Medical Mission Preparations

One of the things that makes PazSalud unique is that we work closely with community leaders, long before the medical mission ever begins, to pool our collective resources in order to create the best medical brigades possible.  Comasagua - the site for our 2016 General Medical Mission - has some remarkably enthusiastic and motivated leaders happy to partner with PazSalud to bring our services to the most patients we can.

For the past several months I've been working to put together a team of local entities that will help us pull off the massive undertaking that is a PazSalud February mission.  Below I'm meeting with the mayor (center, yellow shirt), the Director of the municipal health clinic (center, plaid shirt), the local CIS health promoter/volunteer coordinator (right, plaid shirt) and a room full of nurses and health care outreach workers.

Christmas in El Salvador

Every year PazSalud puts together baskets of food items for the families we have been working with over the years and we deliver them just before Christmas.  Each basket is filled with healthy staples for the family to enjoy during the holidays.  Sharing the gift of food during this special time of year is one of the ways PazSalud continues to be a presence in our past mission communities and help some very needy and deserving Salvadorans.

Special Order Glasses for Tamanique Patients

During PazSalud’s recent joint optometry mission with the Lions Club of Bellingham, WA, our optometrists identified patients from Tamanique who require prescriptions that we could not fill from our supply of donated glasses.  In these cases, our mission team volunteers will take their prescriptions and have lenses specially made for them in the U.S. at no cost to the Salvadoran patient.

A very special thanks to Walman Optical who so generously made and donated the glasses and Ken Henderson whose efforts made it all possible for me to recently deliver customized, special-ordered glasses to some very needy patients.  Their new glasses enable them to see the world like they never have before and the smiles on their faces tell you all you need to know about how happy they are.

Blankets for Tamanique

Every year a former PeaceHealth employee and her sisters hand-make and donate quilts to PazSalud to distribute to needy families and individuals from our mission communities.  This year I worked with Maira - our local CIS coordinator who helped us with our General Medical Mission – to identify some people in Tamanique who greatly needed and appreciated this small gesture of friendship and solidarity with the people of El Salvador.  It was a joy to see so many happy, smiling faces at receiving something they will treasure for years to come.

We made two main stops in Tamanique.  Below are scenes from the first delivery:

Maira talking to the group of women

Selecting a blanket

A happy mother

 We then stopped in another area further away to distribute more blankets:

Using the PazSalud vehicle to display the blankets they could choose

 

Very happy mothers

We met some other very needy families along the way and were thrilled we could give them a blanket:

Optometry mission with the Lions

PazSalud just completed it's third and final mission of 2015.  Partnering with various U.S. Lions Clubs, we brought an optometry mission to Tamanique with the goal of helping the patients we weren't able to see during our February mission.  The Lions brought prescription, reading and sun glasses for the community and over the course of 4.5 days, we were able to provide thorough eye exams and glasses to 471 patients, far surpassing our projected patient totals. 

In addition, working with local physicians, we were able to provide 35 needy patients with referrals into the Salvadoran national health care system so they can seek treatment for special medical conditions our mission wasn't equipped to address.  Referrals may seem routine to those of us used to modern western health care but in El Salvador, it's a significant, often difficult to obtain step forward in treating a medical issue and one were proud and happy to provide.

Setting up glasses the day before the mission starts

A young patient with her mother

A volunteer interpreter working with a patient

A Lions volunteer discussing a patient referral with a Salvadoran doctor

Water Filters to Tamanique

PazSalud is committed to improving the short-term and long-term health of every community we serve.  During our General Medical Missions in February our physicians 'prescribe' water filters to families suffering the effects of consuming El Salvador's polluted water.  With this list of patients, PazSalud works with CIS' community water filter program to raise awareness of the vital link between clean water and public health and to train families on how to use the Sawyer water filter. 

PazSalud donates 100 water filters to every community that hosts our medical missions and we help them get into the hands of people who need them the most.

The first patient meeting

Luis and Maira from CIS training patient on how to use the PazSalud-donated water filters

Learning to assemble and care for the filter

Children of San Jose Villanueva

Once again working with close friend and constant partner of PazSalud, Rosy Melara, we collaborated with her church group to bring a morning of fun, food and presents to a group of poor children in San Jose Villanueva.  The location of our general mission in 2012, PazSalud regularly returns to celebrate special moments with them and of course, to work with Sandra and her grandmother.

Rosy talking to the group.

Children of San Jose Villanueva

Sandra and her grandmother