News Archives - Healing The Children Northeast, Inc.

Stories from Ukraine

April 12, 2026/0 Comments/in News/by andrea

I traveled to Krakow, Poland to meet up with the team before arriving in
Ukraine. It was a nice reunion, as I haven’t seen many of them since last
May. This is my fifth trip to Ukraine, three of the five trips were working
at this military hospital with HTCNE & Razom. Razom translates to “together”
and is an American-Ukrainian organization who hosts us during our time in
Ukraine. We are part of their “Co-Pilot” program, making it possible for
Ukrainian doctors to learn from the West.

We worked at the Military Hospital in Lviv and the first day we screened
patients and set up the operating rooms. Almost all the patients are male
soldiers, as well as two female civilians. For the past several months the
team has met on Zoom to virtually screen patients, deciding which surgeons
will do which case, but now in person final decisions are made. We store 6
large suitcases of supplies with our host Razom and we also brought 12 more
bags of supplies with us.

It is a very busy work week and the days blend together. The hospital is a
20 minute walk to our hotel. The surgeries are all head and neck, some were
for facial paralysis (nerve damage), severe eye injuries, facial
reconstruction. On this mission, there were 2 specialists that make custom
ocular prosthetics. From the patients CT scans, they make new “eyes” even
hand painting the exact eye color for the patient. Remarkable work. This
prosthesis is helping the patients re-enter society after their devastating
injuries. Some of the surgeries were nerve transfers, soft tissue (not bone)
transfers to build up lost facial tissue, taking fascia from the thigh to
fill in the side of the face that has a large defect, and ear reconstruction
to name a few. I tried to be sure to speak to every patient as they entered
the OR (with a translator). I introduce myself and reassure the patient
that our team will take very good care of them and it is our honor to take
care of them. They are all so thankful and appreciative that we came there
to help them. Some of the patients our team has cared for on previous
missions, so now it’s time to continue the reconstructive process, so for me
there are some familiar faces.

Aside from our busy work week, Lviv was attacked by drones on Tuesday, March
24th. The day started for us at 4am with the warning to seek shelter. I have
apps on my phone that will sound an alarm if there is a threat of drones,
missiles etc. There is a map that shows which regions are at risk. It is
very loud. The instructions are to go to the basement of the hotel where
there are no windows. We were there about an hour and a half. At 5:30am it
was time to get ready for work, eat breakfast and go to the hospital at 7am.
We started the day a bit more tired, but everyone continued to do their jobs
as usual. In the afternoon, while we were actively doing our cases, the
alarm sounded again. Sometime, around 4:30pm we were told that a drone hit a
building on St Andrew Church property in Lviv. I have visited this church on
other trips and 2 days earlier when we were walking home from the hospital.
There were 556 drones deployed across Ukraine that day and 541 were
successfully intercepted. Unfortunately, 15 drones did get through. Overall,
between March 23rd & March 24th, a total of 948 strike drones were launched.

We did 35 surgeries this week. It was very busy and exhausting for all. My
team of nurses and techs were terrific. Six of us have been on this mission
before and I had 2 new Canadian nurses on this trip. Everyone worked so well
together and each one knew how to do their job well. Each day varied with
the finishing of cases and we left the hospital between 8:30-10pm. Leaving
the last day, there are always hugs, many thanks and small gifts to the
local staff that help us all week. They are so appreciative that we come to
help their people. I joined the surgeons that were seeing the patients on
rounds. I usually never see a patient once they leave the operating room. It
is meaningful to me to see them awake, alert and many are actually smiling!
They are so very appreciative that our team came to care for them.

Written by Susan Ketigian, a HTCNE Board Member & Volunteer RN
March 2026

Stories from the Road: Weill-Bugando Medical Center, Tanzania

March 31, 2026/in News, Uncategorized/by andrea

A resident provides a unique perspective on humanitarian surgery and capacity building in Tanzania. Click to read more

Helping Local Children

March 31, 2026/in News/by andrea

On July 29, 2025, Healing the Children Northeast presented a check to Katy Francis of United Way’s Back-to-School Program. Healing the Children Northeast’s Domestic Kids Program has provided medical treatment and assistance to children in our local communities, and this year we were pleased to present a $1,000 grant to the Back-to-School Backpack Program servicing 320 children in New Milford. We are proud to send local kids back to school with the supplies and essentials they need for a successful school year.

Annual Appeal Letter

February 27, 2026/in News/by andrea

Dear Friend,

It is that time again when we like to share our activities with you to let you know where we have been during the year, and where we are going next year.

Since January of 2025, our Medical Teams Abroad Program has sent our volunteer surgical teams to Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Ukraine and Tanzania to operate on children with cleft lips & palates and other facial deformities:

Click to Continue Reading

Congratulations Missy Law, Director of HTCNE

September 30, 2025/in Events, Happening Now, News/by andrea

HTCNE Board Members and Staff celebrate Missy Law’s 40 years of service

September 15, 2025, marked Melissa “Missy” Law’s 40^th work anniversary with Healing the Children Northeast. This milestone speaks volumes about her unwavering commitment to help those in need. Over the years, Missy has been a driving force behind the organization’s growth and impact, working tirelessly to streamline operations, reduce costs, and enhance efficiency. Her dedication ensures that HTCNE can reach and support as many children as possible.

Missy writes, “I came to volunteer at HTCNE in 1985 when my first son was born and I was a volunteer for the first nine years. When HTCNE brought children to the U.S. to receive medical treatment, several did not have a foster placement, and I opened my home and heart to those children who are now healthy adults. Throughout the years, I have worked in each program but the Medical Teams Abroad program has always been where my heart is. I feel honored to work with the greatest group of people- both medical team personnel, office staff, and foreign hosts. It is so rewarding to send these teams out and see the end-results in how many children we were able to help versus bringing in one child at a time. The gratification is to see how our team changed their life! This organization has changed my life and I feel privileged to have such a rewarding job!”

Congratulations Missy! Your passion and perseverance continue to inspire. Thank you for everything you do!

Medical Trip to Santa Marta, Colombia

September 30, 2025/in Events, News/by andrea

In October 2024, after the medical trip to Santa Marta, Colombia, 8 team members did a four-day trek to The Lost City. The Lost City or “Ciudad Perdida” is the archaeological site of an ancient city in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, which is believed to have been founded about 800 AD. It was discovered in 1972 and is only accessible by trekking through the jungle. On day two of their hike, the guide showed the team members a school for local indigenous children, but it was a Sunday, and the school was not in session. On the way back to Santa Marta, the team stopped again at the school on a Tuesday when the children were there and met Natalia Feria, a teacher at the school. Dr. Eddie Castillo asked Natalia what would be the number one thing that the school needs and she said, “solar panels”. The school receives help from the government with the School Food Plan (PAE). Food gets shipped every 15 days and they supplement it with food they grow, such as plantain, yuca, malanga, and other tubers. The weather is hot and humid, and food perishes quickly without refrigeration, leaving nothing for the children to eat except rice and grains. Animal products and vegetables just don’t last. They have no electrical power, making conventional refrigerators and coolers useless. The only solution in this remote setting is the use of solar powered refrigerators and freezers. These refrigerators would allow them to store food for longer periods and feed the children breakfast and lunch. As Natalia said, “We want to properly feed these children and if possible, eliminate hunger.”

In 2025, Healing the Children Northeast raised $10,000 USD for The Lost City Elementary School Fund, which provided for solar panels for the school. With the help of UNIMA (our in-country hosts in Santa Marta, Colombia, where we send medical teams twice a year) they coordinated the logistics to get the equipment, tech support, delivery, and installation of the solar panels to the community, which was done by a team of donkeys. Healing the Children Northeast and the Santa Marta team are pleased to be able to fight hunger by providing solar electricity and refrigeration to this school for indigenous children.

Natalia Feria, a teacher at the school, provided a write up on the need in this community: “The Lost City Elementary School ‘AMOR’ was built as a donation from a Swedish family. It found its origin from the vulnerabilities that exist in the indigenous communities that inhabit the path of The Lost City in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, Colombia. Although these communities are entirely autonomous, when confronted with civilization they had the need to assert their rights before civilians and the state to protect their existence. It is for that main purpose as to why the school exists today. The native communities need to read, write and be represented in government to preserve their culture and autonomy. Of the native peoples, the most represented are the Arhuacos, Wiwa and Kogui cultures. Most kids at the school are Kogui’s, the remaining are Wiwa’s who live closer to the school. These communities are governed by the law of origin which is to go at the pace of nature, its processes, and cycles. In these communities, education consists of preserving their way of life by preserving their land, autonomy, and roots. This is taught at home by parents and elders. At the AMOR school, we have our own education model. The goal is to comply with all the legal requirements set by the Ministry of Education and at the same time imprinting a very valuable cultural seal. For example, in addition to cultural curriculum, we teach weaving, sawing, planting and mother tongue classes. We constantly seek the advice, support, and wisdom from the native elders in the community who visit the school. As for myself, an attorney from Bogota, when I first came to this community as a tourist in January of 2022, little did I know that I would be fulfilling my life mission here which is to help. God led me here to this marvelous place with so many beautiful children. My role as an educator is to help them preserve their culture and autonomy. History has seen many civilizations perish due to disease, malnutrition, and ignorance. That is why I could not leave. No one can think and create if they are hungry. Thanks to our persistence, today we have 65 students from different parts of the mountain. As we grow, our goal is to expand by opening a Kindergarten. We project a growth to over 80 children within the year.”

August 1, 2025/in News, Newsletter/by andrea

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Medical Trip to Mwanza, Tanzania

July 23, 2025/in News/by Missy Law

Written by Sarah Kim, MD ENT Resident

This spring, our multidisciplinary team of the Northeast branch for Healing the Children —comprised of speech-language pathologists, facial plastic surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, administrators, and volunteers—embarked on the third annual mission to Mwanza, Tanzania. We served at Bugando Medical Center (BMC), a remarkable tertiary referral and teaching hospital on the shores of Lake Victoria. As the largest hospital in western Tanzania, BMC serves a population of roughly 13–15 million people across Tanzania’s Lake and Western Zones.

On arrival, the team was quickly embraced by the familiar faces of the hospital residents and staff who were essential in coordinating each patient’s clinic visit for the pre-operative screening day and serving as our translators as we sought to learn more about their medical history and discuss individualized surgical approach for a vast array of ailments. In a deeply humbling experience, we met with patients and their families who were brought to the clinic after suffering significant motor vehicle trauma leading to loss of limbs, and poorly healed tissue after multiple revision surgeries. We met with children with congenital facial clefts that were unable to receive prior workup or treatment, now with functional deficits such as vision loss. When hyena were attacking a patient and his friends, he stepped in to save his brother from a violent attack, and sustained devastating facial injuries.

With our operating room schedule outlined for the week, the Healing the Children team worked together meticulously to set up supplies generously donated for the trip. Three operating rooms were set aside for the surgeons this week, where we were joined by dozens of residents and medical students working in the hospital who have traveled from many countries around the world to train at this hospital center. On each bus ride to the hospital each morning, we held a team huddle led by the lead surgeon Dr. Dane Barrett where each group planned out the daily goals and actionable items. Come evening, we gathered for communal dinners at the Ryan’s Bay hotel. Over shared meals, we reflected on patient stories, clinical challenges, cultural insights, and personal growth.

On our final evening, BMC’s residents hosted an unforgettable lakeside celebration. Under the stars, we shared song and dance and in a beautiful gesture of gratitude, the residents had prepared for the volunteer team hand-sewn dresses for the women, while the men were gifted traditional wear—tokens of cultural pride and appreciation. Despite the long, arduous travel, the trip was richly rewarding and affirmed the power of cross-disciplinary teamwork in low-resource settings. We returned home not only with memories of challenging cases but with lifelong friendships, renewed purpose, and a deeper understanding of global health. In a hospital that handles a quarter-million outpatient visits annually and thousands of inpatients daily, our contributions—though small—were magnified by the hospital’s footprint.

International Inbound Update: Nagalem

June 1, 2025/in News/by Missy Law

Written by HTCNE Board Member and Trip Administrator Casey Saussy

Through our International Inbound Program, HTCNE continues to support nine-year-old Nagalem, from southwestern Ethiopia, who had a large venous malformation on her neck and jaw. HTCNE brought her to the US in 2021 for treatment and continues to support her health and dental care needs. Unfortunately now the malformation is coming back. She requires steroid injections to slow and potentially stop the regrowth. She can not get these injections in Ethiopia and our team is working with specialists that might be able to treat her again in the US. In the meantime, we are monitoring her situation and will provide financial support for her medical expenses as needed.