Information for Lawyers

Hope and Healing International
3844 Stouffville Road,
PO Box 800
Stouffville ON L4A 7Z9
Toll Free: 1.800.567.2264
P. (905) 640.6464
F. (905) 640.4332

Legal name:
Hope and Healing International

Charitable Registration Number:
10691 8329 RR0001

Information for Executors and Estate Trustees

Hope and Healing International’s Estate Administration Policy

Legal name: Hope and Healing International
Operating as: Hope and Healing International Canada

The following is information Hope and Healing International requires from the Executor(s) in order to demonstrate to third-parties, such as its external auditor, that the full wishes of the deceased have been carried out according to their Last Will and Testament.

For a Specific Bequest:

A copy of the Notice of Application for Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee with a Will or Letters Probate.
A copy of the pertinent portion of the Will where Hope and Healing International is listed to receive the specific bequest.

For a Residual Bequest:

A copy of the Notice of Application for Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee with a Will or Letters Probate.
A copy of the entire Will.
A copy of the List of Assets and their value at date of death.
A copy of Executor’s interim and final accounting of receipts and disbursements for revenue accounts and capital accounts.

Hope and Healing International’s Process for Handling Requests by Excecutor(s) to Vary the Will:

Hope and Healing International will ask for the request to vary the Will to be submitted by the Executor(s) in writing along with a copy of any background documentation that the Executor(s) may have.
Hope and Healing International will forward the estate file to Hope and Healing International’s legal counsel who will review the file and advise Hope and Healing International on next steps.
Hope and Healing International’s lawyer will communicate either directly to the Executor(s) or to the legal counsel for the estate.

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A Legacy gift – in the hands of a trained doctor – changes lives for years to come

Ashley Patton in the operating room after watching a glaucoma and cataract surgery.

Ashley Patton spent nearly seven months serving as a volunteer Administrator at a Hope and Healing International partner eye hospital in Swaziland, the Good Shepherd Hospital Eye Clinic (GSHEC). During her time there, Ashley worked to organize files and keep operations moving. She also took part in a number of cataract case finding trips. These trips involved going out into the most rural locations in Swaziland to find people living with cataracts.

Read Ashley’s full story about her trip to Swaziland and how she’s seen the kind of impact a gift in your Will can have in the lives of people who need it most.

Full story here

Helping People Living with Mental Illness – Building a Legacy in Sierra Leone

Heather Weaver is an occupational therapist by training. Her work with Hope and Healing International has included emergency response and community based rehabilitation, but her most recent work focused on mental health. She’s just finished her 2nd year in Freetown, Sierra Leone working as Project Coordinator and Mental Health Specialist for Enabling Access to Mental Health,* a Hope and Healing International program that partners with local organizations working in mental health (in collaboration with international partner Global Initiative on Psychiatry (GIP)). During a brief trip to Stouffville, ON to visit with the Hope and Healing International staff, Heather talked about the importance of legacy giving.

“In Sierra Leone, the community mental health work of [Hope and Healing International] is starting from the beginning. If you compare us to other countries in West Africa, those countries have programs developed, infrastructure that’s built, local staff who’ve been trained. But in Sierra Leone, we’re just starting to lay the groundwork. 10 years ago, Sierra Leone endured a brutal civil war. Thousands of families were torn apart and many civilians lost their hands or feet, often as a ‘protest against democracy’ by rebel soldiers. It’s impossible to find someone whose life wasn’t affected by these horrible events. Everyone, it seems, carries a scar with them from the war – scars that are on the outside and inside.

One of the most prominent and least understood ‘scars’ is the prevalence of mental health problems. While these scars may only exist under the surface, their effects can be devastating. In Sierra Leone, mental illness is so misunderstood and so stigmatized that it’s the reactions of communities and families that really hurts the individual. Many families will chain up a loved-one with a mental illness. Not because they’re cruel or want to hurt them, but because they feel they’ve no other option. They’re afraid their family member might hurt themself or others. They are desperate for a solution.

If we ever want to break the physical chains that bind people with mental illness, we have to first break the chains of stigma. And that’s what we’re doing now. We’re working in communities to change ideas and beliefs so that families learn to help those with mental illness. And one day we will break the physical chains around their loved ones too. Legacy gifts – a gift left to Hope and Healing International in a Will – fund 12% of the work being done in Sierra Leone. They help cover things like training for healthcare professionals to offer talk therapies to people who are living with mental illness. Right now, there are limited resources for prescription medication in the country, but talk therapies– allowing individuals to sit with a healthcare worker and talk- can offer a cost effective method of improving one’s mental health. Training health care providers in these approaches, allows us to make a big impact without spending very much.

I know that in Sierra Leone, and in other Hope and Healing International programs, every dollar is stretched as far as it can go to help those who need it most. And if you’d like to leave a gift in your Will to Hope and Healing International, you could help us lay the foundation for a brand new program in Sierra Leone or somewhere else around the world. It all depends on what you’d like your Legacy gift to do.

”Heather Weaver was the Project Coordinator & Mental Health Specialist at Hope and Healing International’s program, Enabling Access to Mental Health (Sierra Leone). Heather is back home in Canmore, Alberta, planning her wedding.

*Enabling Access to Mental Health is co-funded by the European Union.

Tuong is just one example of a changed life – someone found by a Hope and Healing International community worker, diagnosed and given appropriate treatment for his mental illness. Formerly thought to be demon-possessed, Tuong now lives peacefully with his family and is receiving vocational training.

Dr. Leonard Banza is an orthopaedic surgeon at Kamuzu Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi where he lives today with his wife and son.

“Eleven years ago, I faced the greatest challenges of my life. My family and I were refugees in a new country. We had no money or food. Our home had been destroyed. And it was a gift through Hope and Healing International that allowed me to start my life again.

I was working as a doctor at the Nyankunde Mission Hospital in Congo. It was the first job I ever had, and it was there I first learned about Hope and Healing International.

They had funded a community program at the hospital. Then, one day a Hope and Healing International staff member approached me and asked if I would like to become an orthopaedic surgeon. I said “Yes!” Opportunities like this were hard to come by in the Congo. So we made plans to begin my training.

That was when my world turned upside down.

Just a week before I was scheduled to start, war broke out between two tribes in my country. I was devastated. There were people dying all through the streets. My hospital had to stop working. Everything was a mess.

Worse still, my wife and son were caught in the middle of it. I couldn’t let them stay there. They were not safe.

The only solution was to leave that place with nothing but my four-year-old son in my arms and our family’s passports in my pocket.

My wife and I walked 160 km through the jungles of Congo. The streets and highways were too dangerous. They were filled with check points for soldiers and battle grounds for the rebels. It was four days of walking and praying before we reached another mission hospital.

Once my family was safe, I got in touch with Hope and Healing International. Fortunately, Hope and Healing International staff knew what was happening in my country, and they got us safely to Malawi.

I still wanted to pursue orthopaedics. But I had no money. That was when Hope and Healing International told me a generous donor had given a gift that would pay for my training.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Someone who’d never met me – who didn’t know about my country’s war – they were willing to fund my training?

I don’t think that donor could have possibly imagined how much that gift would mean to me. My family and I had nothing. So God used her gift to put me back into school.

Thanks to this gift, I began my training in 2003. I finished my studies in 2009 and have been working in Southern Africa ever since.

I am forever grateful to that donor. It’s because of her I’m an orthopaedic surgeon today. I love my job. I love helping people every day – fixing broken bones, straightening feet, stopping pain and giving children new hope.

And I think that donor is changing lives every day along with me. It’s her gift that made all of this possible.”

Dr. Leonard Banza
Orthopaedic Surgeon, Kamuzu Central Hospital
Lilongwe, Malawi

You can be sure that your legacy gift to Hope and Healing International will shine your love and values in the world, because skilled doctors like Dr. Banza are on the front lines – faithfully and passionately changing lives for years to come.

When you hear of someone leaving behind a legacy, what comes to mind? A sum of money, a large estate, perhaps some valuable shares?

Here are two men, whose legacies aren’t what you might think…

Both co-workers of Hope and Healing International, Dr. Jonathan Pons and Dr. Narivony Razafinimpanan (fondly known as Dr. Nary) are two ophthalmologists working to eliminate preventable and curable blindness in the poorest communities in Africa.

Dr. Jonathan Pons is the only ophthalmologist in Swaziland, serving over 1.1 million people. Early on in his career, Dr. Pons realized that his small eye team’s greatest contribution would be the excellence they maintained in training other eye surgeons throughout Africa.

With this in mind, in May of 2006, Dr. Pons held a two week Small Incision Cataract Surgery (SICS) training session for Dr. Nary, an eye surgeon from Madagascar.

Now with more than 2,100 cataract surgeries completed, Dr. Nary estimates that over his lifetime he will complete at least 7,000 cataract operations and other eye surgeries.

That’s a huge number of people receiving sight! Parents can once again work and care for their families. Children can go to school. Training a cataract surgeon brings sight and fuller life to thousands of families!

And as Dr. Pons and Dr. Nary physically heal those they serve, and share the love of Christ in their words and actions, they are bringing about spiritual healing as well.

In Dr. Nary’s words:
“I believe that God called me to be a cataract surgeon and my mission in my lifetime is to preach the name of Jesus through my ophthalmological practice. Before my work, I pray and put everything under the hand of God. I use the New Testament to test the near vision of my patients so that they can read some verses. When I have an untreatable disease, and can do nothing medically, I comfort the patient and family by telling them about God’s love.”

Imagine the impact a legacy gift to Hope and Healing International in your Will could make both physically and spiritually! It costs $15,000 to train a national ophthalmologist like Dr. Nary. The cost of instruments, hospital equipment, medical facilities, and transportation are all necessary and a larger legacy gift can provide this. As Dr.Nary explains:

“Gifts in Wills are very important for us because without them, I could not have been trained as a cataract surgeon. We are willing to treat our patients with our very best, but we cannot do this without the support from Hope and Healing International. Your legacy gifts are blessings for many people.”

Dr. Cook Trains African Ophthalmologists

A legacy that will give sight for generations to come

Dr. Colin Cook, Hope and Healing International ophthalmologist since 1996, describes the incredible satisfaction he receives from training ophthalmologists who come from nearby African countries to study at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where he currently teaches.

Dr. Cook states, “I have found for myself that training ophthalmologists has been one of the most gratifying and rewarding things in my work. Training a national ophthalmologist to do the surgery, to do the work, and then helping [by giving] them the material assistance they need… it’s a great privilege to be able to do this!

“You’ll often find that [when the bandages are removed after cataract surgery] people will burst into song and dance and end up singing and dancing around the ward.

“It’s always a very humbling experience to be able to see the gratitude of patients who’ve had their surgery. And to give thanks to God for His great mercy and the wonderful work He does through the ophthalmologists.”

Someday, part of Dr. Cook’s personal legacy will be the highly-trained national eye surgeons who go back to their own countries and provide eye surgery for their own people.

Canadians, who have left behind legacy gifts in their Wills, have helped to make it possible for Dr. Cook to train these African ophthalmologists. Their legacy lives on.

Legacy Gifts are ‘Unbelievably Important’

Ophthalmologist and Hope and Healing International co-worker, Dr. Will Dean, served as Acting Director and Consultant Ophthalmologist at Nkhoma Eye Hospital in Malawi. We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Dean.

Q: Dr. Dean, how important are gifts in Wills, also known as legacy gifts, in funding your work?

W.D: Unbelievably important.

Q: Can you give examples of the impact legacy gifts have compared to single donation gifts?

W.D: Gladly. A single gift of $33 provides one cataract operation for one person.

A legacy gift could fund a teaching operating microscope, allowing me to train four to six cataract surgeons per year – who then perform cataract surgery for thousands more (and also perhaps teach other surgeons).

$14 screens one patient and brings them to the hospital.

A legacy gift would fund a second 4×4 ambulance vehicle to double our outreach and screening capabilities (5,000 more people screened and 1,000 more cataract operations performed per year).

Don’t get me wrong, small gifts are important – and make a substantial difference in one life. With a legacy gift, however, you can change thousands of lives.

Q: Do you have any personal stories about the impact legacy gifts make?

W.D: I would love to share each of the stories of the 4,000 people I have performed cataract surgery on over the past two years. I see people every day who are led by hand by their grandchild because they cannot even see the door frame they’re supposed to walk through. They haven’t seen their family for five years and do almost nothing for themselves.

The next day after surgery, as the bandage is removed they are showered by colour, light and images of life around them that they had all but forgotten.

Q: Dr. Dean, is there anything you would like to say to our Canadian supporters?

W.D: Yes. May the Lord bless you for your compassion and grace, and bless the continuing work for people who are blind, in the name of Jesus.

If you’d like more information about leaving a gift in your Will to Hope and Healing International, fill out our request information form or call 1-800-567-2264. We’d love to answer any questions you may have.