'Helping Hands' and helping hearts!

By LAUREEN McMAHON

Talk about crash training!

Soon after Clara Kwan, a member of St. Paul’s Parish in Richmond, arrived in Cotija, Mexico, to work with Catholic-based Helping Hands Medical Missions, she found herself at a doctor’s elbow, handing him operating instruments and assisting with surgical procedures.

It was the thrill of a lifetime, Kwan told The B.C. Catholic, to join others working with Helping Hands, which provides medical and surgical expertise, primary care, and house calls to indigent families in the rural areas of several developing countries.

Although acknowledging that the learning curve was very steep, the future doctor says she was well supervised at all times and tremendously grateful for the experience.

“Nowhere else but in this setting,” Kwan told The B.C. Catholic, “could I have had this kind of on-the-job training. It was a unique opportunity to really come to terms with my future goals. I got to know myself very well under pressure and now I can’t wait to become a doctor!”

The Simon Fraser graduate in kinesiology is now busy applying to foreign medical schools from her parents’ home, and expects to begin training at a university as early as this fall.

Volunteering at the Mexican mission, she said, was certainly the hardest work she had ever done in her life!

“The language barrier alone was difficult, but I loved every minute of it. I would recommend Helping Hands to anyone who wants to make a difference in the lives of underprivileged families.”

Helping Hands Medical Missions was founded as a non-profit Catholic apostolate in Texas. Medical professionals and volunteers come from all over the U.S. and Canada to have the opportunity to serve others and to share their faith at the same time.

“We really practised our faith each day very seriously,” said Kwan. “We had Mass, said the Rosary, did the Stations of the Cross, and also had Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The joy of sharing our medical skills was combined with growing spiritually.”

Established in 1996, Helping Hands Medical Missions works in co-operation with the Legionaries of Christ. Many people around the world, said Kwan, donate to HHMM.

The volunteers must pay their own expenses, including air fare, and a mission fee to cover ground transportation, food, housing, and general expenses.

In lieu of money, Kwan said, “We come away having lived out a transforming experience.”

More information on Helping Hands Medical Missions is available from Kwan at 604-271-0679 or mission@hhmm.org.