Download 1 HELP FOR THE ANDES FOUNDATION Rosita Raffo, President

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HELP FOR THE ANDES
FOUNDATION
Rosita Raffo, President and Founder
Michimalongo 107 P2
Santiago, Chile
www.helpfortheandes.org
[email protected]
305-494-3953
February 25, 2013
Dear Mr. Payne,
We are writing to engage your support in our ongoing mission work to underprivileged
women in the international community. We are presently planning a ten day medical
mission to Cusco, Peru from July 17-27 in a joint venture formed with Dr. Daron Ferris,
founder of Cervicusco, www.cervicusco.org and Dr. Frank Cirisano, founder of
Women’s Cancer Care Fund, www.womenscancercarefund.org. The impact we make
is dependent, as always, on human resource allocation and also upon the strength of
our funding structure.
Help for the Andes Foundation operates on an international level. For more than ten
years, our foundation has been working on implementing programs for international
disaster response, medical development, health and social education and “The Human
Touch.” to improve the quality of life for those in need. With the collaboration of other
international level foundations such as “Assist International”, “Medshare”, “International
Aid”, “Global Giving”, and “Path Adams Hospital,” “Help for the Andes” Foundation has
developed diverse stategies designed to strengthen communities and organizations,
and to promote the well-being of humanity throughout the Andes region.
With a team consisting of 7 medical professionals and 5 volunteer medical students
(and growing), Dr. Frank Cirisano will be heading Team Cirisano. Dr. Cirisano founded
the “Women’s Cancer Care Fund in 2008, a non-profit 501 (C)(3) CH32731 foundation,
headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida. Dr. Cirisano has already travelled to India,
Cambodia, the Philippines and Nepal to provide gynecological care to women in need.
As a gynecologic oncologist he is currently affiliated with Aventura Hospital and Medical
Center, Delray Medical Center, Boca Ratan Regional Hospital and Bethesda Medical
Hospital. His areas of expertise include: comprehensive gynecologic cancer care,
minimally invasive laparoscopic and robotic surgery, radical cancer surgery and
chemotherapy for gynecologic malignancies.
Our homebase for our Team Cirisano mission will be CerviCusco, a modern medical
facility in Cusco, Peru. CerviCusco, a Global Health Center, was founded by Dr. Daron
Ferris. Currently the medical center’s president, Dr. Ferris is a Professor at Georgia
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Health Sciences University and is Director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention
Center. CerviCusco is a Peruvian registered non-profit association launched in 2005
and in 2006, CerviCusco affiliated with the International Cervical Cancer (INCCA)
Foundation, a non-profit (501c3) organization registered in the United States. Dr.
Ferris is dedicated to the prevention of cervical cancer. The medical center is
permanently staffed by a Peruvian healthcare team as well as expert medical providers
who work on a volunteer basis throughout the year.
Our mission objectives are five fold. The first begins with providing underprivileged
women with educational programs tailored to deliver knowledge about the risks,
prevention, early detection and treatment of gynecological cancers. Using tailored
communications, we have been able to overcome cultural barriers and initiate a
sustainable increased awareness that promotes these women becoming advocates for
their own health. This approach has not only proven to initiate our efforts, but has
served an important role in promulgating and sustaining our primary objective after we
leave.
Our second objective is directed at the delivery of relatively cost effective measures of
care that have a significant amplifier effect on cancer prevention within the same
population. The Human Papillomavirus vaccination is perhaps the most significant
advancement in the prevention of cervical cancer since the introduction of routine pap
testing in the 1950’s. The potential impact of our administration of the Gardasil HPV
vaccine is of primary importance in our efforts toward improving the statistics of cervical
cancer in Peru. As stated in the 2010 summary report update by the World Health
Organization/Institut Catala dʼOncologia, “Cervical cancer ranks as the 1st most
frequent cancer among women in Peru and the 1st most frequent cancer among women
between 15 and 44 years of age.”1 As stated by Dr. Ferris, “the first cause of death for
women in Peru is cervical cancer and it ranks over ten times as high as we see in the
United States. Cervical cancer is 100% curable if treated in a timely fashion.”
As stated in public health research results, “When combined with a comprehensive
approach that includes screening and pre-cancer treatment, evidence-based HPV
vaccine programs could reduce developing-country cervical cancer deaths to the very
low levels currently observed in many industrialized countries.” 2
Our third objective is to screen patients for cervical cancer and dysplasia using clinical
examination, pap testing, pelvic examination and colposcopy assessments. Only the
women who screen negative for current pathology will be given the human
papillomavirus vaccine. Early diagnosis and treatment for women with pre-invasive
pathology using on site LEEP conization procedures will also be provided as needed in
Cervicusco, and in a travel clinic set up at the local market. Peruvians come from all
over the area to buy and sell their wares at this market every week, and our outreach
clinic schedule is structured around these opportunities for efficient care delivery. This
clinic will be facilitated through the Cervicusco foundation which will be providing
transportation and logistics support to take our team to multiple small township markets.
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The fourth objective of our mission involves the delivery of surgical services for those
patients diagnosed with early stage malignancies. These major gynecological
procedures will be performed at Regional Hospital, and/or Clinica San Jose, with
preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative care coordinated through Dr. Ferris, and
the CerviCusco organization. Our clinical and surgical team structure will include: two
surgeons, one physician assistants, one anesthesiologist, one certified registered nurse
anesthetist, and two operating room registered nurses.
Finally, our fifth objective is professional provider education. It has become quite
evident that a fundamental aspect of our impact relies upon the local community of
providers to sustain any change. To this end, our final objective is to educate the
provider teams within these communities in the four aspects of care delivery, namely
prevention, early diagnosis and treatment, and the management of invasive cancers.
Teaching the Peruvian patient and provider population is of utmost importance in our
intent to create sustainable change. Toward this end, Dr. Cirisano is an experienced
educator and he plans on coordinating and conducting an educational series to local
providers and medical students explaining the measures of cervical cancer prevention
and treatment. Examples of our prior foundation efforts may be viewed on our
www.youtube.com/teamcirisano channel.
The logistics of our mission will be coordinated with the aid of local support by Rosita
Raffo, who will be our administrative liaison. The fiscal structure for our mission work
will be allocated to the delivery of direct patient care and local provider education,
supplies, and equipment.
Our primary financial need centers on the purchasing of the Human Papillomavirus
Vaccine. The cost of each vaccine is approximately $124.00 and we plan on obtaining
as many doses as our fundraising will allow. Our goal is to be able to vaccinate 1000
children for a total cost of $124,000.00. Our proposed budget also includes the cost
for small diagnostic and treatment machines (3 sonograms with ultrasound probes, 3
Leep machines, and 3 colposcopes) as well as LED headlights and surgical
instrumentation presently needed by CerviCusco Medical Center. The costs of travel,
lodging, and expenses incurred by our mission workers and team members has been
and will continue to be provided for by participants and their private funding resources.
Additional surgical supplies needed will be donated by local hospitals and vendors.
Our needs are quite specific. A donation of $185,000.00 would give us the pivotal fiscal
base to allow for a successful mission with sustainable impact. Your funding translates
directly to cervical cancer prevention and cure as each vaccination reduces cervical
cancer risk by 70% and a second and third vaccine can reduce the risk by 100%.
As you can see, your donation would help expand our mission to care for the maximum
number of women. We are so fortunate to be able to obtain high quality medical care in
the United States and it is wonderful to be able to share our good fortune with others in
need.
Please help us to make our upcoming mission possible, and increase the sustainability
of our impact.
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Most Sincerely,
Rosita Raffo
References:
1. WHO/ICO Information Centre on HPV and Cervical Cancer (HPV information
Centre). Human Papillomavirus and Related Cancers in Peru. Summary Report 2010.
Accessed 12\20\12. p.iv.
2. PATH and Nutrition Research Institute, “Shaping a Strategy to Introduce HPV
Vaccines in Peru,” 2009. Accessed 12/17/12. http://screening.iarc.fr/doc/
PATH_FRTS_Peru_eng.pdf. p.3.