Stan Shaffer

From his bio, Dr. Stan Shaffer of St. Luke’s Health System and Shawnee Mission Medical Center, may look just like your normal, outstanding neonatologist. He grew up in Kansas City, went to medical school at UMKC, trained at Children’s Mercy, has a son following his footsteps at UMKC, a daughter at Boston College, and lives in Fairway with his wife, Kathleen, a pediatrician.

Then he mentions the word “Haiti” and his eyes light up and his quiet voice takes on additional intensity and fervor. He has been going there for 19 years, initially because he wanted to see the tropical diseases he’d studied but never seen. What he found astounded him—the people needed far more than medical attention. That trip turned into a continuing project involving hundreds of people and a life-long commitment for the doctor and his family.

He reels off the facts about Haiti— the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, average income of less than a dollar per day, no safe water, limited schools, no electricity or plumbing, limitless illiteracy, no hospitals, no health system at all.

Dr. Shaffer helped found Haitian Episcopal Learning Partnerships (the H.E.L.P Foundation) which now includes 13 area parishes who are partnered with 13 rural villages. At their own expense, nearly 150 people go there every year, conducting health clinics, training health workers, and creating public health programs. His family, starting back when his children were 9 and 11, goes with him often. St. Luke’s doctors, nurses and hospital itself have been tremendously supportive, he says.

Last year H.E.L.P opened a full time clinic, staffed by Haitians. They’ve trained teachers, opened eight schools, and are currently developing a technical institute. There are numerous micro-loan and business development initiatives as well.

“Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought so much needed to be done—and that we would be doing it. I feel privileged to work there and to see so many others get excited about the opportunities to help there,” he says. He urges you to call him at 816.932.3479 if you’d like to help.

Teresa Searcy

Teresa Searcy is a gemstone broker who finds satisfaction in a different kind of gem—the gift of herself to those less fortunate.

That gift has ranged from numerous volunteering and fund raising efforts for the Girl Scouts to Hispanic neighborhoods in Kansas City to creating new lives for children in Honduras and elsewhere. She and husband Mike have funded a number of schools and orphanages in third world countries. But it’s more than that.

When she went to Brazil to look at some emeralds in a mine she owns, what she came away with was heartbreaking visions of children called “monster babies”—children born with cleft lips or palates. From that an unusual organization was born, S.M.A.R.T.—Surgical and Medical Assistance Relief Teams. And after 75 or so trips later to Honduras, her work is appreciated and valued by even the government of the country.

Her work there has been particularly extensive. She shipped thousands of containers of medical and police supplies there. She’s arranged for U.S. police SWAT teams to teach in Honduras’ police schools. She was on the second plane to arrive in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch and she worked tirelessly for 48 days in the mud helping people. She and her husband Mike have organized everything from plastic surgery to dentistry to eye care teams to help others—with the general practice teams alone having served over 8,000 people in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador in the past seven years. Life changing major surgeries have been performed on over 2,000 children, free of charge, since these teams have been operating.

Teresa Searcy doesn’t care that her work is recognized, as it has been several times in the past. She’s just happy that others will go to the countries and support the work financially and in whatever ways they can. An email address, rxhelpca @ix.netcom.com, helps her manage the complicated arrangements that must be made before she, and
others, go to Honduras on frequent work trips. Her “job” is all about changing lives.

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