News

Post date: July 05, 2011

Title: Record First Quarter for ICSF Surgeries

Teaser:

“A record number of surgeries is being made possible by our donors. We had expected to see donations decrease during the economic downturn, but this has not been the case,” re- ports ICSF President Dr. Geoff Williams. “I don’t know how we could be this fortunate in these hard times—but we are. I hope God pours out many blessings upon our good supporters for the help they are making possible around the world,” says Dr. Williams.

Post date: July 04, 2011

Title: A Record for Blown Kisses

Teaser:

The ICSF medical team in January’s Kabankalan, Philippines, mission witnessed what is probably a record for blown kisses in a twenty-four-hour period. (To clarify, a “blown” kiss is not referring, in this circumstance, to botching a kiss, but rather to the act of placing a kiss on one’s hand and then blowing it toward another individual at a distance).

Post date: July 03, 2011

Title: MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

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The noblest little ones

Post date: July 01, 2011

Title: Future plans for Esther

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by Popular Demand

A number of ICSF’s supporters were particularly touched by the article in our last newsletter about little Esther, a severely burned baby who was treated during ICSF’s October mission to Kenya. Esther healed well from her skin grafting and will be visited by Dr. Williams in his annual October trip to Kenya.

Post date: April 02, 2011

Title: ICSF Serves All Hemispheres October - December to Round Out 2010

Teaser:

First Team Mission to Kenya

In addition to surgical missions to Bolivia, Peru, and Mexico, ICSF served its first team mission to Kenya in the fourth quarter of 2010. An ICSF team composed of American, Filipino, and Kenyan doctors and nurses treated children who had a variety of conditions, including cleft lips and palates, acute burns, and congenital webbing of the arms, during ICSF’s first team mission to the poorest region of Kenya, western Kenya.

Post date: April 01, 2011

Title: Schools for Smiles:

Teaser:

Boise’s BEST students Raise Funds for ICSF

Neil Jaraczek, special education teacher at Borah High School in Boise, Idaho, heard about ICSF and had the idea that fundraising to help ICSF treat children in poor countries would be both fun and therapeutic for his special ed students. He was right!

Post date: April 01, 2011

Title: MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Teaser:

Poor Folks Don’t Care

“These poor folks don’t care, Geoff...you don’t have to make them look perfect!” The date was late February 2006. I had been invited to join a large volunteer team to perform cleft operations in the Philippines. The senior surgeon continued, “These poor folks are just glad to have the hole closed — they really don’t care if it doesn’t look perfect.” I listened quietly as I continued to work on nine-year-old Jenny’s bilateral cleft lip. I had been operating for more than three hours and obviously had drawn the attention of the group’s leadership. It was late — at least for the team I was with at the time — past 5 p.m. On the first day of the mission, in a meeting, the group’s leader had announced that our goal was to be out of the hospital by 4 p.m. every day so that we could make it to the beach for a few hours of R&R.

Post date: March 31, 2011

Title: Bolivia Mission Draws Local Media

Teaser:

Arianna was the star of the show. Being born with a complete bilateral cleft lip can have its advantages, if you want to become a television hit at four months of age. Arianna was featured on a morning television show both before and after her surgery by ICSF. TV cameras also caught her in action drinking milk a day after surgery.

Post date: December 16, 2009

Title: ICSF Keeps Promise to Jayson

Teaser:

Jayson was just one of a number of children who did not receive surgery by ICSF in the May Philippines mission. He, and 130 other children, had registered for the mission in Dipolog, but the ICSF team was unable to accommodate all who came, in spite of working past midnight on several occasions. Dr. Williams explains, "With this large number of kids who showed up to be treated, we could have remedied the problem by cutting down on quality and performing the surgeries quickly. This, however, would have been against ICSF’s principles.

Post date: December 13, 2009

Title: ICSF Serves Seven Missions in the Thrid Quarter

Teaser:

ICSF’s donors enabled ICSF medical teams to provide sixty-nine children with free surgery in the Philippines, Bolivia, Peru and Mexico in the third quarter (July-September). “Our donors are unusual and rare folks,” says Dr. Williams. “Every time I see a child with his or her mother after surgery, I think of our donors making all of this possible. It is humbling to see how much folks care about poor kids in distant lands .”