Aly is a 44 year old man who lives with his wife and children in LaPaz, Bolivia. When Aly first came to the Mission of Hope clinic 3 years ago, he was completely deaf in both ears from otosclerosis. He had to read lips to understand what anyone was saying. He was on the verge […]

  Guadalupe is a 34 year old lady who lives with her husband and 2 young boys.  She has suffered with chronic ear infections for more than 25 years.  Growing up as a child, when she would have ear pain and inflammation, her mother would make a juice from onions and put drops of onion juice […]

Hi, my name is Sara Wall Banman.  I want to tell you how thankful I am for all that you have done for me…First, for taking care of my son Cornelius, then taking care of my daughter Sara, and now for myself.  I want to thank you from the depths of my heart for your […]

  Diana was born prematurely at only 5 months gestation.  She weighed only 2 lbs. at birth!  She spent her first 2 ½ months of life in an incubator.  During that two month period, her parents saw many other babies die in their incubators, but Diana kept fighting and developed her lungs.  It is truly a miracle that Diana survived such […]

  Freddy is 31 years old and the oldest of 3 children. His father abandoned the family when he was very young, and his mother made her living washing clothes by hand, earning less than a dollar a day. At age 6, Freddy started school and got his first pair of shoes, which his mother obtained […]

Vladimir is a 25 year old young man who lives in Oruro, Bolivia with his mother and 4 brothers and sisters. His father abandoned the family 10 years ago, and Vladimir supports himself by working as a helper on construction jobs. Vladimir’s problem began about 5 years ago when he was assaulted and hit in the […]

  Denil is one of five children. His father is a carpenter and his mother works as a cleaning lady. Denil has been in and out of the hospital since birth with episodes of not being able to breathe. Each time this happened, his parents would rush him to the hospital. At the hospital, Denil would receive only […]

Julia is a 52 year old mother of 7 children. Her youngest son, Marcelo, is 10 years old. It was because of Marcelo that Julia overcame her fear of having surgery. She wanted to continue working to support him and “give him a good life.” About 3 years ago, Julia noticed a growth on the side of […]

Eva is a 53 year old Quechua Indian woman who lives with her husband, Alberto, in a very remote area of Bolivia. They live in an agricultural community high in the Andes Mountains near Potosi, the highest city in the world. They rode the train all night, traveling more than 300 miles to reach the Mission […]

On a Thursday afternoon at about 4 o’clock, Evelyn came into the Mission of Hope clinic with 3 children in tow. She was so weak that she could hardly walk. She was so very thin that she looked like she was only skin and bones. She looked to be about 50 years old, but she was really only […]

No one thought to take a picture of Lucio. It was an ordinary day at the Mission of Hope clinic. The surgery team had come and gone. The clinic doors opened at 8 a.m. and the first group of patients came in and took their places in the waiting room. Lucio was seated among them. As […]

Samuel is a 40 year old man who lives in Santa Cruz with his wife and 2 children. One Saturday afternoon, Samuel went to the store to buy a loaf of bread. He was at the cash register ready to check out when 3 armed men with revolvers entered the store. They hit Samuel in the face […]

When Jose Luis was born, his parents lived in a very rural area where there were no roads or buses. His father, Ruperto, worked in the fields harvesting crops, when he was able to find work. Ruperto spent most of what he earned to support his alcohol addiction, so there was never enough money for food […]

Sarahi was one our first patients when we opened our free clinic in Santa Cruz, Bolivia in July of 2002. Sarahi was born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus, and a shunt was placed into her brain at birth to drain the excess fluid that would accumulate. In November of 2002, Sarahi came to the US for […]

Susana is a 47-year-old lady who lives with her husband and 6 children in a Mennonite community about 6 hours (by train) from Santa Cruz . When Susana first came to the Mission of Hope clinic in the spring of 2008, she was very discouraged. She had been deaf in both ears for more than 16 years. […]

  Aguinda is a 32 year old mother of six children. Aguinda grew up in a Christian family and at the age of 18, she married the keyboard musician at her church. She worked as a cook’s helper in a Christian mission home for street children until she began having children of her own. When […]