Website: WaterfallHumanitarian.org
Address: 1226 Tierney Circle, Sandy, UT 84094
IRS-EIN: 46-0817378 (501(c) (3) classification)
Organization:
Background
The foundation was organized in 2014 and received 501 (c) (3) status from the Internal Revenue Service that year. The name of the organization was changed to Waterfall Humanitarian Foundation on February 17, 2017 by the Board of Trustees. The change was submitted to the IRS and approved by a letter of the IRS on March 27, 2017.
The foundation is governed by a Board of Trustees. All projects are submitted to the Board and approved before implementation. The Executive Director reports to the board the progress on each project on a periodic basic. This is the second bi-annual report for 2019.
Focus of the Foundation
The Board of Trustees decided that the health and education of children around the world is a priority to the foundation. At present the foundation is addressing needs of children with Diabetes 1, and with epilepsy, at the J.M. de los Rios Children Hospital in Caracas.
Before receiving any humanitarian assistance, the foundation enters into an MOU with the organization receiving help, establishing the commitment of the foundation and the understanding that the assistance will not be sold, but given freely to the children.
As funding becomes available and experience is obtained, the foundation will broaden its focus to other hospitals. The foundation will also expand its focus to food for children, mothers and aging population. Food not only means to provide food, but also to enter into alliances with Venezuelan universities and humanitarian institutions to start aggressive food production programs geared to the culture and needs of the local population. Expansion will only be done after making sure that such activities comply with any and all international sanctions imposed on Venezuela.
The foundation does not have any employees at this time, and no one receives any stipend for services. The funds dedicated to administration are minimal.
Recent activities helping Children with Diabetes Mellitus
To date, the foundation has provided close to 100 glucometers, almost 100,000 strips and 10,000 lancets to families of children with diabetes who otherwise could not have afforded them. In addition, the emergency rooms of the hospital did not have glucometers and requested assistance. The emergency rooms were also provided with supplies.
Recognition is given to doctors of the Children Hospital in Salt Lake City who provided advice on the type of devices to buy and send to the J.M. de los Rios Hospital. Also thanks are given to Trividia Health company in Florida who sold the supplies to our foundation at advantageous pricing. The foundation is grateful to the volunteers in Venezuela and Colombia for their help was crucial to success.
Recent activities in providing antibiotics
A small amount of antibiotics was provided. However, faced with limited resources, the foundation asked the hospital administration about the most needed medicines, and received the following advice from the President of the Hospital Foundation, Dr. Augusto Pereira: “There are specialties at the JM de los Rios, that do not receive help from anyone, and patients are getting worse every day. Such is the case of neurological patients, who suffer seizures and convulsions, and every time they suffer an attack brain damage is caused.” In essence, the hospital does not have medicines for children with epilepsy, and the foundation changed course.
Recent Activities helping children with epilepsy
The MOU with the Hospital to send epilepsy drugs was signed in the beginning of July. A list of medicines was sent by the hospital with the annotation that the first in the list—Valproic Acid—was the one used most often, much more than any other medicine.
Supply of medicines for epilepsy was found by the representative in Colombia, Sra. Luz Elena Gomez Parga, and she negotiated reasonable prices. The first shipment of medicines was sent by the end of July and received by the first week of August. In the following weeks 29 children received the bottles of Valproic Acid syrup, and six received tablets without charge.
The second shipment of Valproic Acid was sent by the end of August. The representative in Venezuela found that tablets could easily be turned into syrup by local pharmacies, and this time—because shipment was substantially simpler—the shipment contained medicine for 60 children, for one month. However, there were problems with the shipment and it did not arrive until October 2, and when it did, the shipping company did not call the representative to let her know. Conscious of the importance of timing for the drug, Ms. Sarmiento always picked up the medicines and did not wait for delivery.
The smaller amount of the first shipment is due to two reasons: First, while obtaining the medicines was difficult and required contacts and negotiation, the foundation needed to test the shipping arrangements before sending larger amounts. Second, it was important to understand how much was needed, and obtain the necessary funds to buy sufficient quantities. The foundation realized that until ample funding is secured, and enough experience is obtained, it could only to do as much as possible, but recognizing that it was not possible to meet the needs of the hospital.
There is urgency in providing this medicine to the children with epilepsy. When the delay of the second shipment occurred, the hospital mentioned “a serious case of a child who desperately needs valproic acid because he is convulsing a lot.” Our representative told the hospital that we are doing everything possible and that the delay was caused by the airline.
Comment
The activities during the several years of operations for the Foundation could be considered a learning period, a period to understand the difficulties of helping Venezuela, and a time to lay out the basic organization on the ground in Venezuela and Colombia. We have been able to do diabetes and epilepsy projects. Fund-raising activities have been limited.
In the process of procuring and shipping medicines to the Children’s hospital, it was found that shipment cost were as high as 25% to 30% of the cost of the medicines. The foundation paid the high cost of transportation but all shipments arrived intact and within a reasonable period.
In order to do more, funding has to increase significantly.