Children's Day

PazSalud held a medical mission in San José Villanueva in 2012 and we returned on Saturday to celebrate Children’s Day with some of the less fortunate children in town.  Long-time PazSalud friend, Rosy Melara, and her church group put together a mini fiesta for a group of kids and their parents complete with toys, games, pizza and a clown and invited us to participate.

PazSalud is committed to working with our mission sites long after our teams have returned to the U.S. and this was a fun way to continue that commitment.  It was truly a memorable afternoon.

Rosy Melara (left) and Sandra (pink shirt)

   

Special Order Glasses

During every PazSalud General Mission we screen hundreds of patients' vision and fit them with reading and/or distance glasses donated to us by various sources in the U.S.  Invariably we encounter patients who need specific prescriptions that we don't have among the thousands of pairs of glasses we bring to the mission site.  When this happens, the optician volunteering with PazSalud fits the patient with a pair of frames, obtains the prescription from the optometrist, brings the frames back to the U.S. and sends them to the laboratory they typically work with.  Through the generosity of the laboratory that makes the lenses and the efforts of the optician, the special prescription glasses make their way back to me in El Salvador where I get the fun job of delivering them to the patients.  Everyone was thrilled to receive their glasses and deeply grateful to PazSalud for the gift of better vision.

Gustavo sees again

Darren writes:

PazSalud did a joint eye mission in Estanzuelas with the Bellingham Central Lions Club in September, 2013.  During the 3-day event we screened 325 patients for glasses, readers and potential cataract surgery.  Shortly after the mission we learned that EyeCare International, an NGO that provides cataract surgeries, would be coming to Puerto la Libertad, El Salvador for a 2-week exam and surgery mission.  Kathy and I contacted them and arranged to bring some of our patients to their medical brigade.

Gustavo qualified for surgery and EyeCare International removed one of his two cataracts.  After recovering from surgery I took him to his follow-up appointments at ASAPROSAR (a local NGO specializing in low-cost eye care for Salvadorans) in San Miguel and everything checked out well.  This is this first time he has been able to see clearly in years so naturally, he is all smiles and thrilled with the results.  

A sustaining gift

Darren writes:

Single mother Sonia and her 3 children are among the people PazSalud works with to ensure that they are able to meet the many challenges of life in El Salvador.  With a generous gift from PeaceHealth's Chris Keough, Sonia purchased a sewing machine that she uses to make and sell children's clothing to earn a modest living to support her family.  

Simple, affordable donations like these can make a huge impact on someone's life in El Salvador and PazSalud is proud to facilitate this type of empowering, dignifying, sustainable development.

If you'd like to work with Sonia or any of our other deserving families, please reach out to us.

Missioning Rosanne

Monday, March 24th was the 34th anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero.  As always, there were commemorative marches in San Salvador and elsewhere among Monseñor Romero's beloved people. 

For us in the El Salvador Health Mission, Monday was also memorable because of the missioning of Rosanne Ponzetti as the new System Vice President for Mission Services.  We were especially delighted because Rosanne knows El Salvador through a 2010 Immersion Mission, and she's been a staunch friend of PazSalud since.  Rosanne and her family sponsor one of the children with disabilities we have been assisting.  Now she will be responsible for the overall direction of PazSalud, as well as for mission integration and ethics. 

Here's a photo from the missioning: from left to right, Carol Aaron, SVP for Culture and People; Rosanne; Alan Yordy, CEO and Chief Mission Officer; and Dr. Howard Graman, SVP, CEO and Chief Mission Officer of the PeaceHealth Medical Group.  It gives me joy to point out that every one of them has been part of a PazSalud mission!

Later in the day, Kathy Garcia, Rosanne and I met with Angela Dellinger and Mara Kershaw who are planning PeaceHealth's new leadership development program and want to include an immersion mission in El Salvador, probably beginning in fall, 2015.  It's a great challenge for Kathy and Darren, and I know it will be a life-changing experience for the participants.

Susan Dewitt, CSJP

Possibilities for our 2015 mission

Darren writes:

After PazSalud's general medical mission in February, Kathy and I immediately began planning for the 2015 general mission.  We visited a great little village called Tamanique in the hills of the coastal state of La Libertad and looked at this potential space - a recently built community center - to house the mission.  Spacious and well-lit with secured surrounding space, this facility has a lot of potential.



A view of the outside front of the building - we would have plenty of room for patients to wait:

 
The interior space - simple and flexible, like our space this year in Perulapan:

One large corner of the building hosts a machine/metal shop which we would need to temporarily relocate to accommodate the clinics.

The facility comes complete with its own guard dog!

Congratulations and thanks!

Here's our great clinic space in San Pedro Perulapan.  This huge auditorium space easily and comfortably held all our clinics and most of the waiting patients with plenty of room to spare.  We wish we could pack up the auditorium for next year, but ACOSAMA - the non-profit organization that kindly welcomed us into their space for the week - probably has some other uses for it.

Darren writes:
A very special to thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make the PazSalud medical mission in San Pedro Perulapan so successful.  The countless hours by the the US and Salvadoran volunteers paid off as we were able to see a record 1,647 patients in 4.5 days and deliver much needed care to an under-served population.  Congratulations to all and thank you to all the wonderful people we met along the way.

Mission Accomplished!

We can say, with some pride and a great deal of satisfaction, that we completed our General Medical Mission to San Pedro Perulapan on Valentine's Day, February 14th, after seeing 1,647 people, many of them in two or more clinics.  The week was full of memorable moments - Kathy Garcia enjoyed more than her usual quota of babies to cuddle:

Rosa Aguiar, our team member from Comasagua, El Salvador, signed up a record number of patients for cataract surgery - 81 (we wouldn't be able to handle that many cases, but the list typically shrinks between sign-up time and show-up time):

Ray Moore, Supply Chain Contracts Manager in his PeaceHealth life, took breaks from looking for optical prescriptions to delight children with a magic book that opened onto either blank pages or drawings, depending on....well, that part's the magic.  Ray's kneeling at the center of the photo. Sr. Andrea Nenzel, left, and optician Jackie Kersten, right, are enjoying the show:

Cecilia Jacobson, also part of our Optical Shop team, enjoyed the new look of one of her young clients:

 Dr. Adriana Linares, who mentors new resident physicians, found a possible future student in this little guy with his firm grip on her stethoscope:

The joyful moments continued during our weekend of sightseeing, shopping and relaxation.  The funniest came at the airport, at about 6 AM, when Sr. Amalia Camacho, aided by Dr. Charlotte Ransom, left, finally fulfilled her wish to eat Pollo Campero - for breakfast:

There are thousands more special moments to be shared with family and friends and colleagues in the coming weeks and months, moments from a memorable week. 

Getting ready for the mission

With only two weeks to go before the general mission, the entire team is in high gear prepping every last detail needed to create a successful medical brigade.  

In San Pedro Perulapán we will be working inside a large spacious auditorium - here it is -

and on a recent trip to El Salvador, Kathy and I put together a rough schematic of how the operation will be set up.  What started off as some cut out post-it notes on graph paper eventually transitions to tape, marker and post-it notes on poster board.  

With a pretty solid blueprint in hand we held a meeting with our local volunteers as our coordinators Iris and Yessenia walked the team through the overall patient flow, volunteer stations and responsibilities.

New Year thanks to our favorite Salvadoran volunteers

Darren writes:

On New Year's Eve I wanted to take a moment to recognize a few of the amazing Salvadorans who make PazSalud's work easier and more effective.  Without these great women we would not be able to impact the lives we do in this incredible country.

Carmen Aviles (pictured with some of her children) has enabled us to help Gloribel go to school and continue the process of overcoming her disabilities in order to lead a happy, healthy and productive life.  As Gloribel's neighbor and godmother, she monitors her progress, addresses issues as they arise and serves as a vital conduit between Gloribel and PazSalud.

Rosa Aguiar has volunteered with PazSalud since our medical mission in her hometown, Comasagua, in 2009.  She volunteers on PazSalud's medical missions by working with patients diagnosed with cataracts and pterygiums and explaining how PazSalud can assist them in our eye surgery mission.  She plays a critical role in enrolling people and assisting us on-site with the patients during the eye surgery mission, providing local continuity and helping patients throughout the process.

Rosy Melara, a retired surgery nurse, volunteers on PazSalud's eye surgery missions as a scrub nurse.  She has also helped us build strong connections with our host hospitals.  In addition, Rosy tirelessly works with Sandra Lopez to connect her with the local resources she needs to prevail over her physical limitations.  Rosy was Sandra's first teacher and worked with her over six months to give her the basic skills and education to enter first grade.  

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.

Lions' eye mission to Estanzuelas

Many more people in Estanzuelas are seeing well this week because of last week’s the Lions Club eye mission.  Lions from three different clubs – Bellingham, WA; Seattle, WA; and Armstrong, B.C. – were joined by Dr. Kelly Cochrane and his family from Kahlotus, WA to offer three days of vision testing and eyeglass fitting.  The group was led by Dr. Ken Henderson, a long-time friend and energizer for PazSalud.

They were joined by other good friends of PazSalud – Marvin Hernandez, our local organizer; interpreters Delmy, Lea, Yesenia and José; and six community volunteers from a local youth development organization, la Voz del Pueblo.  And of course Kathy Garcia and Darren Streff were there – as well as our beloved bus driver Hernan – to make sure that all went smoothly.

They saw a little over 300 patients – all of those we had not been able to see in the eye clinics last February plus a few more – and offered a bit of fun with one of the Lions teaching the children to make self-portraits.  Photos of all this great activity will come later!

La Casa Mia, a hotel/restaurant in Berlin, provided the housing and meals for our team, and they were wonderful.  This hotel, filled with historic photos and antiques, was a great find, and their meals and rooms got rave notices.

After the three days of clinics, the Lions went to San Salvador, where they gave donations of hearing aids and aids for the visually impaired to the San Salvador Club de Leones.  They visited the School for the Blind and the School for the Deaf, visited Panchimalco, shopped for Salvadoran crafts, and went to historic sites including the Hospital Divina Providencia where Monseñor Romero lived and was assassinated.  At the Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad they ate pizza and ice cream and quizzed Director Leslie Schuld about Salvadoran life.    

It was a busy and splendid week of work and learning.  This was Darren’s first time to make all the arrangements on his own, and he did a great job.  Thanks go to all involved in this successful mission.

New glasses for Fatima

We heard recently from the mother of a young girl we'd seen in our 2012 mission to San José Villanueva.  Fátima has very limited vision, but her mother Luz learned that new glasses would make it possible for her to go to a regular school instead of School for the Blind.  Darren writes:

I drove out to San José Villanueva this morning to meet Luz de Los Angeles (Fatima's mother) and Fatima to give them the donation.  Wow, what a cutie Fatima is!  As it turns out, Luz was able to get donations from two other groups towards her total of $100 and needed only $60 from us so that is what I provided to her.  I like the initiative on her part and felt great about giving her the money.  And check out the glasses, those things are serious.  

After, I offered to take them home since I knew they traveled a long distance to meet me in SJV this morning and although they told me it was 20 min. one way, because of the road condition it took us 45 min. to get there.  But I got a few good pics of their house so it was worth it.  Plus we had fun in the car.

That wasn't Darren's only glasses-related errand that day, as he notes -

Finished with that I went to Santa Tecla to drop Kelly's glasses off with Sonia.  She lost the nose pads so I took them in and spent $5 to get them fixed.  Now I'm going to walk over to Galerias to meet Cristobal and give him the remaining $26 he needs for his glasses.

For anyone who wonders what we do when mission teams aren't in El Salvador, this letter is a good example of the on-going work of follow-up, assistance, and connection with the places where we've ministered.  The photo shows Fátima with her grandmother and her new glasses in the family home.

Dr. Dale's Reflections

Dr. Dale Heisinger recently sent us some reflections on his experience in eight of our PeaceHealth Missions.  Dale is both a great pediatrician and a kid magnet - it helps to look a bit like Santa Claus, no doubt.  Here's what he has to say:

I must admit that I was at first somewhat apprehensive about going to a 3rd world country, but those fears were laid to rest very soon after meeting Kathy and Sister Eleanor.  Their organizational skills and the thoroughness of their preparation laid to rest any fears that I harbored.  The change in leadership from Sister Eleanor to Sister Susan, and now to Darren Streff did not in any way deter from the integrity of the Mission.  

Each trip generated wonderful memories of encounters that forever left their mark on me. The cultural differences between El Salvador and the United States are stark, but the contacts with the people showed me how closely as human beings we are all connected. Salvadorans are a warm, compassionate people who were so appreciative of our being there; many shared gifts that were modest, but given with such sincerity that they remain some of my most treasured possessions.  

I saw many disorders that were rare in the US and many that were medically challenging. For instance, parasitic disease is rampant in the children since the water is untreated, and exposure to cooking smoke generates prevalent reactive airway disease.   I frequently saw GI illness due to poor sanitation and many skin conditions (mostly infection) because of lack of hygiene.  And there were those cases of rare diseases that were quite challenging; i.e., congenital hypothyroidism (cretin), undiagnosed encephalocoele, retrolental fibroplasia, SLE, arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, and the list goes on.

All of us who participated came away from the mission better global citizens, perhaps more compassionate about the international human condition, and appreciative of the strength and courage of people who endure in conditions that most of us have not seen nor experienced.  In addition we developed an appreciation for cultural diversity and learned to practice medicine with limited resources and lack of support diagnostic services (imagine, no access to MRI, etc.!)  For many, it was a spiritual experience. I feel strongly that all of us who practice medicine from every discipline should participate in international medicine….all will be better human beings for doing so.  

And for those skeptics who feel that we really can't do much with such compromised infrastructure, and lack of services I would counter with a statement from Sister Margaret Jane Kling whom I met in El Salvador:  I had told her that I wasn't sure that I did very much to improve the health of the people, to which she replied:  "it isn't what you do, it's who you are."