HANDS INTERNATIONAL: CHANGING OF THE GUARDS

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

CHANGING OF THE GUARDS

Hello Friends and Partners:

Last Sunday, February 7, the HANDS board convened at the Del Rosa Church and completed its annual year-end agenda. The focus of the agenda was on electing new members of the board to replace several whose term had expired. We were pleased that Drs. Lawrence Weekes, Charles David, and Paula Fox were voted in as new board members. Other members to serve for the new term are Norman Mitchell, Linbrook Barker, Naomi Modeste, Antonius Brandon, Paul Thorpe, and Hedrick Edwards. Norman Mitchell was re-elected as chair.

After serving as Executive Director from the inception of HANDS five years ago, I am pleased to have had a part in its creation and its evolution to this point. I am very satisfied with the progress the corporation has made - the principles upon which it is founded, the causes it has espoused, the projects it has conducted. Though still very much a work in progress, it has begun to fulfill its mission of service to the underserved in the spirit of Christ. With that foundation in place, with a core of stable supporters here in the west, and with a widening cadre of enthusiastic partners in the east, I have chosen to step down as the Chief Executive officer and allow for new personalities to assume leadership. Accordingly, I recommended, and the board has elected, Dr. Antonius Brandon (Tony) as the new CEO, who will now be designated as President.

Tony is an ordained minister and an experienced, active clinical psychologist who has been a member on the two action teams during our projects in Guyana and Grenada. I am happy to welcome him to this responsibility for which he is eminently qualified. Let us all now pull together as he leads us to the next level in the development of this service agency. My commitment is unquestioned, and I will now serve as Executive Secretary with Paul Thorpe as Treasurer. In due course others of you will be asked to fill various roles and we do hope that all will serve with the same spirit of exuberance and dedication that has inspired us in the past.

Thanks so much to one and all of our action team members who have helped to stay the course and ventured on the front line during these formative years- to Paul, Daphne, Joselito, Hope, Naomi, Norman, Tony, Julihana, Gus, Beth, Ranju, Steve and Ingid, the Shapiras, Susan, Lester and Ava, and others. And thanks to others who supported with their kind thoughts and generous gifts. Without your smiles and prayers, your passions and perhaps your tears, your personal sacrifice under God's blessings nothing worthy of note could have have been achieved. Thanks, thanks, thanks to
one and all.

Sincerely,

Hedrick Edwards
Outgoing Executive Director, now Executive Secretary, HANDS International

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GUIDING PRINCIPLES

The Mission: Health and Development Services International Inc. (HANDS International) is an approved voluntary non-profit agency established to channel the knowledge, skills, and resources of dedicated servant-leaders toward human development. Inspired by the Spirit and deeds of Christ and in the tradition of luminous souls throughout history who have followed his example, the agency seeks to embody the ideals of compassion for the disadvantaged and care for the underserved. Through its programs and ministries it seeks to collaborate with those who hold similar principles, focusing primarily on promoting health care within the community, wholeness within the family, group empowerment through education and training, and on emergency relief linked with long-term community development. Those committed to these values are essentially volunteers without borders, serving the underserved without pay.

The Objectives: HANDS will direct its efforts toward achieving the following objectives:
1. Assemble intervention teams of caring and culture-sensitive professionals who are qualified to attend to health conditions prevalent in underserved communities and to engage in general health promotion.
2. Create and maintain model health and development programs that can be adapted to the special needs of the disadvantaged and the underserved in various cultural settings.
3. Based upon accurate data and effective global and local networking, maintain a dossier of under- served communities and people-groups which have special health and developmental needs.
4. Assist in developing and sustaining at least one international project oriented toward health promotion and recovery, education, family life, and/or community development.
5. Form partnerships with other agencies within the vicinity of the Inland Empire in planning and executing community-based programs or convention whose goals are consistent with the ideals contained in the “Healthy People 2010” framework.
6. Foster cultural diversity, sensitivity and competence through meaningful cultural exchanges and program partnerships with various ethnic churches and local groups.
7. Organize seminars and educational forums that address issues of current interest in the areas where health, education, society, and faith intersect with the goal of increasing general awareness or provide special leadership training.
8. Recognizing that the deteriorating state of the family in much of the modern world is a major source of physical, psychological and social ills, identify places of special needs and secure competent human resources to provide guidance and education in the dynamics of family life.
9. Maintain a state of readiness to participate in emergency situations in which natural disasters or calamities threaten significant loss of life, health, or property.

From the HANDS first Executive Director

January 30, 2008

Dear Colleague and Friend:

I am pleased to introduce to you Health and Development Services International, (HANDS), an agency dedicated to short-term mission service in selected regions of the globe. Heart-rending images of the most horrific natural disasters this generation has ever experienced stunned the world in 2004. Equally disturbing is the continuing cry of hundreds of millions - the most vulnerable on our planet - whose chronic debilitating health and social conditions contrasts so sharply with our position of relative privilege. Moreover, the need to resolve conflicts, foster understanding, and facilitate reconciliation among the diverse and often disparate inhabitants of our planet has never been greater.

HANDS was recently established as a conscientious response to these stark global realities. While it cannot redress all the world's ills, this fledgling agency represents a defining choice - a choice inspired by the spirit and deeds of Christ and luminous souls throughout history who have followed his example - to join forces with others to make a positive difference. Those who carry out its mission seek to embody the ideals of compassion for the disadvantaged and care for the under-served. Wounded healers themselves, they have chosen to be volunteers without borders serving the under-served without pay.The agency is therefore eager to welcome into its cadre of volunteers physicians, nutritionists, nurses, health educators and others of goodwill who identify with the vision captured in its compelling motto:

IN BROKENNESS, HEALING HANDS: IN CONFLICT, RECONCILING GRACE

Very sincerely,

Hedrick J. Edwards
Executive Director

HANDS Board

Current:

Reynold Agard, MD (Internal Medicine)

Linbrook Barker, MD (General Surgery)

Antonius Brandon, PhD (Clinical Psychology), MA

Hedrick Edwards, DHSc (International Health), MSPH (Health Education), MA (Counseling), MA (Biblical Theology)

Lester Horrell, MD (Pediatrics)

Julihana Madison, MS (Nursing), MBA

Norman Mitchell, PhD (Biology)

Naomi Modeste, DrPH, MPH (Health Education)

Paul Thorpe, MS (Computer)

Chair: Julihana J. Madison, MBA, RN; President: Antonius D. Brandon, PhD; Executive Secretary: Hedrick J. Edwards, DHSc, MSPH; Treasurer: Paul Thorpe, MS; Reynold Agard, MD; Linbrook Barker, MD; Lester Horrell, MD; Norman L. Mitchell, PhD; Naomi Modeste, DrPH

Founding Board

Chair: Norman L. Mitchell; President: Antonius Brandon; Executive Secretary: Hedrick J. Edwards; Treasurer: Paul Thorpe; Members: Linbrook Barker, Naomi Modeste, Paula Fox, Lawrence Weeks, Charles David

HANDS INTERNATIONAL

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

CHANGING OF THE GUARDS

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