Meet Hannah Jamsay of Uplift Internationale in Wheat Ridge

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah Jamsay.

Hannah, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.

Around 2008 while working for Good Samaritan Hospital, an email was sent out from Uplift Internationale (UI) seeking volunteers for a surgical mission trip to the Philippines. Being part Filipino, I was intrigued by the mission and opportunity to give back to my roots. I submitted my wholehearted application expressing how fulfilling it would be to give back to my beloved Filipinos. I was invited to be apart of the mission team and endured my first mission in early 2010 while also finishing nursing school. The experience was truly life-changing. I was able to help serve impoverished Filipino children with little to no access to healthcare with life-changing cleft surgeries. I was able to comfort families during the hospital stay, see medicine from a totally different view. Help rid burdens from these kids’ life caused by cleft.

From just one trip, I felt my whole life was transformed. My outlooks on life, essentials, etc. changed. Any time I wanted to complain about something at work or daily living, I thought of what it’s like in the Philippines. Filipinos are good spirited people with minimal expectations. Many living in Nipa Huts; similar to American Children’s tree houses without running water or electricity, with at least six to eight other family members generally including grandparents and aunts/uncles. Many without shoes and very little clothing, eating whatever they could afford or simply off their land.

In 2011, I swiftly returned on another UI surgical trip. This trip was even better, I spent my entire trip working in the Operating Room assisting with the cleft surgeries. I got to be apart of the life changing transformation.
2011-2015 I remained as active as I could with UI mission preparations and fundraising. I sat out from missions as I raised my two children.
2016 I was honored to accept the role of UI Executive Director (E.D.). I was in complete awe to learn I was qualified to accept the E.D. position, but at the same time thanked God, as I had just endured the passing of my brother, my #1 cheerleader when it came to my mission trips. This was a dream come true, being able to work full time with a mission to provide mending surgical care to impoverished Filipino Children.

Since my role started, I have been driven to help UI succeed in every way possible. I began my role with a mission accomplishment of 42 surgeries, in 2019 our team completed 87 surgeries, and in 2020 we are preparing for a record breaking year of 160+ surgeries. During my time as E.D. UI’s fundraising has significantly taken off from one event to a quarterly event; cultivating new donors and sharing the wonderful work of UI. Recruitment of UI mission volunteers went from seeking out people in 2016, to having to waitlist in most recent times. I have implemented additional programs during our mission weeks such as eyeglass distribution and CPR training. I am so blessed for the continued success of our wonderful organization.

I traveled with the UI team during missions in 2017, 2018, and 2019, and will continue. It seems as though my life revolves around serving my precious Filipinos nowadays. I am always trying to think of ways I can help better their lives, and enriching my life by learning from the simple, happy way they live.

In addition to Uplift Internationale, I have worked at various hospitals in rural and city settings since 2007, past specialties include OB, Operating Room, Psychiatry, and Intensive Care. I have been an American Heart Association CPR and First Aid Instructor nearly 10 years providing healthcare workers, the community, and at risk populations with training. Many of my CPR courses are done free of charge to help save more lives.

Has it been a smooth road?
As with everything in life, taking on the Executive Director role has had it’s curve balls. There are definitely those who doubt my abilities and conflict with my personality from time to time. At the end of the day, I try to accomplish what’s going to have a greater outcome on the patients and families we serve. I consider myself a dedicated, hard worker. When I do not feel like others are giving their full potential, or are not invested in continuing the legacy of UI, I take care of it.

Mission planning and implementation can be rough at times, especially to bring in 4+ Lead Surgeons, many from their own private practice, along with 30-40 other medical professionals from all walks of life. Bringing the entire team together and sharing the best practices to carry out a successful UI mission is amongst the most challenging parts of my job. Everyone has great work and life experience, but there are a select number of ways of completing certain components in the Philippines, especially with limited resources and poor hospital conditions.

Overcoming obstacles, my main goal in mind is to provide a more prosperous life for our patients and their families. I live off advice from a leader I received in my first year as ED, no matter how well you do, “There’s always room for improvement!”

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Uplift Internationale is a long standing Colorado-based 501 (c) three non profit medical mission group that has been providing much needed surgical repair of both cleft lip and cleft palate on impoverished Filipino children at no cost to the patient since 1989. We are currently celebrating 30 years of mending faces!

For every $250 raised, another child can receive surgery. That means another child can receive a positive life transformation, preventing that child from living an unfortunate life of shame, ridicule, and health issues. Health issues that include dental malformations, frequent respiratory & ear infections, and difficulty with eating & speech.

The majority of our families served in 2019 made less than 4$ per day. The average household income in 2018 was less than $2 per day. Not to mention, most households over the past couple of years had an average of five children and lived in a Nipa Hut, without running water or electricity. Most do not have access to healthcare.

SInce 1989, UI has provided over 1880 life changing surgeries, primarily cleft lip and palate repair. UI fully funds all operations including any pre-screenings, labs, X-rays, etc and aftercare including pain management, infection control, etc. UI completes surgeries at a host hospital in the Philippines with minimal burden on the hospital and a great amount of knowledge sharing for the local staff.

UI has welcomed over 750 volunteers to our mission team; a good portion from Colorado, but many from other states and countries including AZ, CA, ID, IL, FL, KS, MA, NE, NM, NC, NH,NY, OR, PA, SC, TX, WA, WI, Philippines, Australia, Hong Kong, Belgium, South Africa, Thailand & the United Kingdom

Since 2017, UI has provided CPR training to 50+ annually at no cost to the host communities including health workers. I personally initiated this program and will continue to provide for years to come.

All of our patients receive new shoes/sandals, blanket, toothbrush, toothpaste, and clothing in a patient care bag to take home.

UI is different from other similar organizations for a number of reasons. UI’s overhead is extremely low, over 90% of our funds go directly to funding surgeries for poverty stricken Filipino children. UI strives to provide staged missions, meaning we return to the same site to provide additional surgeries and or revisions. Additional surgeries are often needed to achieve optimal results. UI focus is on quality, not quantity; we carefully screen all of our Lead surgeon’s quality of work before inviting them on our mission team. UI welcomes all cleft lip and cleft palate patients equally, some other mission groups choose to not do as many palates due to the time and skillset needed. UI provides Alveolar Bone Grafts to add bone from the hip to the gum ridge in children born with both a cleft lip and a cleft palate.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Born in Colorado, I have watched the city grow exponentially. Colorado is a good base for our mission as we make connections all around us and draw great medical professionals.

Just starting out in Colorado, I feel it’s competitive. You have to be experienced and driven to not give up. No matter what line of work pursued, you need the confidence to prove to others how you can succeed and conquer all components of the job description.