Website: WaterfallHumanitarian.org
Address: 1226 Tierney Circle, Sandy, UT 84094
IRS-EIN: 46-0817378 (501(c) (3) classification)
Bank Acount at: Wells Fargo
Organization:
The bios of volunteers of the foundation have been included at the very end of this report.
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 current in its filing with the IRS, and a copy of the Form 990-N filed for 2019 appears at the end of this report.
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 annual report for 2020.
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.
Activities helping Children with Diabetes Mellitus
To date, the foundation has provided close to 200 glucometers, almost 150,000 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.
Limited 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.
Activities helping children with epilepsy
The MOU with the Hospital to send epilepsy drugs was signed in the beginning of July 2019. 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. Levetiracetam, a more expensive drug is also needed, and the foundation started sending limited amounts in 2020. These medicines have been sent regularly.
At first, 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, 2019 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. Many more received them since then.
Since then, and the recommendation of Dr. Augusto Pereira, President of the Children’s Hospital Foundation, the necessary medicines have been bought from the BADAN non-profit pharmacy in Caracas. This crucial step has been able to save money for our foundation and facilitate the supply of medicines. We have already been working with BADAN for over one year, without any problems. The first purchase of 70 boxes of Valproic Acid from BADAN was made in February 2020, and given to the Children Hospital in March 2020. The cost of buying the medicines for epilepsy was cut more than one half, and the shipping costs were avoided. Dr. Pereira’s assistance has been key to the foundation.
With the advent of COVID-19, the foundation has been providing very limited amounts of rapid test kits to the Children’s hospital These test kits chosen do not require refrigeration and/or special machinery, so they would be ideal for the circumstances on the ground. These test kits are crucial to protect the medical personnel, given the fact that any tests on the ground are handled by laboratories of the government and results are given five days later. Children that come to the hospital with COVID could potentially infect others. There are wards for children with COVID-19 but knowledge that they are infected is crucial to direct them to the right place.
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 but the roster of donors has substantially increased, with donations ranging from $50 to $1000.
Activities presently under underway with other entities
A large worldwide charitable organization called our foundation offering their assistance. We submitted to them a project to provide an Endoscopy system for the Gastroenterology Department of the Children’s Hospital. The formal request was submitted and the hospital is waiting for a response. Description: The J.M. de los Rios Children’s Hospital in Caracas, the largest and most reputable of the children’s hospitals in that nation, needs an Endoscopy system. Rationale: The hospital assists children who may have ingested unwanted objects like coins, etc. The Children’s hospital is the only institution that will do it for free. To do that in private clinics may cost thousands of dollars, and it is out of the reach of the modest families that come to the Children’s Hospital.