The purpose and work of this foundation
The purpose of the JP Clawson Medical Mission Foundation is of a humanitarian nature
Tax exempt ID 80-0610282
Our specific work is that of doing facial plastic and reconstructive surgery, most of which is repairing facial cleft defect problems such as cleft lips and palates. Our past history includes doing 2023 surgeries in Ecuador during the past 24 years and 500 more surgeries in Zimbabwe, Africa All of our medical care is given without charge to all of our patients.
(2) To provide ancillary training for doctors who are in training at the University of California Davis Medical Center. To date we have taken twenty-five residents and/or fellows during all these years plus several members of the staff during all these missions.
To date we have been instrumental in training many Ecuadorian doctors to do this surgery. In addition, we continue clinical nurses training programs for their nurses to include supplying textbooks for their library. We have worked with hospital administrators making suggestions for improved safety in their hospitals. Currently we are working with Dr. Diego Teran from Quito, Ecuador. Diego is in his second year of a plastic surgery residency in Bogotá, Columbia and joins us each January in Otavalo for further learning and experience.
(3) To provide an inspiration for the many peace corp. volunteers in Ecuador who have worked with us, to go on to various medical vocations. So far ten of these volunteers have become medical doctors as well as one more a medical illustrator and another an orthodontist.
Our mission group of volunteers each year consists of surgeons, operating room nurses, one operating room supervisor, secretaries, anesthesiologists, recovery room nurses, one orthodontist and one speech therapist. In addition, we work closely with many members of our peace corp. who reside in Ecuador.
We have been well received in Ecuador and Zimbabwe. In these countries we have established a working net work with their television stations, major newspapers, radio stations, churches, the peace corp., high ranking military officials, many of their volunteer citizens, their customs department, and the provincial government whom we work with in order to use their hospitals. We will continue our work in Ecuador as we have done for over two decades past.
It is my plan to continue to expand our care to other African nations who are in need of our free, specialized surgical care. I am hopeful that there will be others who will carry for me once my career terminates.
Joseph Clawson MD President
JP Clawson Medical Missions Foundation
josephpclawson@gmail.com
The JP Clawson Medical Missions Foundation
As part of a life long dream, I began my mission work in 1987, almost 25 years ago with my first trip traveling to Mexico. I performed many operations on children with facial cleft deformities and have been doing this ever since. For the next three years I worked with this foundation, Mercy Ships or “Youth with a Mission”, working from their ship, “The Anastasias”. From this point onward, I worked and traveled with them to in Jamaica and the Dominium Republic. I also went independently with another group twice to Honduras. By good fortune I met a small group going to Ecuador and from that point on have been returning to Ecuador for the past 22 consecutive years. Since 2006 I have also worked in Harare, Zimbabwe.
The foundation legal corporate name is “Operation Esperanza” but used its alternate name of Operation of Hope when working in Africa.
In 2010 I formed a new foundation called the JP Clawson Medical Missions Foundation in which we are continuing to do the same work as before.
During these years along with doing so many surgeries, our program has been involved with the University of California Davis Medical Center located in Sacramento, CA. A significant part of this involvement has been to bring senior residents who are interested in facial plastic surgery to these missions to further enhance their training experience. We have also enjoyed and experienced the work of many peace corp. volunteers who often joined us during these missions. Indeed, eleven of them have gone on to become medical doctors themselves.
One of the residents in our past has now formed his own foundation and continues the same work in Ecuador and Asia. The former foundation, Operation Esperanza continues to work in Zimbabwe, Africa as well as other parts of the world while my new foundation will be working in new countries such as Zambia and Niger, Africa.
We have been blessed with so many dedicated professional colleagues who have come with us year after year to carry out these missions. One such person is a nurse anesthetist who has done 20 missions with us in the 17 past years.
It is a major tribute also to acknowledge the countless number of folks and major organizations who have and continue to support us financially.
To date we have performed 2523 surgeries and it is my plan to have this foundational work continue long after I pass away with many of my trusted colleagues to carry on the banner.
