San Pedro Surgical Clinic

Abstract

The purpose of this capstone project was to create a business plan and grant proposal for the implementation of a surgical program in San Pedro Belize by the San Lucas Foundation. As part of this capstone project, the San Lucas Foundation, a nonprofit 50 I (c) 3 organization was formed, which will provide surgical and anesthesia care to impoverished and medically underserved communities in Central America, primarily Guatemala and Belize. The San Lucas Foundation was incorporated in the State of Michigan in 2014, given 501(c) 3 tax-exempt status from the United States Internal Revenue Service, and licensed for solicitation for charitable donations by the State of Michigan Attorney General. To promote the efforts of the organization, and to disseminate information about its programs, activities, mission and vision, a website for the San Lucas Foundation is under construction entitled SanLucasFoundation.org. To meet the health care needs of people in rural communities in Guatemala and Belize, the San Lucas Foundation will collaborate with existing organizations that provide health care in San Lucas Toliman Guatemala, and San Pedro Town Belize. For the project in Guatemala, the San Lucas Foundation will work with charitable organizations such as Friends of San Lucas, and Mercy Missions to continue to expand their surgical programs. Mercy Missions currently performs annual weeklong surgical missions, providing surgical treatment to approximately 100 patients per mission. Based in Minnesota, Friends of San Lucas organizes several other mission trips with U.S volunteer medical mission organizations throughout the year. Currently, in San Pedro Town Belize, there is no surgical treatment offered of any kind. All patients seeking surgical treatment, elective or emergent, must travel to mainland Belize or Mexico to receive care. It is the mission of the San Lucas Foundation to provide surgical and anesthesia care to the severely medically underserved area of the San Pedro community. The San Lucas Foundation has been collaborating with San Pedrano health care providers, community leaders and the Belize Ministry of Health for the past 18 months to establish a surgical program. To meet the needs of the community, it was decided by the founders of the San Lucas Foundation to collaborate with Dr. Daniel Benjamin Gonzales, of the Ambergris Hopes Clinic in San Pedro Town. The San Lucas Foundation is seeking grant funding and charitable donations to obtain surgical and anesthesia equipment and supplies to initiate the surgical program, and provide the critically needed surgical care to the San Pedro community.