Change the World- Gema International

This will be my first really personal post on the Engaged & Green Blog and I apologize ahead of time for how long this is – but trust me – it is worth the read to understand why I want to start Gema International (watch the video first).  There is a long history of how I am connected to Gema (pronounced “hema”) and by the end of this post, I am hoping you will feel connected to!  I don’t like to write about myself on this blog, as quite frankly – I truly want to pump as many ideas as I can for engaged couples about going green for their weddings – and not talk about me. However, many of you have been following me on twitter (@greenwed) and have emailed me and DM’d me wanting to know my story and how to change the world.  Here it is!  Make sure you have a few minutes to read before you start -it’s a long one!

I started my career as a wedding planner in 1998, right after I left the Dominican Republic (DR).  While I was a missionary for Young Life in the DR, my job was about taking care of the people around me (and what a wonderful job it was).  As a missionary, my job was to lead several bible studies, teach English, train volunteers, fundraise, organize events, take kids to camp and lead work teams from the US to do various service projects.  During the course of those two years, I became very close with my friend Wendy.

Wendy was basically abandoned by her parents and she lived in a literal shack of a house.  When it rained, the water would leak in to her house as it was made of scrap pieces of wood and the house was literally leaning when I left in June 1998.  She lived with about 5-8 other people at various points in time (with 2 bedrooms).  Her life was absolute chaos.  When it rained, I would just tell her to come over to stay with me.  In the end, Wendy was practically living with me.  Even if she spent the night at her home (which was literally 3 houses away from mine), she would be at my house bright and early every day.  We would make breakfast together and she would go off to school as she was still a teenager and in high school at the time.  I made sure she had clothes, food and everyone called Wendy my daughter.  I still call her my daughter.

When I left in June of 1998, a little piece of my heart was ripped from me and stayed in the DR.    Then, later that same year in September, Hurricane Georges hit the DR (and many other countries) and hundreds were killed and over 100,000 people were left homeless.  Wendy was one of the homeless. Her home was leveled and she was left with literally nothing.

Since I was still working for Young Life here in the DC area, I was able to gather a network of about 200 people to help donate to rebuild Wendy’s home.  We raised approx. $3,000.  This was just enough money to build a real foundation, concrete walls and a roof.  The house was not bigger, but it was safe, dry and ready if they wanted to build a second floor or apartment above it.  It was a basic home, but it was Wendy’s.

Not long after, Wendy met the love of her life, Junior.  They were married in June of 2002 and I went to their wedding in the DR and I made all of the flowers and was her “madrina”.  She soon had a little baby girl named Gema (gema means “jewel or gem” in English).  While I tried to stay in constant communication with Wendy over the years, I really did not understand the magnitude of how sick Gema was when she was born.  Things got lost in translation as my daily life was free of Spanish at the time.  Gema was born with hip dysplasia, which in very general terms means her right hip was dislocated – hers was literally outside the hip pocket. The doctor misdiagnosed this as a blood infection at birth and pumped Gema’s fragile premature body full of intravenous antibiotics.  Even for adults this can sometimes cause deafness and it left Gema so hard of hearing she was practically completely deaf.  The swelling around her hip stopped, but they never corrected the hip dysplasia and as the years went by, Gema’s hearing never recovered.

In 2006, I went to the DR on a mission trip, where I finally met Gema. I told Wendy that Gema was deaf.  Wendy refused to believe me, but I made her take Gema to a hearing specialist to get her tested.  Not long after I received the tearful call from Wendy letting me know, that indeed, Gema was deaf.  I also knew that we had to do something about the hip dysplasia.  However, I had more connections in the area of deafness that I started to make calls and ask for help. Within a few weeks I was able to get a cochlear implant donated to Gema and all I had to do was get Wendy and Gema to Miami.  I fundraised my butt off and got them there and the University of Miami and the Ronald McDonald house took care of Gema and Wendy in Florida. Gema ended up not needing the cochlear impant and only needed digital hearing aids instead (a much easier option).  I flew them to DC to spend some time with me before they had to go back to the DR.  While Wendy was in Miami they implored her to start finding a way to get the necessary surgery for Gema to get her hip dysplasia corrected.  So…I was off to find a solution for this.

Wendy and Gema went back to the DR, while I searched for ways to get the surgery that Gema needed.  All I had were the x-rays of her little body and no idea what to do.  I called doctors and foundations until I finally found a pediatric orthopedic surgeon who was willing to listen to Gema’s story.  He said he would reduce his fee from $10,000 to $1,000, but that the surgery would have to be at Holy Cross hospital where he had operating privelages.  Now…I had to find out what the hospital bill would be.  I soon learned that the anesthesiologist, the operating and recuperating room costs would be in the $10 -12,000 range.  Then Gema would need plate equipment implanted to help elongate her femur  which was going to cost another $10,000.  With no insurance and no money in my pockets, I just sat on my couch, prayed and got up and called more people.

First, I called the nuns, who started the hospital and I basically told them they needed to help – like it was their duty!!!  Gema needed help and I had $2,000 raised at the time from my friends who just sent me cash.  The nuns called and got the CFO of the hospital involved and he called me on my cell phone the same afternoon!  The CFO told me  he would waive the operating and recovery room fees, but I would have to find an anesthesiologist to donate their time (within a week, I found someone to donate their time) and pay for part of the recovery room staffing – which was about $2,500 of the bill.  From a $30,000 surgery to an $13,500 surgery – I was not going to stop there!  The surgeon and I got on the phone and got the manufacturer of the plate equipment for Gema donated completely.  All I had to do was pay the doctor $1,000, pay for anesthesia, drugs, and the hospital $2,500!  Then I had to pay the fees for the consulate and the airfare to get them here.

I raised $4,500 from a group of 200 friends.  However, I could not find an organization to help me funnel the funds and make the donations tax-deductible.  Churches did not want to get involved, the hospital was not set-up for something like this.  No organization could help me pay the doctors, hospital, consulate and airlines.  My friends did not care, they sent the cash to me as they knew Gema needed the surgery!  A big shout out to all those that did help (and all of the individuals that donated toys, clothes and food)!

Thank God, Gema is doing well now – walking better and talking and blossoming in school!  She will need another surgery when she turns 12 and possibly one other surgery after she finishes growing after puberty. So it is a long road..but I am confident that this little spit-fire of a girl is going to change the world!  I have such lofty goals for her that I am even planning on contacting the folks at Gallaudet University to start setting up a fund for her education here in the states!  I am not playing around!

Now…yes – it is amazing that all those people gave me their money.  What is more amazing to me is why!  Why could I not find an organization to help change the life of this little girl that meant so much to me?  Why was every organization so strict with their rules?  A girl needed help…she was not coming to the states for medical tourism.  We were willing to do the time to find donors and  take action.  I had to turn away over $5,000 worth of donations as I could not find a way for it to be tax deductible!  I did not even try to solicit organizations and people just spread the word…but I could not take their money for tax purposes!

Every since I lived in the DR, I heard about similar problems happening to others.  People wanting to help but not being able to.  I thought hard and could not come up with any solution.  For those that know me, I don’t like not having a solution for something!  This thing has been stewing for a long time and I am now ready to change the world and the way things work with the creation of Gema International. I will be launching this non-profit hopefully by the beginning of 2011.  I just need people to be on board with me.  I want to know what other people have run into when trying to help a child.  I want to know your ideas on how to make a change.  Maybe you have resources and friends you know.  This could happen in any country and to anyone!

I am not asking for money – I am asking for a think tank of people who want to change the world.  What does this have to do with weddings?  Nothing.  What does this have to do about changing people’s lives?  Everything.  I have ideas, but I want to hear yours.  Please help me change the world.  Leave a comment below to let me know what you want to do to change the world.

I will do follow-up videos when I am getting close to forming the actual foundation. I will also announce periodically about potential board members and partnerships that I hope will be formed by this blog post and meetings I hope to have over the next 6-12 months.

I look forward to reading your comments and learning about how you want to change the world!

Hugs,

Katie Martin

Editor-in-Chief

P.S. The fantastic video production is by my amazingly talented filmmaker friend David Morley of Zinnia Films.  He also did the video off to the right on the sidebar!