Esperanca is a global health non-profit that provides life-changing programs to over 100,000 people a year. We provide poor children and families with surgical missions, training to grow nutritious food microbusinesses, building safe housing, access to clean water and preventing as well as treating diseases.

Each year, Esperança is able to send a 40-foot container packed full of donated medical supplies to the developing world.  These donations are used by local health professionals, as well as by our own volunteer surgical teams to change the lives of poor through operations and medical services. All of the medical supplies are donated from business and individuals in the Phoenix metropolitan area and other states in the continental U.S.

Volunteers are needed to deliver boxes of medical supplies to our partner located in Tempe, Az. Volunteers will load boxes from our Esperanca office into our partner’s provided vehicle, deliver the boxes to the partner’s office and unload them. Volunteers will need their own transportation to pick-up the partner’s provided vehicle but not to transport the medical supplies.

Location: Volunteers will drive between Esperança’s office located at 1911 W. Earll Drive, Phoenix, Arizona 85015 and our partner’s office located in southwest Tempe.

Key Responsibilities:

• Pick up/drop off medical supplies
• Carry, load and unload boxes

Qualifications:

• At least 18 years of age
• Driver’s license required with clean driving record and vehicle insurance
• Reliable transportation
• Dependable and friendly
• Flexibility with scheduling -  times are between 9:00am to 3:00pm, Monday through Friday
• Be in good physical condition; able to move boxes weighing at least 25lbs

Time Commitment: Once a week for 4 hours; flexible schedules.

Contact: If you are interested in volunteering with us, please contact Anna Ortiz, Surgical Program Coordinator via email or 602-252-7772 x114

Today marks the beginning of the $2 Challenge! The $2 Challenge is a challenge taken by students to put themselves into the shoes of the nearly 50% of people worldwide who live off of less than two dollars per day. Come to the front of the Student Union at the ASU Polytechnic campus and join us in raising awareness of global poverty!

-       Michelle Marco, ASU Student

Esperança is one of the expected nonprofit organizations to participate in in Arizona Gives Day, an online fundraising initiative, scheduled to take place on Wednesday, April 9^th. Arizona Gives Day is a 24-hour online fundraiser aimed at bringing together communities across the state, to raise awareness and financial support for a variety of nonprofit organizations throughout Arizona. Arizonans are encouraged to help make a difference by investing in the nonprofit of their choice.

“AZ Gives Day is a great opportunity for us to share the mission of Esperança and the hope that we give to so many.” Said Tom Egan President and CEO of Esperança.

Your Arizona Gives Day donation helps us to achieve our mission of improving health and providing hope for families in the poorest communities of the world through sustainable disease prevention, education and treatment. Your support for Esperanҫa in the hours of 10:00 am to 11:00 am could help us win a $1,000!

Please be sure your donation is scheduled time to make a donation on Arizona Gives Day (04/09/20140).  We are asking supporters to take time on April 9^th from 10:00 am to 11:00 am to make a donation to Esperanҫa at http://azgives.razoo.com/story/Esperanca . By doing so you will help us win a prize of $1,000!

I am so honored that 10 of our Esperança supporters choose to travel with us to Jinotega, Nicaragua to see our work in action.  Our donors had the opportunity to put on scrubs and go into the operating room and observe our volunteer plastic surgeon bringing hope to the women and children there. They also helped build latrines for families that will provide healthier living conditions. They witnessed the opening of a women’s co-op that is selling eggs to a local bakery to provide jobs and income to 28 rural women that will transform their community.

As we completed this years mission we began thinking of our 2015 trip, while nothing is official at this point, we are considering a trip to our newest program site, Cuzco, Peru. The city of Cuzco is well-known for its famous attraction, Machu Picchu, and thousands of tourists pass through this city on an annual basis. What many don’t know is that just beyond the city and in the Peruvian highlands lies hundreds of small rural villages with families who live in conditions of extreme poverty on a daily basis. The people have expressed concern for malnourished children, unclean drinking water, and the poor housing conditions that families are living in.

Our plans for bringing health to the Peruvian people include:

• Building ecological homes that are safe, environmentally-friendly and decrease risk for disease
• Training local farmers on using indigenous potato varieties for improved agricultural production
• Educating families on the prevention of diseases like diarrhea, respiratory infection and other health illnesses that affect local villages
• Providing clean water sources through water filters and chlorine for each home

-Tom Egan, President and CEO of Espernaca

If you would like to join us or have questions about the 2015 Mission of Hope, please contact Jared Leslie at 602-252-7772 ext. 101 or by email

The San Rafael Clinic is where we got our start with the surgical missions in Jinotega, Nicaragua and on day five of the Mission of Hope we went to where it all started!  With a tour from the director we were able to see the interworking’s of the clinic with our supporters. Currently we still have our general surgical missions utilizing the space in the clinic but the majority of our specialties are now operating at the Hospital directly in Jinotega. The tour of the clinic was touching to think of all of the lives that the countless numbers of doctors have saved and transformed.

Once we left the San Rafael Clinic, the surrounding communities were ready to share their home and hearts with us. We started with a visit to a local women’s co-op that was starting to create a pig farm. The women spoke of how they mobilized as volunteers and how this was the beginning of the change to come to the community. Second we were invited to a community meeting that was upwards or 40 community members that had created one of the largest co-ops we are involved with to date.  We witnessed the passing of the gift to a new member of the co-op.

And just as the Mission of Hope had started, we ended the visit with a chance to see and learn how the work of Dr. Retson and his team had gone.

Latrines were the sight of the day! It is amazing to learn how a latrine is truly the cornerstone for a community’s health. On day four of the Mission of Hope we were in the community of Santa Amalia learning how a latrine is constructed and how the community rallies to be the driving force for their own transformation. The first home we visited had a partially completed latrine and we had the treat of listening to an informational demonstration from Herman the local AVODEC staff that is helping to educate Santa Amalia residents on how to construct a Latrine. The second Home we visited was a Latrine that was just starting and members of the Mission of Hope jumped right in to help dig the trench for this life saving structure.

Day three of the Mission of Hope, had a little later start that allowed the travelers with the group the chance to catch up on sleep. But once we were up we hit the road with the same passion that we had the day before. On this outing we saw Las Lomas one of the larger water systems that AVODEC and Esperanҫa have put in operation within Nicaragua. What a treat this was for our travelers, Las Lomas supports 5 different communities and has allowed thousands of people to have access to clean drinkable water. An interesting fact that was learned on this visit was that all five communities use less water than a single family home in the US! As we followed the systems infrastructure we were able to visit some of the homes that were beneficiaries of the water, we were welcomed with open arms to visit and see how they are using the water.

Once our visit to Las Lomas was complete we were invited to be a part of the ribbon cutting for the new offices for our in-country partner AVODEC. This was a complete surprise to those on the trip and was an amazing sight to see. The community of Jinotega gathered to bless and celebrate this new building that would be the center for hope and transformation for the community.

The evening concluded with the sorting of medical supplies that are used by our volunteer surgical program. The supplies had arrived in such a hurry that they were in need of cataloging and organization and that is where the Mission of Hope Volunteers came in! We worked for over 2 hours and revamped the entire storage, allowing all of the contents to be accessible. We did pause to celebrate the completion of the organizing with a group photo.