MAP International Spring 2024 Newsletter

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Vol. 64

medicine for all people Our mission: To provide medicine and health supplies to those in need around the world so they might experience life to the fullest.

Your gift now goes further!

Thanks to what we here at MAP call the “multiplier effect” — achieved through a combination of careful stewardship and sound fiscal practices — we are able to amplify each gift our supporters make so that its value in donated medicine and health supplies is many times over the dollar amount itself.

This means that now we will be able to reach even more people for every dollar donated! And for the tens of millions of people in the developing world — many of whom are children — who die from diseases that could have been prevented or treated with a few dollars’ worth of medicine this could be a lifesaving difference.

In this newsletter, you will read stories of hope, healing and lives transformed. It is thanks to the gifts of our supporters that this is possible. Each life saved, each person healed, each community transformed are testaments to God’s infinite mercy. Please know that your generosity and compassion are what make all of this work possible.

medicine for all people

A Message from MAP’s Board Chair, Susan J. Roeder As we celebrate MAP’s 70th anniversary this year and prepare to embark on a journey of continued transformative growth that will impact global health for years to come, it is with gratitude and heartfelt appreciation that I am announcing the beginning phases of a transition plan and retirement for our esteemed President and CEO, Steve Stirling.

Steve’s retirement was pre-planned since the beginning of his tenure at MAP International. Now having led MAP since 2014, Steve’s dedication, accomplishments, and years of service have been marked by the singular objective of propelling MAP’s lifesaving mission forward at every step. He has laid

the groundwork that will enable MAP to continue to soar to even greater heights while improving health outcomes for millions around the world in nearly 100 countries.

In these early stages of our transition plan, I want to assure you that Steve’s steady hand continues to guide us to make this transition seamless while maintaining the stability and integrity of our operations throughout this time.

In the coming months, we will share more information with you about the transition process. While we do not have an exact start date of MAP’s new leader, our hope is to have a new president/ CEO selected by mid-summer.

In the interim, please join me in thanking Steve and his wife, Sook Hee, for their tireless dedication and commitment to MAP, and congratulating them as they begin to take the steps that will guide them through their next adventure into a well-deserved retirement and continued service to God.

President and CEO Steve Stirling

Board Chair Susan J. Roeder

Angelina finds help and hope for baby Miguel Angelina looked down at the sleeping eightmonth-old boy in her arms. Miguel’s face was so precious and her heart ached to see him healed.

Children born with cleft lips or palates, like Miguel, often suffer much difficulty later on in life if their defect is not corrected at an early age. As babies, they may have trouble eating, their speech development may be delayed, and they are often not accepted by schoolmates. If unable to finish school, then they likely will be unable to get a job in adulthood.

Miguel’s future certainly looked bleak. But Angelina had not given up all hope.

Now, as they sat on a

public bus, traveling all day to Santa Marta, she just prayed that this might be the miracle for which she had been looking.

There was a medical mission team coming to visit, she had heard.

Rumor had it that the surgeons could repair cleft lips and palates, and that they even did it for free. It sounded too good to be true, but Angelina knew she had to try — it was Miguel’s last hope.

When they finally arrived at the hospital where the mission team was working, Angelina carried her son inside. The team examined Miguel and determined that he was eligible for surgery.

Angelina could hardly believe their good fortune.

After the operation, a nurse brought Angelina to the recovery room to be with Miguel. When she saw her son with his repaired lip, she could not stop the tears of joy flowing down her cheeks.

What a blessing that this team had welcomed them with open arms and finally helped her son!

“Without the suture donations that were provided through MAP for our mission, we would not have been able to change the lives of children such as Miguel,” said Dr. Andrew Jacono, the mission team leader. “Thank you for supporting the work that we do and making our missions successful.”

Spring 2024

Bringing lifesaving medicine to a remote town According to the United States Agency of International Development (USAID), over six million people in Guatemala lack access to basic health and nutrition services.

Widespread malnutrition has caused Guatemala to have the fifth highest rate in the world of stunted growth in children, while lack of access to health care and education contributes to high teenage pregnancy rates and frightening maternal mortality rates.

In the town of Cobán, a medical mission group supported by MAP is working to improve these dismal statistics for local Guatemalans to help them become self-sustaining in meeting their own health care needs.

Dr. Eric Bertelsen, the pharmacist on the mission team, describes the people of Cobán as incredibly hardworking. “The daily life of the residents in Cobán is very hard and requires a lot of manual labor,” he says.

During their week at the clinic in Cobán, Dr. Bertelsen was able to provide acetaminophen and ibuprofen from MAP for many patients who had been suffering from consistent body aches and pains due to the strenuous demands of their daily lives.

Guatemala

Dr. Bertelsen also reports being able to serve many pregnant women and young women who were of childbearing age with prenatal vitamins from MAP. Because prenatal care is not often available to women in Cobán, most expecting mothers simply do without when it comes to extra nutrition or supplements during their pregnancy. These prenatal vitamins, says Dr. Bertelsen, “are very important to fetal development and the health of the mother.”

With the medicine they brought from MAP, Dr. Bertelsen and the mission team were able to care for 110 people during their visit — and they plan to return. While many of the solutions that they offered to patients may seem simple to us — over the counter pain relievers, vitamins, or antibiotics — they are lifechanging for people who usually have access to nothing.

medicine for all people

An end to suffering and renewed spirits for Najla Najla was weary. For 10 years she had battled chronic thyroid nodules, and at this point they had enlarged so much that she had a baseball-sized lump in her neck.

Not only did she feel self-conscious about the way she looked, but the basic tasks of eating and drinking had become nearly impossible for her.

In Ghana, where Najla lives, there simply is no access to specialists who could adequately treat her thyroid problem. Finally, when Najla had all but given up hoping for a miracle, she heard about a visiting team of ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat) doctors who were seeing patients at a local hospital.

Najla could hardly believe it when the team told her there was a surgery they could do that would help.

Could this really be the end of her years of suffering?

Thankfully, it was the end. And with the end of her suffering, the beginning of a new life full of hope. The surgeons, armed with surgical supplies and medicines from MAP, performed the needed operation for Najla that removed the nodules from her thyroid.

When Najla was recovering from the surgery, she looked in the mirror and was overjoyed to see that the lump in her neck was completely gone.

As soon as she was released from the hospital, she made her first trip out to the market – head held high, no longer embarrassed about her appearance. And that first meal back at home with her family – no food had ever tasted so delicious, and for the first time in years, she was able to eat every bite. Trips to the market and eating a simple meal may sound like small things to most people, but to Najla they were extravagant gifts of hope that you made possible.

Robyn can walk again!

Fifty-year-old Robyn had been in excruciating pain for nearly two months. She had tripped and fallen one day while walking down a steep hill, and now she could not put any weight on her left leg because of the pain.

Unable to stand the pain, she made her way to a hospital that actually had an x-ray machine. The doctors then determined that Robyn had been living with a fractured bone in her lower leg for the last six weeks and scheduled her for surgery. Unfortunately, like many other health facilities in Zambia, this hospital was also resource poor.

The surgeon had run out of surgical dressings, and

medicine was also in short supply. The antibiotics that Robyn would need post-surgery to prevent infection were out of stock. Robyn’s surgery would have to be postponed.

But God provided a miracle for Robyn. A medical mission team from the U.S. was visiting a nearby mission clinic and had brought a variety of medicine and health supplies from MAP International.

Staff at the mission clinic heard about Robyn’s predicament and volunteered to share the resources they had just received from MAP, so that Robyn could have her surgery.

Because of MAP’s donation, the mission team was able to provide the antibiotic and the dressings that Robyn needed post-surgery. This generous gift gave Robyn the ability to not only walk again, but also to provide for herself.

MAP Headquarters | 4700 Glynco Parkway | Brunswick, GA 31525 Global Health Office | 315 W. Ponce de Leon Ave, Suite 815 | Decatur, GA 30030 1.800.225.8550 | map.org

Because of you.

Today, smiles are chasing away tears for so many in forgotten places who now have health and hope because of your unwavering generosity.

We dedicate our Spring 2024 Newsletter to our faithful supporters who make it possible for MAP International to carry out our calling to provide lifesaving medicine and health supplies for a world in desperate need.

We hope you’ve been encouraged by what you’ve read. Please know, a gift in any amount will help ensure we have even more inspiring stories of redemption to share.

Give today!