Mima Foundation Accomplishments

Cochabamba, Bolivia

Since 1997 a team of surgeons, nurse practitioners, nurses and lay people travel to Bolivia to do free surgery on the indigent people of this area. The team does an average of 120 surgeries a year, over a two week period. All medical personnel pay their own airfare, lodging and food and all medical supplies are donated. As of June 2011 we conservatively figure our volunteers have contributed 15,500 hours over the past 14 years.

Tutimayu, Bolivia

This is the first village in Bolivia that we starting working with in 2006 after finding a very organized, hard working community with good leadership. We established a vitamin program, whereby 600 school children received a vitamin each morning in school. We also started this out with an anti-parasite and de-worming program in order to have the most efficiency with the vitamins. All the children also received a healthy breakfast, since most never ate before school started. After two years, this programs reports great success, the Bolivian government, realizing the benefit of a healthy breakfast every day, has given the village the money to continue the breakfast program and purchase a large oven for baking bread. The success of these programs is obvious. Having weighed and measured each student at the beginning of the program. They reported weight gains and improved concentration in school and grades, which they directly relate to the vitamins and breakfast. We also contributed to their school program, providing a school package for each student which included two notebooks, pencils, markers, folders and erasers. It was felt that the students were more motivated after receiving their own supplies. Money was allocated for the library, and reference books were bought for the use of all the students. Additionally, soccer balls and other sporting supplies were bought for the children’s use during recess.

Knitting CO-OP

After seeing the beautiful scarves that the women of Tutimayu, Bolivia made for their families MIMA knew there would be a market for them in the United States. We supplied yarn and patterns, and after convincing the village women that American women use shawls and scarves for accents and that we weren’t concerned about warmth, especially in Florida, they produced some very nice pieces for us to sell or give as gifts. Each piece was marked with the knitter’s name, and each directly received the money for the work they had done. We then formed a co-op to reinvest some profits and MIMA matches the funds to purchase more supplies. We continue to purchase through generous donations, especially from Pat Cavanaugh, who is very supportive of this program. We are very interested in encouraging the women in these communities to continue their craft and realize their worth, thereby, enabling them to stay in their villages instead of seeking employment in the cities. With the implementation of this program we have seen some real changes in this area, and the women seemed totally in awe that we were so thrilled with the work they have done.

Buena Vista Program

With the success in Tutimayu so apparent, another new program for MIMA started the summer of 2006 in Buena Vista, Bolivia which is another community that is building from within to help the future generations. With the help of a dear friend, Anna Haarman, who is a volunteer from Holland, a school has been built and a medical post is under construction. They also have a meal program for the school-age children, and even offer it on Saturdays for the most needy. We have implemented a vitamin program there also, for 600 children, following the same format as in Tutimayu. We also have donated tooth brushes and tooth paste which is kept in school for each child. Each morning, they receive a vitamin, have breakfast and then brush their teeth. We plan to implement a more comprehensive dental program once their medical post is completed.

Posota, Bolivia

High in the Andes Mountains, at a bit less than 15,000 feet, there is a very remote village named Posota. The children from Posota travel to another village named Challa, three hours walking each day to go to school. It was soon realized that the children that walk this distance daily were at a huge disadvantage. Cold, hungry and tired, they hardly had what it takes to learn in the classroom. It was a visiting nun, Sr. Fulvia's dream to build an "Internado"...a dormitory for the children to stay in during the week while studying. With the help from the MIMA Foundation, Anna Haarman, (a Dutch Volunteer and her supporters) and Sr. Fulvia's connections in Italy, this finally came to fruition with the Inauguration celebration in November 2006. Now 80 children and their teachers have a wonderful, heated facility to stay in. Next on the agenda...a medical clinic....Stay tuned....

Guatemala Program

In February of 2007 MIMA took a team of surgeons and nurses to Chimaltenengo, Guatemala. We performed 65 surgeries, mostly urology and gynecology.

Kayenje, Uganda Projects

In 2005 a group of MIMA volunteers went to Kayenje, Uganda in East Africa to the home village of a Jacksonville Beach, Florida priest named Lawrence Mulinda. The initial goal was to build a well in the village and assess the possibility of bringing a surgical team. Both proved difficult due to the distance and remoteness of Uganda. However, much has been accomplished thanks to MIMA donors to this cause.

Two new school buildings have been built. Complete with new desks, water tanks for harvesting rain water, school supplies and a hand cranked mimeograph machine for exams and worksheets has been donated. Also, the neighboring church was completely renovated with new pews and church items. A well was dug for clean, fresh water access in the next parish of Lugazi. In the summer 2008 a kitchen was constructed which includes a lunch program that serves hot lunches to all of the 500 students daily.

Most recently, 2 bore-hole wells have been completed to access fresh ground water. In order to attract more, qualified teachers to the school, a group home was built to house 4 teachers and their families.

Providence Home, Nnkoknjeru, Uganda

During an unplanned stop in Nnkoknjeru, a remote village on the way to the Nile River, the travelers found an orphanage that was described as “the place for children nobody wants.” What they found was an orphanage for the disabled, vocational school and home for the destitute elderly. The nuns of the Little Sisters of St. Francis, run this home like a true home and the children there are loved and well taken care of while they learn a vocation with the goal to become self sufficient in the future.

In 2008, MIMA purchased 6 - 2,500 gallon water tanks to harvest the rain water and added wiring to bring all the buildings in the compound electricity. In 2009, a new stove was built to allow the residents to cook for themselves and 3 classrooms in the school were brought electricity in 2010. The school runs a community bakery, chicken farm, leather shop and sewing shop to teach vocation, produce their own food and sell to the community. These simple basic necessities will make the home safer and more productive.