The team will return for the third time to the Mainpat Tibetan Refugee camps.  We will provide medical, veterinary, alternative power, vision and education projects.  We have a very exciting team assembled many who are new to this mission.  We are grateful to have these volunteers go to the camps to help improve the lives of others.  We will have doctors, nurses and lay people giving medical support and vision care.  We have a great “McGyver” team (RG and MR) who will maintain and expand the solar power footprint. They will also be tasked with construction and maintenance projects as they arise.  Our veterinary team will once again treat sick animals, provide rabies and distemper/parvo vaccinations and continue animal population studies.  This will eventually help Senestech bring humane animal population control to the world. (www.senestech.com)  The Tibetan monks will have support with their education and living needs.  It is HERO’s goal to a build healthy, sustainable community within the settlement.

This short cut of Stephen DeVol’s upcoming documentary, “The Iron Bird” was shown at the Sedona International Film Festival in February.

It has been several months since our return from the Tibetan Refugee Camps in Mainpat, India. I have recuperated and I have been moving forward with more missions. HERO is expanding their area of service as there seems to be need everywhere.

Our mission to Mainpat went very well. We treated over 1000 people and hit the ground running. We arrived early in the morning after a 17 hour bus ride from the airport. We got settled in and by noon we were treating our first patients. The team comprised many new volunteers who were eager to get started. Every day we set up clinic at one of the seven camps within the settlement. We treated malaria, vitamin A deficiency, infectious diarrhea, wounds, diabetes, hypertension, etc. We were able to provide medicine, vitamins, eyeglasses, sunglasses, nutritional support, etc.

Our new project this year was “solar cookers” led by Laura McGrath of HERO. Laura established a working relationship with a supplier in India and huge cookers were purchased by HERO from funds Laura raised. Each Monastery and camp was provided with a community cooker and also smaller cookers were purchased as well. After a “crash course” in solar cooking, the units were up and running and being used daily at the Monastery. This provided “green technology” to the refugees and reduced the need for wood and propane as a power source. The refugees were very excited to have this technology and Rinpoche was extremely pleased with this alternative power source. The wind towers HERO erected last year were standing tall when we arrived. The supplies needed to connect the towers did not arrive during our visit but Alan Francis, Josh and Leif, the engineers, were awesome and crossed trained as medical people helping the clinics daily. They also jumped in and did a structural analysis of the Monastery providing Rinpoche with the expertise he needed for future expansion of the facilities.

The mission this year was also strongly supported by the Lion’s Club and Alcon Laboratories. They supplied the glasses and eye drops needed to help protect the field workers’ vision from “black eye disease” or pterygiums which are inflammatory growths across the cornea that can lead to blindness. Noah Plumb became our resident eye specialist giving out eye glasses and sun glasses to those in need.

One of our big sponsors this year was Kahtoola! They were instrumental in supplying the funds needed to purchase medications, the automatic defibrillator and other valuable supplies to support this mission. We are grateful for their kind support and willingness to “Give Back” in this remote region of the world!

So where are we headed to next? We have a team returning to Copan, Honduras in June 2012. This mission will be led by Dr. Phil Garrod as I will be staying home to concentrate on fundraising and planning our next mission to a new site in Nicaragua. That mission is tentatively scheduled for February 2013. We will provide more details about this mission, the area, the people, the need, etc. Please stay tuned for updates!!!!

I wanted to personally thank everyone who was instrumental in this past mission to Mainpat. The volunteers who traveled were awesome and those volunteers who stayed home but helped to make it all possible were incredible. All of our sponsors, donors and well wishers made this mission possible. Your reward is the smile on a young child’s face, the wonder of fresh cooked rice from a solar cooker and the warm feeling in your heart at the end of the day knowing that you have given back and that you have made a difference in a small corner of the world.

— Dr. Julie

We have been back now for several months and we have settled into our lives but we remember the people of Mainpat and what we accomplished. What we remember most, however, is the joy we experienced from “Giving Back”. We are now moving on to old and new places looking toward the future for HERO and those we would love to help. While our HERO team prepares for a mission to Copan, Honduras in June; I am busy with fundraising. HERO hired an awesome grant person, Hayley Bruemmer. She is busy at this time writing grants, tracking down leads and guiding HERO for the future. Fundraisers have been taking place with tag sales, art auctions, etc. We appreciate any support you can offer HERO so we can help those in desperate need.

Our Honduras volunteers are busy raising money to support their trip and they have done a great job. We are hoping to assist them with this mission. Our goal is to raise an additional $5000 to complete the funds needed for water filters, medication, nutritional support and transportation. Any assistance you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Remember, we are a 501c3 non-profit organization so your donation is tax deductible. It is easy to “Give Back” just push the donate button on this website!

In 2013 for the first time we will travel to Nicaragua. We have been contacted by a group of generous people who started going there for R and R. Once they became involved in the community they realized the need and sprang into action. Since then they have built a school and a clinic. They are often looking for volunteers to assist them and so HERO has made a commitment to staff the clinic for one week in February 2013. We are already fundraising for this project as well and look forward to a new challenge.

Our return mission to the Mainpat Tibetan Refugee Settlement is tentatively scheduled for February 2014. We would like to see the completion of our initial work on the alternative power source, water filtration and continued medical support.

As you can see we have many projects in the future. Although the road ahead seems difficult, it is one of the most rewarding experiences one can share with your friends, colleagues and people in need. We are hoping you will support our upcoming missions. Please click on the donate button on this website and experience the joy in “Giving Back”.

The sun is setting over the buckwheat fields of rhubarb red as we await our return to Raipur. The team completed a busy yet successful mission to the Mainpat Tibetan Refugee Camps. We were all inspired by the resilience of these people and their culture. I must speak to the extreme dedication of Tulku Tsori Rinpoche, our most gracious host. He bears a burden of not only the lives of the monks but also of the people of Mainpat and the Tibetan Culture. I am in awe of his love and care of these people. He is an inspiration to us all. I admire him and what he stands for to be kind and loving to all sentinent beings. He has taken his time and effort to see that we at HERO are all welcome, comfortable and loved. Rinpoche shared his knowledge with daily teachings and blessings to all. I am forever grateful for his love and compassion.

As we soon head down the road away from the Monastery it will be sad to say goodbye yet rewarding to know that we made a little difference in the lives of many who have so little. Of those who welcomed us with open arms and who will await our return, we bid farewell with all the love and compassion we can offer to our Tibetan family and friends.

Love to All,

Dr. Julie and the Entire HERO Team

We had a joyous Christmas here at the Monastery. We worked hard all day at camp 2 seeing almost 200 people. Our estimated count of people treated to date is 800. We have two more camps to go to complete our mission here in Mainpat. The team is holding up well and although they are fatigued their spirits are strong. Many in the team are seeing disease and illness that is foreign to them as well as the overwhelming poverty and malnutrition. They are developing a strong appreciation for all that we have at home. It is difficult here to even restock supplies as the nearest city is two hours drive away.

We are all so grateful for our lives, family and friends. As things begin to gear down here for us we are reminded that we will soon return to our comfortable ways leaving our Tibetan friends behind to continue their daily struggle to survive. It is sad in a way but yet not because that is their life and their burden they bear to maintain a culture and a people. This struggle allows us the opportunity to help them, to learn about each other and to personally grow. As our lives intersect briefly we are bonded by mutual respect, admiration and love for one other. This we will take with us and never forget.

Merry Christmas from the other side of the planet!!!! Everyone at HERO is enjoying their most unique Christmas ever. For Christmas eve, our extraordinary triage nurse and party organizer Margie (Perky) Paige provided the Monastery with Wish Lanterns. The lanterns were lit and as hot air filled the paper lantern they slowly rose into the sky sending a lighted message toward the heavens. The monks were delighted and took chase while those of us who understood their meaning looked toward the rising lanterns and made our wish

I had many wishes that could have filled my lantern; peace to all, food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, etc. But I selfishly didn’t ask for any of those as I knew the other lanterns from my team members carried those thoughts. What I did wish for was the strength and courage to continue this work. These people have tremendous strength and amazing courage to live in these refugee camps, to survive and to smile through all the adversity. Tulku Tsori Rinpoche. our most gracious host and the Monastery leader, has incredible determination to assist not only these Tibetan refugees but all in need. Rinpoche has assigned himself a formidible task to keep the Tibetan culture alive and he bears this burden with inspiring courage. From all of these people, Rinpoche and my Tibetan friends, I find the ability to look toward the future for myself and HERO.