Thank You from LWB’s Chairman of the Board

What a wonderful week we spent in Antigua during our 2024 Guatemala Cleft Mission Trip. Such a beautiful place and such kind and loving people. I have had the weekend to reflect on last week’s cleft surgeries and the team who made them possible.

Over 50 wonderful new smiles. Over 50 mothers with tears of joy.

All of the love shown in so many ways. What a week!

At our charity, we talk a lot about the LWB heart — a heart inscribed with love for children and a simple, but oh so important, belief that Every Child Counts. We always strive to do the right thing; to live out compassion; to build community; and to get stuff done.

While I know that this kind of LWB heart is in action every day in all of our programs around the world, this week I had the opportunity to see it every minute of each of our seven days of the cleft surgery trip.

At times, seeing the LWB heart in action brought emotions that were a bit hard to contain. 

The individual acts of love I saw are too many to list. This care was so apparent during intake day, as the medical team found ways to include every possible child for surgery, no matter their special needs.

From bubbles to sidewalk chalk to everything they could think of, the family support team kept these little ones laughing and distracted from the confusion of a place so different from their villages. 

In pre-op, the mamas were comforted and assured, as often a hug and gentle word makes all the difference in the world.

I witnessed love in action in the ORs, where the medical team demands perfection from themselves, often challenging one another to deliver such wonderful results for their patients.

The LWB heart was evident in post-op, where moms can be so full of joy that their child is recovering while also being scared of the IVs and oxygen. The love and skill of the PACU nurses comforts the moms more than any words ever could.

The LWB cleft team was wonderful, and I do not have the words to truly express what I observed this week among them. I hope you can see it in the faces and love captured in all the photos that our team shared here on our blog throughout the week.  

While I send each team member my deepest thanks, I know the true thanks for this team comes in the smiles of the little ones and the tears of joy from their moms. What could possibly be better?

Thank you for bringing your love and hearts, along with your skills and hard work. We may never fully know the great life changes that each of you were part of this week, but we saw a glimpse of it in all those beautiful little faces.

Alan Dahl
Chairman, Love Without Boundaries Foundation

2024 Guatemala Cleft Trip Team

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