Upcountry resident demonstrates the healing power of human compassion.When Ha‘iku resident Debbie Jefkin-Elnekave boarded a flight to Central America last month, it was not for a vacation or a sight-seeing excursion.
Jefkin-Elnekave is a volunteer team coordinator for Partner for Surgery, an organization that provides surgical care to those who need it most.
When she was a child, Jefkin-Elnekave said, “I never dared to dream of actually visiting any of those exotic places, but life has a way of taking you in interesting and unexpected directions.”
Her experience with Partner for Surgery has shown her, “The most important discovery, the one that had the most profound impact on me, was that the two-lane country road leading out of my hometown didn’t stop at the next town as I’d thought, but went on forever, and led to so many opportunities to make a difference in the world.”
In 2004, after volunteering throughout Central America with the Peace Corps, brothers and Partner for Surgery Founders Frank and Todd Peterson envisioned an organization that would provide surgical care to the impoverished men, women and children with little or no access to adequate healthcare services and resources.
For four years, Partner for Surgery has performed plastic, gynecological, cataract, hernia and other surgeries in some of the most remote areas of Central America, completing more than $3 million in surgeries and approximately 2,300 surgical operations. In Guate-mala, more than half of the population lives in extreme poverty and the country was recently ranked at 120 in human development by the United Nations—the lowest in all of Central America.
Several times a year, Jefkin-Elnekave and volunteers from around the globe spend weeks in the rural areas of Guatemala offering medical care—and changing lives in the process. In these areas, lack of surgical care can result in severe disabilities, perpetuating the harsh cycle of poverty that has plagued the region for so long.
Partner for Surgery collaborates with local healthcare providers, aiming to educate current and future practitioners through “hands-on” community involvement.
Partner for Surgery patients pay what they can afford toward costs of transport, escorts, language translators, laboratory tests, temporary housing and food. But this expense is insignificant compared to the priceless surgery that can ultimately change—and save—a life.
The organization recently announced it is developing plans to build small recovery centers in local villages in order to serve post-operative patients better and enable surgeries to perform more complex, lifesaving procedures that often require more extensive recovery periods.
According to the Partner for Surgery Website, “Our clear message to the native population is that there is a direct economic reward from good health, and that surgery is often the answer to maintaining a more vital community freer from the burdens of caring for the ill on a long term basis when a surgical cure is available.”
Like Jefkin-Elnekave, surgical teams make the trek to Central America from the United States, Canada and Western Europe each year. The teams are all-volunteer and pay their own way under Partner for Surgery-sponsored programs, often supporting the organization with personal donations for general purposes. While there are a variety of charitable causes to choose from, Jefkin-Elnekave said she has found the one that she feels completely devoted to. “It doesn’t really matter what [cause] you choose to support,” she said. “What matters is compassion… the ability to empathize with the plight of an individual, a family or a community in need. What matters is finding the common denominator—the one thing that unites you as human beings, that’s greater than what separates you as members of different cultures, races, communities or socio-economic groups.”
And she will continue to make the journey to these remote villages as long as she is needed. “By linking arms with doctors, volunteers and other donors, we have helped to create miracles,” she said. “We find heroes where we never before thought to look, people who give more than they take, who are the best that the world has to offer… this is how we know that we’re part of something bigger than ourselves.”
For more information, visit www.partnerforsurgery.com. Maui physicians interested in volunteering for Partner for Surgery should contact Jefkin-Elnekave at debbie@partnerforsurgery.org.