News
Group Seeks Donations for Nicaraguan MissionMay 30, 2010
Desert Sun
Xochitl Peña
Ines Allen dreams about boxes.
That's because she's been packing up medical
supplies and medicine practically every day for a
month now, in preparation for her group's trip to
Nicaragua this summer.
Allen, founder of the International Medical Alliance
of Rancho Mirage, will join a contingent of more
than 60 medical professionals and volunteers who
will take over a small clinic in Somoto to provide
medical treatment for the indigent. They leave July
29 for 10 days.
The group needs donations to help cover the cost
of shipping what is estimated to be more than $1
million in donated supplies.
Last year, it cost $15,000 to ship all the equipment
to Ecuador, their previous destination, Allen said.
“We'll get there. Miracles happen all the time,” she
said of the shipping costs. “I'm ready to help
people. I just want that day to come.”
A shipment of surgical equipment that included
lights, an anesthesia machine and a cauterizing
machine have been shipped out in advance of their
arrival, but more than 100 boxes still remain and
are sitting in three storage units in Palm Springs.
“All of it together will be three tons,” Allen said.
The brown boxes of all different sizes include
syringes, sutures, walkers, crutches and
prosthetics.
“We're writing grants and trying to see if people
want to partner with us,” said Tracey Allen, Ines
Allen's husband and co-founder of the alliance,
which is in its 10th year of organizing the medical
missions.
The group also plans to send over three portable
dental systems that were purchased with a donation
of $5,500 from six dentists in Diamond Bar and the
Irvine area.
In addition to donations needed for shipping costs,
the group is needs children's multivitamins and
women's prenatal vitamins, she said.
“Every child that gets seen, even if there's nothing
wrong with them, gets a 30-day bag of
multivitamins,” said Gillian Cross, president of the
Rotary Club of Cathedral City who will make her
second trip with the group.
“It's something we all take every day and don't think
twice about it. It's a huge thing to these parents. It's
so important,” she said of the vitamins.
The rotary club, which has collected 500 stuffed
animals for Nicaraguan children, is helping round
up enough vitamins for the trip.
“If people go out and buy some (vitamins), I can
pick them up,” Cross said.