Local company aids Central America

O'Keeffe's Company of Sisters has no problem finding international markets for its Working Hands and Working Feet cremes. This week the company made a very special shipment to a particularly needy market: O'Keeffe's donated more than 50 cases of hand and foot creme to a small village in Guatemala.

It's actually the second time that Tara O'Keeffe-Broadbent has donated her product to a project that brings medical care to Mayan Indians in the central highlands of the Central American nation.

Each year retired pediatrician Dr. John Ries of Sisters joins a HELPS International medical mission to Solola, Guatemala, located at 8,200 feet in rugged, largely deforested mountains. He provides pediatric care while other doctors and surgeons of the HELPS Cascade Medical Team provide other services for villagers who come from miles around to seek treatment for a range of diseases and conditions.

"We deal exclusively with the indigenous Mayan people," said Dr. Ries.

Cleft palates are endemic in the region, due to a deficiency of nutrients.

"Protein deficiency is a real problem in the country," Dr. Ries said, noting that the farmers live almost solely on maize.

Another endemic problem is excema and other skin conditions. That's where O'Keeffe's comes in.

O'Keeffe's Company donated last year, and word quickly circulated about this nearly miraculous creme that soothed and healed hands mangled by work in the fields. The villagers clamored for the creme as they queued up for services, crying "Crema! Crema!"

Dr. Ries took pictures on the trip and shared them with O'Keeffe-Broadbent when he returned.

"I was pretty moved by the pictures I saw when he came back," she said.

So moved that she decided to put her pharmacists license to work and accompany the mission when it returned to Solola. She will assist the medical team when they head south in February 2008.

"I'm looking forward to it," she said. "I think I'll get more out of it - as much out of it - as the people we'll be helping."

Any farmer who works hard with his or her hands will develop some skin problems. That's what Working Hands Creme was invented to help. In Solola, the farmers are confronted with other factors. The high altitude is tough on the skin, and they heat their homes with open fires that cause skin damage and sometimes severe burns when children fall into the flames.

To cut this problem at the quick, HELPS International and Rotary International field "Stove Teams" to build small brick and metal stoves in each home. The materials are all made in Guatemala, and each stove ends up costing about $125.

There is another project to provide simple yet effective water filtration.

"Parasites are a real problem for both the kids and the adults," Ries said.

The hand creme will be stored in the HELPS International warehouse in Eugene until the team goes to Guatemala in February. They'll ship down a full scale clinic, with surgery tables, lights and everything required to serve the 1,600 patients they'll see in a week.

For more information visit http://www.helpsintl.org.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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