The Foundation: Overview
The Paul Chester Children's Hope Foundation (PCCHF) provides medical assistance to children and families in developing countries, giving them a chance to live productive lives through well-conceived medical interventions. We perform reconstructive surgery (i.e. club foot and cleft palate repair, burn scar revision, ear tubes, eye surgery, etc.) and work to arrest preventable, curable diseases (e.g. trachoma, glaucoma).
The Foundation provides highly specialized medical assistance to individuals and families in developing countries where such services are unavailable due to logistics or economic circumstances. The Foundation harnesses the expertise of medical professionals and local agencies to identify opportunities for maximum social impact, and then funds and completes the medical or surgical interventions deemed most viable.
The PCCHF core base is made up of volunteers - both medical and administrative, which vary from 50-200 in any given year. On the organizational side, the small group is made up of 5-7 dedicated individuals who meet regularly to discuss, plan and pilot missions. Our medical volunteers coordinate, and execute the missions with the assistance of logistics volunteers and in-country counterparts who have requested our assistance.
A typical mission takes place over ten days with a team of medical professionals and organizers in collaboration with officials from the host country. The number of surgeries performed is directly linked to funding, number of volunteers and the capacity of the local hospital.
For example, a 2003 mission to Ecuador resulted in 110 successful surgeries, with a team of 20 foreign medical volunteers. Safe passage for supplies and staff was provided by the Consul General and the First Lady of Ecuador. The medical procedures provided largely addressed disfiguring conditions that have a tremendously negative impact on the livelihood of the afflicted individual.
In addition to birth defects (club foot, cleft lip), the teams focus on repairing injuries caused by burns. In cases of significant physical deformity, the children - and consequently their families - are ostracized from the community and are unable to participate society in any effective manner.
During the screening process, emphasis is placed on those individuals that can be most assisted through one time surgery and that require minimal local follow-up. However, by partnering with local physicians, these doctors can - and do - use the experience gained from the missions to continue the volunteer effort in their country. The physicians in the local countries then often arrange for extended visits to the US in order to observe and learn new techniques and technology to deliver better care in their home country.
The Foundation is led by Dr. Bill Chester, a Washington, DC-based physician who specializes in anesthesiology. Through his global network of physicians, Dr. Chester organizes these volunteer, self-funded medical missions.
Our History
The Foundation was co-founded by Dr. Bill Chester and Roxolana Kuzmak in 2004 to honor the memory of Paul Chester, whose tragic death at age 16 cut short a life determined to help those less fortunate. Paul's last days were spent in preparation to accompany his father, Dr. Bill Chester, on a medical mission. The Paul Chester Children's Hope Foundation was established to honor the spirit and passion of this remarkable young man, and to sustain the vital work that Paul had hoped to accomplish in his life.
During its founding stage, The Paul Chester Children's Hope Foundation was sponsored by the Pan American Medical Society (PAMS). PAMS was established over 70 years ago as a scientific, humanitarian, and educational institution in Washington, DC, has recently begun an active program of overseas medical missions serving the countries of South and Central America. Missions to South and Central America will continue to be run as a joint effort between the two organizations. Dr. Bill Chester is the President-elect for 2005 of PAMS.
Bill Chester's own commitment to providing medical aid to developing nations includes nearly two decades of volunteer and self-funded missions with Operation Smile, Children of the Andes and the Pan American Medical Society. Through his international medical network, he has organized and participated in life-changing missions to Kenya, Ghana, Vietnam, Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador.
Roxolana has known Bill for over 15 years and watched Paul grow up through those years. They met in Washington DC, and have complementary experience. Dr. Chester has extensive experience on the medical side of these missions, while Roxolana has considerable organizational experience thru her 9 years of work with the governments in developing countries in International Development with the World Bank, IFC and USAID.
During her time with these agencies, she traveled extensively throughout the third world and witnessed first hand the need for assistance. Roxolana firmly believes that the need for treatment for these physically and emotionally debilitating disfigurements is overwhelming and that the impact surgery can have is enormous, not only on the child, but on the family - and ultimately on the community.
Our Programs
Mission Program
PCCHF provides medical assistance to children and families in developing countries, giving them a chance to live productive lives through well-conceived medical interventions.
We perform reconstructive surgery (i.e. club foot and cleft palate repair, burn scar revision, ear tubes, eye surgery, etc.) and work to arrest preventable, curable diseases (e.g. trachoma, glaucoma).
Our goal is not to alter health-care delivery in the countries where we operate; rather, we recognize that in many cases, a 1-2 hour surgical procedure can radically change the life of individuals afflicted with some of the most disfiguring and debilitating conditions. Mission identification is a collaborative effort between host country doctors and PCCHF. The number of missions we can execute is directly related to our funding.
We are currently focused on identifying and executing two missions per year, with the objective that this will grow to 5 missions per year in two to three years.
Missions
Ecuador and Kenya: Medium-term Medical Intervention Program
These programs focus on debilitating diseases that are either medically or geographically contained. Through our focused intervention, we are able to alleviate - and in some cases contain or eradicate - the affliction. These programs rely on closer collaboration with local medical staff as well as with local implementers and NGO's . These programs take place in stages, with the final stage achieving a sustainable impact (i.e. a fully functioning clinic for follow-up and monitoring).
More information is available on our missions page, or email info@pcchf.org.
Kenya River Blindness Project, 2005 to 2010
Paul Chester Children's Hope Foundation To Partner With The Gallmann Africa Conservancy
Author and Conservationist Kuki Gallmann to lead initiative providing vital medical services to Kenya's tribal communities
NEW YORK, September 22, 2005 - The Paul Chester Children's Hope Foundation (PCCHF), a humanitarian organization that provides free medical services to communities worldwide, announces their partnership with The Gallmann Africa Conservancy to establish a limited, treatment program for undeserved tribal communities in Laikipia, Kenya. The announcement comes on the heels of PCCHF's 10-day Kenya mission during which over 250 individuals from 4 surrounding tribes were given free ophthalmic and gynecological care.
PCCHF has agreed to support the construction, fitting out, and staffing of a local maternity ward at Ol Moran which is under construction OL Moran Maternity Clinic & Health Center. PCCHF will work with The Gallmann Conservancy in providing additional medical expertise to surrounding tribes beginning in early 2006. The partnership represents the shared vision of Kuki Gallmann, celebrated for her conservation work and her acclaimed memoir, I Dreamed of Africa, and Dr. Bill Chester, an anesthesiologist who founded the PCCHF in memory of his son Paul.
The program will leverage Gallmann's influence as a community advocate and a governor of many prized national institutions, as well as her tremendous base of support among the Laikipia tribes. Says Chester, "Through Kuki, we can be certain that our efforts will be secure and will reach the people who need help the most."