Med Access International

02/28/2026

For those of you who have been following Med Access International and our medical mission work in Ecuador and the Dominican Republic with robotics students at the Great Lakes Science Center, who design and fabricate mechanical arms and hands for child amputees with 3d printers, their reach has gotten even bigger. JonDarr Bradshaw, Timothy Hatfield, Dominic Winans and their team of robotics students have expanded their training efforts to include students in Jordan, who are now making arms and hands for children from neighboring Gaza who have been affected by the ongoing conflict in that part of the world. Students and mentors from the robotics team will be joining Med Access International volunteers in Ibarra, Ecuador in late June. Later this year, JonDarr Bradshaw will be traveling to Jordan to lay the groundwork for additional collaborative work for the robotics team and their Hands Across Borders program. We continue to be amazed and honored to work with such incredible human beings.

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/cleveland-metro/from-robotics-to-relief-local-students-help-3d-print-low-cost-prosthetics-for-kids-from-gaza?fbclid=IwY2xjawQPJ2BleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFYV2R3eEhqdGJuSnZ0WWtxc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHjT1X9kmBTR6eCWc1_qtoYfIHD4CdJH6Y1xtA_sQwN_goXzxN-__Z8Twrh3F_aem_TG8Edd8hj-KRRDlsG7n8Jw

At the Great Lakes Science Center, an idea sparked by two high school students is now changing lives around the world.

02/23/2026

The world has lost Ron Johnson, a wonderful humanitarian and human being who brought his kindness and sense of humor to numerous medical missions across Central and South America, back in the days when Med Access International was known as IMAHelps. We first met Ron, his wife, Millicent Johnson "Millie" and their daughter, Summer Marie Thomas, when they volunteered on the IMAHelps mission to Esteli, Nicaragua in 2011. In those days, Ron worked for a travel agency in Palm Desert, while Millie worked as a Registered Nurse. On our missions, Ron helped keep everybody hydrated and well nourished by staffing our makeshift lunchrooms at each hospital, while also running countless errands for our medical mission team, whether it was carrying medical equipment or surgical supplies or simply helping to keep us organized. He was an indispensable volunteer who helped keep everyone in good spirits with his wonderful sense of humor no matter how many challenges we encountered each day. Ron and Millie joined our first ever medical mission planning trip to Paraguay in 2016, which paved the way for successful missions to Itaguá, Paraguay in 2017 and to Luque, Paraguay in 2018 and 2019. Ron and Millie also opened their home in Montego Bay to the IMAHelps medical mission planning team and helped connect us with government officials as we made preparations for what we hoped would be a 2020 medical mission to Jamaica. Unfortunately, the Jamaican government was forced to cancel all foreign medical missions as a result of the pandemic, but the planning for such a humanitarian effort would never have happened in the first place had it not been for Ron and Millie's big hearts and their endless commitment to helping others. We've attached several photos from our missions over the years as well as a photo Millie sent me that reminds her of Ron's sense of humor. Rest in peace, Ron. You helped lift our spirits and made the world a better place.

02/22/2026

The Med Access International medical mission setup team has concluded successful meetings this week for our June 23 to July 2 mission at Hospital General IESS in Ibarra, Ecuador. Photos here include our meetings with local and national hospital management officials, the city of Ibarra and local university officials. We need to turn in our volunteers’ licenses as soon as possible for certification by the government for our mission. We are asking volunteers to arrive in Quito on the evening of Monday, June 22. The final deadline for sign-up is March 7. Please visit www.medaccessintl.org using a Google Chrome browser if you would like to join our team!

02/08/2026

One of the greatest blessings I’ve had in my adult life is to meet Ines and Tracey Allen and to be able to volunteer on medical missions with them across Central and South America and the Caribbean. I’ve been volunteering on medical missions since 2008 and thought I’d seen everything. Then I met JonDarr Bradshaw, who’s pictured here with me, and my life changed again in ways I never could’ve imagined. JonDarr is a former NASA educator who oversees a robotics program at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland Ohio. I got connected to JonDarr through the Rotary E-Club for World Peace in 2022, and since that time his inner city high school robotic students have been collaborating with us to design and fabricate mechanical arms and hands for child amputees and children with birth deformities in Ecuador and the Dominican Republic using 3d printers. Later this month, I will be traveling to Ecuador with a couple of our volunteers to help finalize preparations for the Med Access International medical mission to Ibarra, which takes place in late June. On my trip this month, I will be traveling with a suitcase filled with mechanical arms and hands for six children who we met during our mission last year in Latacunga. Hopefully, these prosthetics will bring smiles to Sofia, Sonia, Neville, Mora, Marco, and Faz Ana Luisa. I joke that I have become JonDarr’s “prosthetics mule.” But I honestly feel so tremendously blessed just to be able to do this work as a volunteer effort and to help bring joy to child amputees around the world as part of our Hands Across Borders initiative with the Great Lakes Science Center. JonDarr and his fellow mentors, Dominic Winans and Timothy field, and their students are literally changing lives around the world on our missions. To show you just how powerful their impact is, check out these videos of some of the children who received prosthetics during our 2024 mission to the Dominican Republic. Visit www.medaccessintl.org for details.

01/16/2026

For all current and aspiring Med Access International volunteers, our next medical humanitarian mission will be June 23 to July 2 in Ibarra, Ecuador. Treatment days will be June 24 to 30. We'll do a fun group activity on Saturday, July 1, so everyone can fly home either late that night or Sunday to get home in time for July 4th festivities. If you haven't already done so, please sign up on our website ASAP (www.medaccessintl.org) using a Chrome browser and provide all required documentation as we are trying to finalize our team and fill any gaps in advance of our meetings with the hospital in mid-February, when we will turn in all of our documentation for approval by the hospital and the Ministry of Health. Mission fees are not due until April. This will likely be our last mission in Ecuador for a few years as we are planning future missions in other countries. We already have meetings scheduled with the Ministry of Health for our late June 2027 mission to Panama.

11/10/2025

We are thrilled to celebrate the end of a successful year and kick off the holiday season with a Friendsgiving celebration at Dr. Barrios’ home. Thank you to all our incredible volunteers and partners for supporting Med Access International’s work!

08/08/2025

Usually, the most life-changing work that Med Access International volunteers do on medical missions involves surgeries that our patients simply cannot afford. We were blessed to have several wonderful surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and interpreters during our mission to Latacunga, Ecuador last week. We can't wait to see these humanitarian heroes in action again next summer!

08/06/2025

08/05/2025

Med Access International's final dinner banquet not only featured Andean folkloric dancers, but our very own Dr. Kenneth Chan, who treated us to his rendition of "Hallelujah" on harmonica. It was a fitting end to a medical mission that drew each of close together like family, creating that special feeling you only experience when you're on a medical mission overseas. We can't wait for our next mission!

08/05/2025

08/04/2025

Lunches are important, especially during a medical mission when volunteers are working hard and need to replenish their fuel tanks. Our longtime volunteers remember many missions in years past when the lunch quality was so poor we had to stuff ourselves at breakfast (or pack hard-boiled eggs in our daypacks) to survive the day. Those days are over. We're happy to report that Med Access International provided our volunteers with our best-ever lunches throughout last week's medical mission in Latacunga, Ecuador. In fact, we had so much food some of us couldn't finish it all most days. We had wonderful Ecuadorian soups, chicken, pork, shrimp, ceviche and plantains, among other dishes. We even had lentils as a side dish one day. We also had international dishes like spaghetti and meat balls, but most meals were Ecuadorian. The food quality was very good. We were especially amazed at the desserts, particularly the maracuyá pudding we had one day, which was as good as the maracuyá they serve at a fine restaurant. Jose did the research and taste-testing and found us not only great food, but great prices - prices that significantly beat the estimates we gathered from another Latacunga restaurant in February. So, we're raising the bar on food service for our volunteers. The food quality at our hotel was also exceptional. :-)