This email comes from the Doctor on the ground in Ethiopia that sent Brano.
Read the last line especially- nobody has asked about him and he has now been gone from home for 5 weeks.
This is real stuff from the front line.
From Doc Rick Rodes in Ethiopia to jim
Please give me your mailing address, I will burn you a CD and mail it to you.
In short, I am based at a Catholic facility xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxx
though the nuns don't like to have that name in print) and I work in 3
areas: heart disease (congenital and rheumatic), spine disease (TB of
the spine and severe scoliosis), and I treat kids for cancer. People
come from all over the country to be treated by me.
In the past few years, I have sent 50 spine patients overseas for
surgery, 24 heart patients, and treated over 20 cancer patients.
Besides my normal, very busy clinic which is completely free.
My mom lives in Laguna Niguel, and I have a brother in Laguna Beach.
Internet here is very slow.
Getting containers cleared from customs here is almost impossible.
I am employed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, www.jdc.org
a 95 year old NGO based in NYC which passes 100% of donations on to
us. It is very well run and highly respected, no problem with the tax
part. And though I am a Jew (based in a Catholic mission), the
patients are all religions and ethnicities. My program was recently
examined very closely by a team from the Ministry of Health here, who
gave us a fantastic evaluation.
I see my role here as helping people that nobody else is interested
in. You can see some pics on the Reader's Digest website, just type
Hodes into the search engine.
Contributions can be made by check (AJJDC, 711 3rd Ave, 10th floor,
NY, NY 10017, att: Will Recant - checks should be marked "for
Ethiopian project"), or via the JDC website.
The website you cite is blocked here, i will be happy to see it next
time I'm in the USA.
My life is financially poor, otherwise rich, quite chaotic and
stressful, but ultimately very happy.
Berhanu has an uncle in the village but he has not called me. Nobody
has asked for any pics. Social worker? It' only me!
thanks.
rick
1 comments:
What an amazing and compassionate man.
Just FYI: here is what I found by searching on the Reader's Digest website -- just type http://www.rd.com in the address bar, and when the page comes up just type in "Hodes" in the search box.
You'll find information on Dr. Hodes and a video and many pictures of kids he's helped and kids he's adopted. Dr. Hodes has had up to 20 kids living with him at a time. What a wonderful, wonderful man - God bless Dr. Hodes real good.
Karen
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