’s today to drop off a size 5 party dress someone had given us. Our surprise was the dropped dry wall ceiling started in the great room (winter insulation), a sturdy front door, and iron grills on the windows. And, I should mention, Plinia has some fine front teeth that our free dental clinic provided some six months ago.

Plinia, her three darling children Ruby, Leslie and Sergio & their puppy Cookie

The Mexican highways are very dangerous. In December three teenage daughters died here after a family accident coming home from Juarez. Had there been an ambulance and an EMT crew, the little girls would most surely have survived. This can all be fixed and here is how. Cruz Roja, no relation to the Red Cross of the US, struggles with inadequate training and equipment, yet they are the emergency response in every Mexican town. In Agua Prieta, we teamed with the Cruz Roja leadership to create an EMT/Paramedic model training program led by Douglas Fire Captain Manuel Ayala. Our Utah Rotarians and the town council of Hyrum, Utah, have provided a fully-equipped ambulance for Cruz Roja which will be presented after the training program which is held three days a week for six months. They will graduate in September. Manuel is very pleased with the quality of the 28 EMT/Paramedic students. This model will surely spread to other towns, which is, of course, the goal.

Cruz Roja students with Manuel Ayala

The fully equipped ambulance waiting for the Cruz Roja students

This Friday, July 18, is our regular monthly Crisis Intervention Clinic, and more stories on how Wings of Angels is helping will be posted.

Wings of Angels Foundation

1552 12th Street, Douglas, AZ 85607

602-326-0057 EIN:86-0989829

A typical day with Wings of Angels

2008-07-07T13:13:00.000-07:00

Our wonderful friends from all over the nation have given generously to us in trust and confidence. This entry speaks of what great things we are able to do because of you. Here is a view of a typical day. It is the kind of day you surely will love, in case you would like to visit.

Mona, a Danish anthropology student and Wings volunteer, is spending a month here to help us. All our regular programs are going on. The teaching garden is lush. Our dental clinic benefactor, Dr. George Sayre of Houston, has been with us for a week to continue training our young Mexican dentist in US methods.

Dr. George Sayre visiting La Divina Providencia

Mona and I have been working on a media presentation we believe to be very important. I would like to introduce the stories of migrants who have been caught and pushed back into Mexico. Why did they try to come to the US in the first place? What was their life like at home? Did they have a home, food, health and an education? Did they have a job and skills? (We are pretty sure they have very little of any of these and the public needs to know the real story). It has never before been done and we hope for another clarifying story about the Mexican poor and what can be done to alleviate their plight .

This is our TENTH ANNIVERSARY in northeast Sonora. We hope the story will note that our Wings of Angels model is tried and tested, that it works! It IS possible to improve the lives of the border poor through realistic volunteer efforts. We have created a strategic model. Think of how many of our US citizens would be motivated to volunteer. And think of the many skills they have to offer if tempted into action, perhaps in their own working group.

In order to preview what we might find at the three Mexican shelters provided by the government for returning migrants, we visited these on Saturday. The first is Casa de la Mujer Migrante, a haven for women and their families. There were only twenty clients in June, a reduced number because the desert is now hot and dangerous.

The entrance to Casa de La Mujer Migrante

Casa Migrantes provides food, clean dormitories, and a peaceful environment for women and children in which to recover. The second locale is a respite provided by the Sagrada Familia Catholic Church. The same peaceful conditions exist. The adults retreat here until they are healthy enough to continue their lives. The third is a government-sponsored dormitory, which provides meals, shoes, medicines, and other support for the migrantes. As an example, 1894 cases used this service in April. I was sorry to see the wall map which provides information on how far to walk in the US to certain destinations,water stops, and safe areas. Our news piece, I hope, will make a clear point of what is missing in Mexico and what forces these desperate people to essentially escape, and what Mexico can do to step up.

Later, we changed course and with Juan Dominguez, Director of the wonderful orphanage and asylum, La Divina Providencia, visited a family in great need. Juan recently received two of the little girls into La Divina. It is a great place, full of love and structure. The little girls go to school every day, have chores, great nutritious food, and a lovely dormitory. They return home on Friday night and return to the Divina on Sunday night. The little girls, Daniela and Relely, asked Juan if they could stay at the Divina over the weekend and not go home.

Daniela and Relely

Since that was not possible because there is no weekend staff, Juan said “I will come on Sunday to take you to church and then to a meal with my mother and father”. On Sunday he went to their home and his heart was broken. There he found the mother, a 1 ½ year old baby boy, a three-year old girl, Daniela, Relely, and Oscar, 13. The mother is six month’s pregnant. They live in a shack without electricity or water or bathroom. They sleep on the floor; each has one blanket. The grandmother lives several blocks away. She has other family members in her small house but these little ones go to her home to heat water for their Ramin soup. They have little else to eat.

Juan Dominguez with the family of Daniela and Relely

Daniela and Relely with the rest of the girls from La Divina Providencia

Chris Pignotti of US Digital Media has given $1,000 to get the family into a decent apartment with utilities and a bathroom. This will be very little, only$100 monthly plus electricity, but will accomplish a lot. Earlier this year Martha Wing sent $5,000 to build the next house for a worthy case. The Utah Rotarians who do so much good building for us will be back in October. We will look for a lot with water and sewer in the southerly part of town where there are several new schools and away from the gangs that inhabit the poorest areas near the border. And we need to get Oscar into school. Oscar, Daniela and Relely are vivacious! Dad, it is said, was in jail, returned to the home later, then left again. Mom will have sterilization at the General Hospital at the baby’s birth. We will put our mentors onto structuring a better family lifestyle before presenting them with a house. And yet, as you already are aware, this is not an isolated case.

The day was not yet at an end. Throughout the years here, we have often stopped someone without a limb to ask if they need help. We have seen a man missing a leg on several recent occasions. We saw him yet again. I stopped and Juan asked him about his missing leg. It seems the man, Ernesto, received a prosthesis from us three years ago, it broke around the top, but he didn’t come back for repair (generally in cases like this the patient is a drug user and couldn’t figure out how to come back). We went to his little adobe shack and retrieved the leg. We will repair it. Maybe this will change his life. We’ve seen it happen.

May you be well and happy, kind friends

Wings of Angels Foundation

1552 12th Street, Douglas, AZ 85607

602-326-0057 EIN:86-0989829

The Foundation of Wings of Angels

2008-07-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

Wings of Angels Foundation is a rescue mission concerned for the tens of thousands of poor located in Mexico immediately across from the US border town of Douglas in southeast Arizona and in nothern Sonora. These poor have come hundreds of miles from the Mexican interior in a last effort to seek food, medical care and shelter for their families who typically include a large number of children. Governmental social services and charitable groups are very limited in Sonora, and, to a great extent, overwhelmed by the flood of humanity.

Since 2000, the Wings of Angels monthly Crisis Intervention Clinic has held 84 consecutive clinics (6000 patient visits) in Mexico with volunteer medical doctors and nurses who provide medical and dental treatment, administer care and deliver medications, arrange surgeries, provide glasses, prosthetics and orthotics, provide family counseling and mentoring, formulated milk, diapers, physical therapy and equipment, wheelchairs, blankets, fresh produce from the Wings of Angels teaching garden, support for education, and winterized shelters.

So many resources, materials and skills are available to Wings of Angels from the US, that accomplishing all these important services is possible.

The mission of Wings of Angels Foundation is to rescue, stabilize and transform the more-than-poor border families in Agua Prieta and northern Sonora, Mexico

"Treat the problem of human suffering that fosters the need to leave Mexico"

For more information see website: wingsofangelsfoundation.org

A Volunteer Report from Denmark

2008-07-03T11:33:00.000-07:00

In Denmark, it's common for students to take a semester off during their studies to either work as an intern in a company, study abroad to broaden their horizons in ways of learning, or, as I did, go travel. By coincidence I chose the United States and Mexico as destinations for my trip; as an anthropology and psychology student I was interested in learning about other cultures, but the primary goal with my trip was to get 6 months off and recharge my batteries before finishing my masters. Never would I have thought that the experiences I came to have could possibly have given me as much as they did, both in an academic and inspirational matter. Specifically one place still stands strong in my memory and motivates me to finish my masters, so I can actually get out in the field and as an anthropologist start using what I've spent five years learning at my university. Before visiting Wings of Angels I wouldn't have thought that a small foundation/organization would have such a big impact on me. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what it is, Wings of Angels did, that made my stay in Douglas unforgettable and that makes me long to go back as soon as possible.

To live in Denmark is to live in paradise, some people would say. Students are paid by the government to educate themselves, carrying weapons is illegal and nobody's ever killed by guns. The few homeless people we have are living in the streets because they choose to, not because they have to, and health care is free. So in many ways we are a spoiled people. However, what I've come to learn through my studies of integration and volunteer jobs in the field is that we have a problem with those who aren't like us. Immigrants and ethnic minorities, the others, are welcome to live in Denmark as long as they live under our rules. Immigration has only been going on throughout the past 40 years, and it seems to me that we are scared of other cultures threatening to destroy and take over "Danish culture". The fear of something different seems to be keeping us from solving the issues we stumble upon when working with immigration and integration. During my time as a Danish teacher for immigrant women or back when I was working in kindergarten for children of ethnic minorities, I learned that common opinion between help organizations in Denmark was "Yes, we do wish to help you become integrated into Danish society, but only if we do it our way." The fear of the others seemed to be determinating the strategies in which we wanted to help.

Observing which cultures we were actually dealing with was not relevant for the job, and considering the fact that there may be other and better ways to teach immigrants than the "Danish way of doing things" was not important. To me it seemed like a very judgmental and non respectful approach to things. "The culture of all ethnic minorities is useless in Denmark, and if they want to be helped, they need to give up their old culture, forget their identities and start living "Danish style." Need I say that the outcome of these strategies have not been very helpful in the process towards a multifarious and integrated Denmark?

When coming from such a background, where, on the surface, everything seems to be perfect, but where hidden racism towards ethnic minorities flourishes in most layers of society, visiting Douglas and Wings of Angels was a great relief. I had never imagined experiencing a help organization with a less judgmental approach towards people in need. I still have lots to learn about the relationship between the United States and Mexico, but I could imagine that it is somewhat rather tense because of illegal immigration among other things. Therefore I was so impressed to see the corporation between two cultures, working their way towards the same goal; helping those who really needed it.

For some people it must seem irrelevant for a help organization to spend a lot of time considering whom it is, they're trying to help and what the best possible way of approaching a certain culture and people would be. I agree that the most important thing is to get the help out there, where and when it's needed. That being said, it's also of major importance to consider factors such as culture, social class and the specific situation, the patient is in. Giving a man a new set of teeth is not very useful if you don't also give him a toothbrush and teach him how to use it. Helping a starving little girl getting back on her feet won't give her much, if her family isn't taught how to maintain the girl's new and improved condition. Having the patience to let the people you're helping make mistakes when they're trying to adjust to their new life is so important; getting used to a new life with new possibilities can take time, when you've lived the same life for so long.

I remember crossing the border from Agua Prieta to Douglas one time, waiting in line with all the other cars for the passport control. Dottee, the founder of Wings of Angels, was driving the car, and from her window she spotted a resident of Agua Prieta, whom Wings of Angels had given an artificial leg, so he wouldn't have to be limp and walk around using crotches. I bet this guy was happy when he got his "new leg", only problem was, that he wasn't wearing it when we saw him! Dottee called him to her window and talked to him about it. It turned out that he was very happy with his new leg, but when he was begging among the cars in the passport control line, he would receive more money if he wasn't wearing his leg; of course limping around with crotches would make better impression as him being a "poor beggar" that needed money. I don't think Dottee approved, but she understood him.

This is just one of the reasons why my stay in Douglas was so enjoyable and why I got so much out of it; I learned that helping is important, but understanding the people you are helping is also a big part of it. Respecting those people both as a part of a culture and a social class, but also as individuals is a big factor, if you want to succeed. Victimizing patients as poor persons who can't take responsibility and do anything by or for themselves will not make a help organization achieve their goals; on the other hand, teaching people that" you have a responsibility, we can help you get started, but in the end, you're the one who is making it happen", will help everybody help themselves and keep them being motivated for achieving their goals and a better life.

In a short term period, all this is not important. The important thing is to get out there and stop people from dying. But in a long term period, no help organization will survive if their only focus is to save lives immediately. In the way Wings of Angels involve themselves in the people, they're helping; treating everybody with respect and as individuals and continuing to be there, even after the bleeding has stopped, I have no doubts that this organization will be helping those in need in Agua Prieta for many years to come.

- Mona Hølzer