The Memphis Mission of Mercy, a nonprofit organization that organizes surgical missions to rural parts of the Philippines, will hold its inaugural fundraising gala at 6:30 Saturday evening, August 25 at the Hilton Hotel at the University of Memphis.
Proceeds from the event will support the mission's next effort, a stand-alone surgical hospital in Victorias City in the Philippines.
The fundraising gala will include a silent auction, dinner and live music. Gary Shorb, executive director of The Urban Child Institute, former CEO of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare and friend to the Mission, will be the keynote speaker. Proceeds from the event will directly fund the construction of the hospital.
The Memphis Mission of Mercy was founded in 2001 by Memphis nurses and Philippine natives Renato and Nora Zalamea. The couple and their daughter, Dr. Nia Zalamea, a general surgeon at UT Methodist Physicians, have dedicated their careers to service and volunteerism, organizing surgical mission trips from the United States to serve Filipinos who cannot afford healthcare.
Since 2001, the organization has completed 24 mission trips with a team of doctors, nurses, technicians and an auxiliary support staff that has provided free medical services and surgeries to more than 31,000 patients. The mission has also participated in multiple disaster relief efforts in regions affected by monsoons and typhoons.
The Memphis Mission of Mercy hospital will become a permanent location for a surgical mission hospital, which will be open for rotating surgical teams of various specialties. Groundbreaking on the five-acre hospital site is scheduled for the fall of 2018 and the hospital is scheduled to open in 2021. Free procedures at the hospital will include cleft lip and palate repairs, hernia repairs, thyroid surgery, pediatric surgery, cancer screenings, dental care and other surgical services as it grows over time.
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center's Global Surgery Institute is supporting the mission through Department of Surgery Faculty involvement, as well as research and grant opportunities. UTHSC residents and students will have the opportunity to complete volunteer missions at the hospital during their studies.
