HANDREACH CORPORATION

HandReach aims to relieve suffering and maximize human capital among child burn survivors in China and in developing nations in the world through the development and implementation of a model integrated treatment and training program based on the five-pronged “Starfish Model" of integrated care: surgery, nursing, orthopedics, rehabilitation, and psychosocial care. We plan to leverage the expertise and energy of professionals and young people from the Pacific Rim and beyond to heal and uplift this under-served population of injured children.

The major need that HandReach seeks to address is the abysmal or absent after-care most burn-injured children in the developing world receive following their acute care treatment. Children grow, but scars and tendons contract without adequate and regular rehab therapy, resulting in countless children becoming disabled simply because their families were unable to obtain needed rehabilitation after discharge from the hospital.

HandReach's strategy is to develop a full-blown integrated burn treatment program, first in China to serve as a base of operations and training for outreach to other regions of the world including Africa and elsewhere in Asia. Because the efficacy of extant burn care in the developing world radically drops off the further a patient gets from the acute care phase, we wish to work from our “Starfish model" — a five-pronged treatment program that proportionally integrates surgery, nursing, rehab (physical and occupational therapy), orthopedics, and psychosocial care for every patient, regardless of income.

In executing the model, HandReach works on three levels:

1) Individuals: We facilitate the sharing of best practices across countries and institutions by educating clinicians, therapists, parents, and healers of all kinds. Using the Starfish model, HandReach provides services to enable the acute, reconstructive, rehabilitative, orthopedic, and psychosocial care to children who are in great need of surgery or rehabilitation therapy that their families cannot possibly afford.

2) Institutions: We facilitate international clinics, sponsor training, develop technological resources, and arrange for the donation of needed equipment and supplies.

3) Society: We advocate for the needs of the poor and injured to promote greater access to medical care, education, safer products, building materials, and work practices.

HandReach's management group is an international team of bilingual professionals with a wide range of expertise in communication, health care, international affairs, management, media, and public advocacy. Founder Dr. Brecken Chinn holds a Ph.D. in International Communication and a Masters of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and she is fluent in Chinese, with extensive experience working with some of the best pediatric burn units in the United States and China. Her adopted Chinese daughter, Zhou Lin, is the survivor of a severe burn to the lower 55% of her body, and Dr. Swartz has accompanied her on every step of the healing journey, from surgery to rehabilitation to psychological counseling.

The HandReach organization is managed by Stephen McIntosh, HandReach President, with both public sector (City of Boston Community Development Block Grant Program) and private sector (DEC, HP, Fidelity, Industrial Defender) business and program management experience. HandReach's Regional Program Managers bring extensive regional knowledge and local charity contacts, such as China Program Manager and Board Secretary Qi McIntosh, born and raised in Beijing, China.

HandReach's Board of Advisors is comprised of world-class pediatric prosthetics specialists from Shriners Hospitals for Children.

To identify children in need and to ensure comprehensive treatment support, HandReach has worked collaboratively with similar charitable organizations such as 9958 Aid Center of the China Charities Aid Foundation for Children (CCAFC), A Life A Time, Overseas Saving the Chinese Children Foundation, Angel Moms, and the 512 Children's List.

The fact is that there is no American-based charity doing what we are doing internationally. Other organizations focus on sponsoring individual children who need trauma care, paying bills in the short term rather than working systematically to reform the system of available care over the long term. One model organization that we learn from is Smile Train, which works to train and develop resources in cleft palate surgery for clinicians in developing countries. However, organizations like Smile Train work on maladies that can largely be addressed in one procedure, whereas HandReach is working on complex injuries that require far more time and resources to heal.

And HandReach has made substantial progress in this work. To date, we have:

Established Relationships with China Hospitals -- HandReach has started working to establish a world-class burn program and teaching partnership with a leading Beijing hospital that will not only treat over 500 patients per year, but can also serve as a teaching model for hospitals all over China and beyond. As a one of China's premier pediatric trauma units, this Beijing hospital is positioned to train dozens of medical professionals and impact thousands of patients per year.

International Clinical Training -- HandReach has facilitated many international surgical, rehabilitative, and psychosocial training clinics and sponsors joint conferences that allow for the sharing of best practices among institutions.

Drum circles -- HandReach BeatBrigade drum circles communicate powerfully to children, parents, professionals, and community that we are all in this together. Burn-survivor children we have worked with in China now call themselves “drummers" instead of “burn survivors," which connects them through rhythm with burn survivors even without language throughout the rest of the world.

Travel Management for Patients -- HandReach continues to provide travel, lodging, and social support for 10 - 20 children per year who must travel from China to Shriners Hospitals for Children in the U.S. on a yearly basis for burn injury treatment. Whereas most other international health organizations sponsor one procedure for a child, HandReach works to ensure continuity of care yearly until the child reaches adulthood at age 21. HandReach stands apart when one considers the productivity generated on such a lean budget.

In summary and taking a global perspective, the ground-level expertise HandReach has acquired in China has us prepared us for the challenges of expansion to India, Indonesia, and Africa. HandReach's only hurdle is obtaining funding needed to expand our organization and implement our projects.