At the start of a journey there are many — too many — directions to take, too many questions that need answers. So, all we can do is to begin. These days there are numerous aid groups on the lookout for volunteers and partners — the trick for Hands Across the Sea is to find the aid organizations that we can do the most for in a given period of time. We have the desire to help, a set of skills that we can put to good use, and a unique vehicle that allows us to reach and remain in places that are impractical via conventional methods. We are looking for partners, and we've found some promising groups...

True North Missions

Dr. Alan Barber, founder of True North Missions

Hands Across the Sea is fortunate to have Dr. Alan Barber, the founder of True North Missions, on our board of directors. Dr. Barber has founded True North Missions to provide comprehensive healthcare to the children of Mayan Indian tribes in Central America. These indigenous people were displaced by Guatemala's 36-year civil war, which ended in 1999. The Mayans have migrated to isolated areas in bordering countries to avoid persecution and discrimination, and as a result are isolated from access to healthcare. A visit to True North's website (http://www.truenorthmissions.com) will fill you in on the outstanding work Dr. Barber and his volunteer medical professionals are accomplishing. To see who True North is helping, check out the wonderful slide show of their recent mission to Guatemala (http://www.truenorthmissions.com/slideshow/guatemala-0407.html). True North Missions has inspired us in another way: Dr. Barber utilizes a 47-foot catamaran (http://www.truenorthmissions.com/news/2006.htm) , outfitted especially for medical missions, to bring his teams to the site and provide a base for their work ashore.

Canvasback Missions' 71-foot catamaran, Canvasback

working with Hands...
In looking for partner organizations we've discovered that using a boat to bring help to communities in need is unusual but hardly unprecedented. For example, the folks at Canvasback Missions, Inc. (http://www.canvasback.org/index.html), have been combining medical and ministry outreach in Micronesia for 26 years. And other groups are using boats in the service of medical and social assistance: Project MARC (http://www.project-marc.org), Endangered Islands Expedition (http://www.eiexpedition.com/pages/1/index.htm), Boaters for Books (http://www.boatersforbooks.org), and Maritime Missions (http://www.maritimemissions.org), to list only a few. We hope to have the opportunity to work with these groups, and many more, as we get Hands Across the Sea underway.