As I said before, I was born in Granada and it was easier to do it there rather than Managua, the capital. I know the people have lots of family and friends, half the townspeople are my cousins and I was able to find plenty of local volunteers and translators. Also, Granada is a small colonial city, the oldest in Latin America, very attractive the people are friendly and our clinic is just a few blocks from the hotels and restaurants making it easier for our volunteers to walk everywhere.

This must be a tremendous undertaking, and I see from your website that you have quite a few health professionals and volunteers participating. How do you recruit people, and what is it that makes them want to participate.

In the beginning I would beg for volunteers or I would grab any doctor on vacation in Nicaragua and “surprise” him with a few patients to treat. I did a lot of volunteer work myself on my vacations in between trips to the beach and visits with the family. All our doctors are volunteers, we started with physicians from Birmingham. We also have Dr.'s from eight other states. As our organization grew, our doctors started recruiting their friends and relatives and now we receive many requests to participate from volunteers who have heard or read about our work in interviews and articles. I think that what moves them to participate is the awareness that a lot of suffering exists in my country and that their efforts will help to alleviate it and to change someone's life forever. But suffering exists everywhere in the world, therefore, at For Nicaraguan Health, we are doubly grateful that they are willing to work so hard to help our people. I am the first one to realize that only as a team we can be successful, the volunteers are the heart and most important factor in our organization, risking to forget names and not do justice to all I would like to mention Frances Owens, our Executive Director, Abbott and Cheryl Williams, Laverne Ramsey, Peggy and Larry Otto, Lori Feist, Scott Chramer, Lynn Guzman and Keith Hodge, my wife Maria and my daughter Sabrina, all volunteers with very important functions to make the doctors jobs easier.

How do you obtain supplies and resources for the trip and the full time clinic you have there?

Everything is funded with donations, running this operation cost lots of money, only the Clinica Alabama-Granada in Granada, Nicaragua where we see eighty patients a day, we give them medicines all for free has a budget of over $90.000.00 dollars a year, we have to buy lots of medicines in the local market, they are cheaper than here, every mission trip cost us around $20 to $30 thousand dollars including air shipping of material that can not travel by boat. We have two projects that run at the same time, one is the Mission trips for which we get donations from companies such as Alcon Laboratories for Intra ocular lenses, surgical materials etc. We get pacemakers from Medtronic, Guidant and St. Jude, some hospital materials from Brookwood Medical Center, Eye Foundation and used to get lots of orthopedic material from the old Healthsouth Hospital, the other is the clinic we support entirely from here. All the volunteers, including myself, pay for our hotels, food, air fare and any other expenses on the trip. The medical and surgical supplies are donated and we buy what's lacking. Our services to patients include the medicines they need for their treatments because they are not able to afford their cost. The only paid personnel are two local doctors, nurse, secretary, administrator and cleaning people who work full time at the clinic. We are a 501 C 3 Non Profit Organization, all donations are Tax Deductible and can be sent to: Frances M. Owens, 3120 Warrington Road, Birmingham, Al, 35223. email FOwens3985@aol.com .

What is life like for average people in Nicaragua who need health care? Could you tell me a bit about the need that the medical mission fulfills?

The needs that our medical mission fulfills are not even one half of one percent of what our people need. You have to realize that in Nicaragua entire families survive on less than $100.00 - $150.00 a month. As you can imagine, there's not much left for medicines or proper medical care. The need is so enormous is sometimes overwhelming, but we can't let this stop us or paralyze us into inaction. One of our greatest regrets is the long list of people left untreated for lack of time at the end of our visit. The permanent free clinic does good job in trying to fill the vacuum until the doctors return the following February.

Are there any memorable cases that come to mind or stories that come to mind that might give readers an idea of what it is like to be working with patients there as a volunteer?

At the clinic and at the hospital the variety of cases is impressive and the doctors usually favor the children. They are very compassionate with children who suffer from physical deformities like harelips or strabismus, aware of how cruel other children can be and with other with serious diseases such as diabetes or heart problems. Our doctor really take take these children and their families into their hearts and keep on helping with their care even after their return to the United States. In many occasion we have brought children with their mother for treatment. The last one was a six year old girl with a brain tumor who was treated by Dr Sergio Stagno and Dr Alysa Reddy at The Children's Hospital of UAB for sixteen months and who returned home with a 95% chance of total recovery. She and her mother lived with me and my family during that time and we were able to see her recovery, the use of her hand and foot that had become atrophied by her disease. My daughter taught her how to speak again; she had forgotten.

What is it that you and other volunteers find most rewarding about participating in this mission?

For one thing, to see that little girl run across the central square with arms outstretched to receive us and to know that she can run because we helped. And many others like her, who thank our doctors, with tears in their eyes, after receiving medical or surgical care they could not pay for even if they worked their entire lives. There is a great spiritual satisfaction in knowing that no matter how flawed we are, how great our mistakes in life, we still have the ability to lessen the misery in the life of another human being. Our patients do for us as much as we do for them. One of their smiles is worth more than a million dollars. We can call it an even exchange.

If a doctor or other health professional reading the story would like to volunteer for your next trip, what would they need to do? Are there details they would need to know?

They can go to our website www.fornicaraguanhealth.org and write to us or email to: Frances M. Owens, Executive Director, 3120 Warrington Road, Birmingham, Al, 35223. to know in what capacity they can help. We have medical personnel and also support volunteers who help with various non-medical duties.

Is there anything I didn't think to ask you that I should have, or anything that you'd like to add?