Dr. Flora Levin, a Westport-based, board-certified oculofacial plastic surgeon, first heard about the International Esperanza Project (IEP) through her longtime friend Michelle Hollaender, the CEO and founder. The IEP is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving homes, healthcare, and education in Latin America, specifically Guatemala. Four years ago, Flora first accompanied the IEP on a trip to Guatemala alongside her daughter, Miri, now a rising college freshman. The experience was transformative. “There are so many organizations that do these amazing things, but I think, for a lot of people, it’s very hypothetical,” says Flora. “These trips have a huge, tangible impact.” IEP volunteers install smoke-free stoves and water filters in homes to improve respiratory health and reduce waterborne illnesses. They send doctors and nurses who offer high-quality medical care at clinics and surgical centers. They educate more than 350 students each year with their school program. It’s an incredibly impactful organization, and Flora and Miri have been back every year since. Last year they brought along Flora’s middle child, her son Jacob. “When my mom first approached me about the project, I was, I think understandably, intimidated by the prospect of flying out to a country I’d never been to to help people I’d never met,” says Jacob. “But it was so easy to integrate into the community. [IEP] makes it as easy as possible to help out, and they look after you in a very special way.”
While volunteer doctors like Flora perform surgeries, distribute much-needed medicines, and treat illnesses, Jacob and Miri stress that every volunteer on the trips gets hands-on opportunities to contribute. Miri has been working in the operating rooms with patients who are heading into surgery, taking their vitals and monitoring them after their operations. She says she’s surprised even herself with her ability to think on her feet in these sometimes-stressful situations, which she learned from the amazing nurses and surgeons who volunteer with the program. “As soon as somebody needs help, everybody drops what they’re doing and does what’s best for the patient,” she says. It’s the kind of teamwork where every pair of hands counts. “I was only moving boxes and supplies from point A to point B—just trying to make myself useful—but I could see the impact,” says Jacob. “Seeing someone in post-op and knowing that I had, in some way, helped to reach the goal of getting them safely into and out of surgery, and hopefully moving them in the direction of a brighter future, was incredible.”
For Flora, the IEP trips have also been a way to share her career with her children in a way no take-your-child-to-the-office experience could ever recreate. “I decided I wanted to be a doctor when I was around 10, and my dad took me to an operating theater so I could watch him,” Flora says. “And then here are my kids, actually learning how to put in IVs. Jacob cut sutures. It’s pretty powerful, the experience of not only sharing something like that with your children, but taking them out of their bubble.” Miri agrees: she recalls the raw emotion of “watching kids come out of surgery and seeing mothers cry because they’re getting true healthcare for the first time in their lives. It’s really special.” And Jacob says he can picture himself on a medicine-focused career path thanks to his experiences: “I could see myself committing the rest of my life to [medicine], and I wouldn’t have been able to come to that realization without the real-world exposure that the International Esperanza Project offers,” he says.
Ultimately, Flora, Miri and Jacob hope that more Westporters and Fairfield County residents are inspired to get involved with IEP. Anyone can go on a trip—Spanish speaking is not a requirement—and there are six trips per year, each with different focuses. Flora and her children participate in the Team Hope trip, which has a medical focus, but you don’t need a doctor in your midst to make a difference. “You can go as a family, do the stoving and water filters, and it’s such a powerful bonding experience,” says Flora. “When you get to share that with your kids—it just fills your soul.”
To learn more about the International Esperanza Project or to get involved, visit i-ep.org
“Seeing mothers cry because [their kids are] getting true healthcare for the first time in their lives is really special.”