Felipa - part 3

After moving in a week ago I wanted to visit Felipa to check up on her, see how she was adjusting to her new surroundings and give her some more house-warming items I'd been gathering for her.

I drove down to her house this morning (Saturday, April 16) and found her happily passing time on her new front porch, smiling and waving as I drove up.  I dropped off some food supplies, some housewares, and other things to make her new home more comfortable and we chatted for a while. She told me she loves her new house and is so much happier than she was before.  Her old shack rested on a rock pile and it was hard for her to come and go but her new place is on much leveler ground and with her fading eyesight and mobility, it's much easier for her to get around.

PazSalud will of course stay in touch with Felipa and her family and I'll keep you all posted here on her progress.

Settling in to her new home

Hanging out on her front porch

Felipa - part 2

With still so much work left to be done on the modest new house we were building for Felipa, the team returned to the work site on Saturday the 9th to finish the job.  We ordered some additional material to complete the expanded scope of the project and got to work first thing in the morning.

Adding zinc sheeting to create the roof...

...and the walls

Coating the wood frame in termite poison

Building the door

With most of the construction done, we turned our focus to moving a boulder that had rested for decades in the spot where we intended to locate Felipa's primary walkway.  Two pry bars, 6 men and an hour later we were able to dislodge and remove the over 2-ton chunk of granite bedrock.  Felipa now has a clear path to the rest of the family compound and the nearby creek.

When I asked when Felipa was going move in to her new home her daughter said, 'as soon as you want to bring her!'  So we hopped in the PazSalud truck and drove just a little way up the road to help Felipa move her things.  When we arrived at her shack, I was surprised to see that it was actually in the process of being torn down by the new landowner and she was living in the half the 10'x15' shanty she occupied before.  Some volunteers and I gathered up her minimal possessions and brought her to her daughters home where we just completed construction on her new house.

Escorting Felipa to her new home

Testing out her new hammock

Me, Felipa and Maira

Felipa was thrilled and overwhelmed with her new home.  In contrast to her old one, her new house is larger, lighter, cooler and safer than her previous space and being located on the same land as her daughter and grandchildren is a huge bonus.  We hope it will be a comfortable and safe place for her to spend her remaining years.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the volunteer team members

A huge 'thank you' to everyone from Tamanique who so generously volunteered their time and effort to realize this dream for Felipa.  Without their labor and their spirit, none of this would have been possible.

A special 'thank you' as well to Jim and Jan Streff and other PazSalud donors who allowed the project to even be imagined.  The total cost of giving a very special old woman a new home was roughly $800.  What may not seem like much to us in the U.S. can literally change a life in El Salvador.  Sometimes modest donations combined with communal effort and a simple vision can accomplish an amazing goal.  That's the work we strive to do every day at PazSalud.

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

Patient Post-Op Exams

We just completed all our post-operative exams and I'm happy to report that our eye surgery patients are doing remarkably well.  Thanks to the work of PazSalud's amazing surgical team in May and Dr. Jule's (our Salvadoran in-country ophthalmologist) incredible efforts during the mission and throughout their post-op care, PazSalud not only performed surgery on a record number of patients but their outcomes have been as successful as we've ever had.  As always, we will continue to monitor their healing over the coming months and address any needs that may arise.

Thank you again to everyone who contributed to the success of this mission!

Patients in the waiting room of Dr. Jule's office

Dr. Jule examining a patient

Some happy patients: