Home | Meet Dr. Chili | Mission Work
| “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting
to improve the world.” |
– Anne Frank |
Dr. Robinson has been interested in overseas missionary work since his first trip to Guatemala where he worked with an agronomist (an expert in crop production and soil science) and his wife in 1962. The improvement in the lives that they brought to the people around Lago Izabal, Guatemala, made a lasting impression on the then 19-year-old Chili Robinson.
After completion of his surgical training, Dr. Robinson headed south again in 1990 to perform cleft lip and palate surgeries in Saltillo, Mexico. Since then, he has frequently gone abroad to perform reconstructive surgery, to teach and to practice general medicine. His 20 mission trips include jaunts to Mexico, Central America, South America, as well as the Ukraine. This mission effort is one of the main reasons he moved his 23-year practice in Corpus to Arlington, Texas, as this has permitted more frequent trips abroad. He has four trips scheduled for 2007.
Cleft lip and palate work, while life-changing for the individual, also opens up the door to others in these communities to receive basic health care, vaccinations, vitamins, and sanitary education. More far-reaching changes like introduction of soya protein, tilapia fish farming and other non traditional farming and production methods are also introduced.
Due to his long dedication to helping others improve their lives by “creating order out of the chaos” of facial deformities Dr. Robinson was nominated for the Jefferson Service Award in 2000. He was flown to Washington, D.C. to compete in the area of Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged. From a field of 20, the national winner that year was Dr. Benjamin Carson. Dr. Robinson felt this was one of the proudest and yet most humbling moments in his life, to be in the midst of so many people with “servant’s hearts”. For more information and ways to get involved go visit our past winners. |
