Howdy! For those of you that have supported my previous humanitarian missions, welcome back! To those that may be meeting me for the first time, thank you for visiting my Go Fund Me!

Since 2009, I have made several trips to help provide HIV testing and counselling and basic medical care to several different countries in a few different circumstances. I started in 2009, providing HIV testing and counselling in Ghana and then South Africa in 2010, and then, in 2015 during the refugee crisis, spent about three months in refugee camps in Europe. I spent two months in Calais, France running a first aid and wound care caravan, on my own the majority of the time, and then a month in Camp Moria on Lesvos, Greece with a medical team providing triage, wound care, and physician support to the team's doctors. I'll link more information below if you'd like to read more about the work I did in Europe. Now, I'm back to ask for support again!

I was invited by a friend to join a week long medical mission to Guatemala, from June 22-29th. This mission is with a catholic church in College Station, Texas called St Thomas Aquinas. Although the avenue for this mission is through a Roman Catholic church, the mission itself is completely medical in nature, not religious, and volunteers do not have to be catholic. There will be an optional daily mass for volunteers (and I believe locals), but participation in mass is not mandatory for anyone.

Every year, the team goes to a small town in Guatemala, and then branches out to smaller adjacent villages to provide medical care where there is none. This year, our focus area is a town called Rabinal, Baja Verepaz. We will set up a field clinic in the abandoned catholic parishes in these villages, with several different departments for different medical needs appropriate to patients' conditions. First, all patients will come through Triage, which is where I will primarily be assigned. There will be stations for medical and dental. Dental will almost exclusively be performing tooth extractions, and will be staffed by a dentist and several dental students. There will be several other medical stations, including stations staffed by doctors and nurses to provide medication for chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension, to treat for parasites like scabies and lice, wound care (which is my JAM and I'm hoping to get to participate in), pre-natal/pregnancy care, and more. I've seen pictures of previous missions, and they tend to always have a line of people around the church seeking care. This is the kind of volume I worked with in the refugee camps in Europe, and I'm looking forward to helping get the hundreds of people (or more) get the medical attention that they need.

I wasn't planning on making a Go Fund Me for this trip, as I am working full time and the expenses are lower than previous missions I've been on, but I found out last week that I need ear surgery on May 5th that is going to cost me the rest of my out-of-pocket maximum, about USD3,700. The funds raised on this page will NOT be going towards my medical expenses for surgery, only the trip to Guatemala.

Here are details about the expenses that I'm raising money for:

There is a program fee of $1200 that is paid to the church that covers return airfare from Houston to Guatemala City, lodging, in-country transportation, and most (maybe all) meals. I have raised $800 of that program fee so far, so I have another $400 to go. This is priority number one. I will post a list of the donors and their donations that I received prior to making this Go Fund Me page.

After that, the funds will be used in this general order:

2) Medical supplies that I need for triage, some new, and some replacing very low quality/broken items items I already have in my med kit: a high quality stethoscope, an otoscope, a high quality blood pressure cuff, batteries for my automated blood pressure cuff (not always accurate, hence the manual BP cuff), approximately five sets of scrubs, a clinic-appropriate pair of shoes, and possibly other supplies if they haven't been shipped to Guatemala already and if I have room to take them in my carry on.

3) My airfare from LAX to Houston on the evening of June 21st. I will be coming from a wedding in SoCal on a red eye on the 21st to meet the team in Houston to fly to Guatemala City later on the morning of the 22nd.

4) Gifts for my host family in Rabinal, where I will be staying for the majority (and maybe all) of the week we are there.

5) Any unexpected in-country expenses I encounter while in Guatemala, things like meals out if we have the chance to do so at all

6) Lastly, offsetting the cost of my week off of work and related expenses (like my insurance premium that will be at least $100 higher than normal).

I really appreciate your time and donations. I will be keeping a list of things purchased before-hand and will try to keep an accurate account of any in-country expenses I have while there. I will also be taking pictures and will have stories to share and a report when I return. I do not believe I will have access to internet while I am in Guatemala, so you may not hear from me until I return home on the 29th of June.

Thank you so much for your support, and as always, I will put your donations to good use: to treat and care for as many people as possible. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me through the contact function here on Go Fund Me. I tried to list my number and email but apparently Go Fund Me won't allow me to list it here, but I think I can send it in a direct message.

Love, Dillon.

Here is a bit more about my previous work:

My GoFundMe from the refugee crisis in 2015 *DO NOT DONATE TO THAT PAGE*, the donation will go into the void forever.

Article interviewing my medical lead from Lesvos

The photo I used for this page is of me and my medical lead from Lesvos, Dr Siyana Mahroof-Shaffi, who is still a dear friend to me. It is the same image in the second link above. Photo credit goes to Laura Dean at 'The World' publication. I wasn't interviewed for that piece, but am pictured with Dr Mahroof-Shaffi.