Brandon Sparks, a second-year medical student at Indiana University Northwest, talks to Dr. William W. Forgey on Wednesday before St. Mary Medical Center presented a check for $12,000 for their upcoming medical relief efforts in Haiti. (Photograph by The Times.)

A group of area medical students is making it their mission to reach out and help Haitian earthquake victims.

Medical Student Missions, comprised of 19 members of the Indiana University School of Medicine Class of 2013, will be traveling to Haiti on Sunday to provide medical relief to those affected by the earthquake that hit that country earlier this year, Dr. William Forgey said.

Forgey, who will be traveling with the students, serves as a physician at St. Mary Medical Center and as a volunteer associate clinical professor of family medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine-Northwest in Gary.

The students’ project, which will entail running a clinic for maternal health and sick child assessments, is being financially sponsored by a $12,000 gift from St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart.

“St. Mary Medical Center is our primary supporter. We are organized as a student group with all of those participating in their second year of medical school,” Forgey said.

Brandon Sparks, who is a second-year student at Indiana University School of Medicine-Northwest in Gary, said he’ll be traveling to Haiti during its second trip August 8 to 15. The students are planning a third trip in December.

Sparks said the idea for the Haiti project came about earlier this year as part of the medical ethics class taught by Forgey.

“I’m very excited to go. It will be nice to go to an area that really needs our help and to put to use the education I’ve learned in medical school,” Sparks said.

While in Haiti, the students will be assessing children for a number of illnesses, including starvation, and will be bringing a special dried milk mixture to feed them.

Those wanting to donate to the project or follow the students on their mission to Haiti can visit medicalstudentmissions.org.