Estanzuelas Committee

During a General Medical Mission in a Salvadoran community, PazSalud’s medical team identifies individuals that need special attention beyond what the mission can offer.  We undertake to work with these people – typically children – and assist them in accessing greater health care in El Salvador.  During our mission in Estanzuelas, Usulutan in 2013, we encountered six such children and have been working with them ever since.

I recently had the opportunity become involved with an experimental committee forming in Estanzuelas; the site of our 2013 mission.  PazSalud teamed up with the local government and several Salvadoran NGOs to create the Local Committee for Children’s and Adolescent’s Rights.  This committee is designed to work with local youth, helping them with basic health, education and living needs.  Our hope is that we will be able to connect our patients from our 2013 mission with this local committee and extend our assistance to helping other Salvadorans in great need.

The mayor of Estanzuelas speaking to the crowd

 

The panel of local NGOs

One of our volunteers from 2013 providing the entertainment

Clean water for Estanzuelas Families

One of the cornerstones of PazSalud's work in El Salvador is our commitment to our mission communities well after our two main medical brigades are completed.  We live that commitment in a number of ways: one of the most significant is working with a local NGO to provide water filters to families.

During PazSalud's February General Medical Mission, our medical team identifies patients - especially children - who suffer serious health effects from drinking contaminated water and 'prescribes' them a filter.  We then work with our local mission coordinator to follow-up with these families by training them on the need for, and use of, a water filter.  Simultaneously PazSalud raises funds to purchase the excellent and easy-to-use Sawyer water filters (http://sawyer.com/international/products/sawyer-pointone-filter-with-bucket-adapter-kit-3-ft-hose/) in the U.S.  Our goal is to provide 100 filters to every mission community we work with.

We collaborate with the CIS (Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad) to provide the training that makes the water filter project work.  Participants are required to come to three sessions, in which they learn why clean water is essential, and how to install, use and clean the Sawyer filters.  A local Water Committee is formed that visits all the families to make sure they are using the filters correctly.

Here are scenes from the training sessions in Estanzuelas, our 2013 Mission site:

This woman is drilling a hole in her bucket (the filter packets come complete with a small hand drill) as preparation for installing the filter.

The completed assembly: the Sawyer system works with two buckets, with water fed by gravity from a higher bucket through the filter and into a lower bucket.  The group photo below shows what the completed system looks like:

Surgery in progress

Susan writes:

Our 2014 surgery mission is taking place from May 10 - 19 at the National Hospital in Cojutepeque.  I'm not there this time, so I was thrilled that our good friend and most generous volunteer, Rossy Melara, posted photos from the mission on her FaceBook page. 

That's Darren, our PazSalud Coordinator, on the left; Rossy is in the middle, with Bruce and Terry on the right.  And here's a photo from inside the surgery suite:

I should be able to post more info about the week on Monday, when Darren and Kathy will have a bit more time.  This week, I know from five years' experience, they are completely absorbed in making sure that everything is done just right and in dealing with all the unexpected events that are sure to happen.

The patients this week were recommended for cataract surgery (or in a few cases to have pterygiums, growths from the conjunctiva, removed) by the examining optometrist.  Usually we only have patients from our General Medical Mission, held in San Pedro Perulapán, about a half hour's drive from the hospital, but this year we also have a number of patients from Estanzuelas who were recommended during a Bellingham Lions Eye Screening Mission.  This year marks an important first for us: for the first time, our surgeons will be using a Phaco Emulsifier - the equipment most often used for cataract surgeries in the U.S. - for many of the surgeries. 

Stay tuned for more news from the mission!

Adios, Doña Maria de la Paz

We've just learned that Marvin Hernandez' grandmother, Maria de la Paz Hernandez, has passed away.  We feel a special closeness to her because she was first one of our patients in the Estanzuelas Medical Mission in 2013 and then a cataract surgery patient in the National Hospital at Santiago de Maria in May, 2013.  Her grandson, Marvin, was our superb community leader for Estanzuelas, in charge of organizing the volunteers, outreach to the community, and local logistics. 

Here's a photo of Doña Maria de la Paz that Darren sent:

We're glad that Doña Maria de la Paz was able to see her children and grandchildren better during this last year, and we're very grateful that we were able to meet this beautiful woman.

Gifts of vision

Darren writes:

This past September PazSalud organized a joint eye mission in Estanzuelas with Dr. Ken Henderson of the Lions Club of Bellingham where we were thrilled to see 325 patients in two and a half days.  The goal of mission was to examine needy patients whom we were not able to see during our general mission in Estanzuelas the previous February.

During the September mission with the Lions, we saw some patients who required custom glasses to address their specific vision deficiencies.  Dr. Henderson and the Lions generously volunteered to take on this challenging and expensive task by having eyeglasses for 4 patients made in the U.S.  The Lions sent them to me during my visit to the U.S., I brought them back to El Salvador and recently had the pleasure of delivering the special optics to these very appreciative and deserving Salvadorans.

A Chili con Carne Thank You

We've had wonderful community volunteers helping us with our three Estanzuelas missions this year - the general medical mission in February, the eye surgery mission in April, and the Bellingham Lions' Eye Clinic in September - and Darren wanted to say "Thank you!"  So he invited a bunch of them to San Salvador where they enjoyed his homemade chili (something that's not part of the Salvadoran cuisine) and a happy evening, extending the fellowship that we have had with these excellent helpers.  Here, left to right, Eric, Marvin, Darren, Delmy, Lea and Fredy.

Delmy and Lea are Marvin's classmates in his English major at the Occidental University, and volunteered as interpreters for the March and September missions - they helped us a lot, they learned a lot, and we all ended up feeling like good friends.  Fredy teaches English at Occidental University and helped with interpretation during the September Lions' Club mission.  Marvin has been our rock throughout the year, always making things work smoothly for PazSalud.