Symphony for Smiles

Of course the biggest news at the moment is Symphony for Smiles. We have already sold 100 of the 200 VIP package tickets and 200 of the $50/40 tickets. This has to be a sell out event both to show our appreciation of the internationally renowned musicians who are donating the time and talent and to maximize this fund raising opportunity.

The board of H4H is very excited by this event as it gives us the opportunity to move our society to a new level and become a more broad based health promoting organization. With the help of 'Good Company Communications' a company specializing in promoting not-for-profit societies we have gone through a process of re-defining our goals and enhancing our look. Over the next few weeks you will see in addition to the concert promotional material changes on our website, a new brochure and a short promotional video.

As part of the concert promotion we will be working to increase public awareness of H4H. We already have the Vancouver Sun as a concert sponsor and we are actively seeking other media interviews.

 H4H Expands Goals

As part of our revised goals H4H will continue to send surgical teams to Guatemala and the Philippines and will consider proposals from other locations for additional surgical teams. Each of these missions, must in future, have a clearly defined educational component . Also each should have a plan to empower local health professionals to become self-sustaining in the long term.

Health for Humanity will also be seeking proposals from local organizations to support other health initiatives that fit within the broad categories of the 'Determinents of Health'. Already this year we have supported an educational seminar for the area managers of 'Partners for Surgery' in Guatemala to give them nutritional information aimed specifically at newborns with cleft lip and palate. This aligned well with our guidelines in that it was a need identified by the field workers and verified by ourselves. It was educational and sustainable, and it's usefulness will be evaluated when our surgical team visits.

More about the changes in H4H in future issues of our newsletter.

Cindy Masaro and the Board of H4H