Mercy Medical Team Gears Up for Second Trip to Madagascar

(October 24th -November 4th, 2009)

Exactly one year ago a team of nine volunteers and one World Relief and Human care staff member headed to Madagascar to offer the first Mercy Medical Team clinic in that nation. The trip was as much about establishing relationships and determining need as it was about offering free medical services.

Their hard work has paid off! Almost immediately after the team returned to the United States, we began discussing the next team with Dr. Harison of Lutheran Hospital in Antsirabe and the Malagasy Lutheran Church.

Now it is a year later. The country of Madagascar is recovering from a period of traumatic civil distress, and a Mercy Medical Team 14 members strong is ready to help the Lutheran Hospital in Antsirabe get back in action by offering free medical clinics in local communities, free consultation to local nurses and midwifes, and thousands of dollars worth of medical supplies to the hospital and its staff.

In addition to this, the Mercy Medical Team is sponsoring a 40’ container full of hospital equipment and medical supplies to be shipped through the Orphan Grain Train sometime in the near future. (We still need volunteer to help us sort through supplies so if you are interested, please see the details listed in the post below titled, “Help Sort Medical Supplies for Lutheran Hospital in Madagascar”)

The team will meet in Atlanta GA on the evening of October 22nd and take off the following morning. After a night in Johannesburg, South Africa we will continue to Antsirabe, Madagascar.

The majority of the team will hold one day, remote clinics in surrounding villages and communities, while remaining volunteers will work in the operating room at the hospital.

We will provide an update when the team returns. Please keep us in your thought and prayers.

Opportunity for MMT Health Professionals to Recieve Free Medications

We are always looking for donated items to carry with them to clinic sites in developing countries. Often OTC medications available in the United States are not available or are too expensive for people living in developing countries. If you are a medical professional and an MMT volunteer, or are just thinking about joining a trip in the future you don’t have to buy these item. You can have them donated!! If you are a licensed medical professional you can receive free OTC medications at http://www.tylenolprofessional.com/ . Don’t pass this opportunity up…Its free and its easy.

A special thanks to Sharon Thomas for bringing this to our attention. Sharon is an RN from Belvidere, IL and has been on multiple MMT trips. Thanks Sharon!

Read her original message below for more information.

"Hi Guys! My friend sent me this email link, and it is amazing. I had to register by calling the agent, her name is Jackie at 1-866-948-6883. You can register on line at the site http://www.tylenolprofessional.com/, but they have just recently added nursing so you will have to call Jackie to process the order. Her fax #is 215-273-4070. When you register be sure to include you work in "family practice" so you will get pediatric samples too. She will need your full name, address, licensed number, title and specialty. They will send free samples every quarter."

Mercy Medical Team Program Seeks to Promote Preventative Care Through Education in Community Home Based Care

Imagine an elderly woman caring for her two grandchildren in rural Kenya. The setting of their home is very similar to that of a 19th century American farm; a time when less than eight out of ten infants lived through the first year.

While much of the world outside has changed, she is drawing her family’s drinking water from a well, it would take days to reach the nearest health facility, and she relies on the maize, millet, and greens from her garden to keep her family fed.

Each day presents risks to her family. What if one of the children gets diarrhea and a fever? What if a snake bites her, or a cut on her foot becomes infected? If she doesn't know the severity of the situation or how to deal with it, she is likely to ignore it, or label it as fate.

As HIV/AIDS continues to plague nations like Kenya, this lack of basic medical knowledge becomes even more harmful.

While there are millions of Kenyans living lives like this woman, there are also those who are eager for an opportunity to serve the community as advocates for public health.
Among these public servants are the deaconesses of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK). The ELCK deaconesses receive comprehensive theological training and have demonstrated compassion to their neighbors and faithfulness to the Lutheran Confessions. Yet a large part of their job consist of addressing the immediate needs of the people they visit, many of which are related to health and nutrition. These women have received little or no medical education.


LCMS World Relief and Human Care and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK) are partnering to offer a series of seminars intended to teach ELCK deaconesses and volunteer health workers the proper way to administer and teach basic home-based care in local communities. While there are many public health programs in Kenya, individuals living in remote rural areas are often overlooked.


Home-based care initiatives allow community volunteers to promote healthy living at the grassroots level by teaching members of their community basic knowledge in home medicine, nutrition and sanitation. LCMS World Relief and Human Care is seeking out volunteers to help us in this effort.

What is home-based care (HBC)?

Home-based care is a strategy to offer and demonstrate basic healthcare to individuals living in areas with weak or non-existent health care systems. This approach is specifically designed to address health and societal issues relating to HIV/AIDS.

HBC promotes

• Basic Nursing Care - Wound dressing, bathing, skin care, and oral hygiene.
  
• Symptom Management -Treating diarrhea and vomiting, pain relief, fever reduction through pharmaceutical and traditional methods.
  
• Universal Precautions -Hand washing, household cleaning, disposing of waste, preparing clean water,
  
• Palliative Care - Addressing the physical, physiological and spiritual needs of those who are dying, and offering this same support to their families and friends.

You can read more about Community Home Based Care here:

http://www.worldbank.org/afr/wps/wp88.pdf

Check out our Mercy Medical Team Video

It is quick and very informative.

Thanks to everyone who helped out!

Help Sort Medical Supplies for Lutheran Hospital in Madagascar

Volunteers Needed Now!

WHO?

If you are a medical worker (nurse, doctor, PT, Resp. Therapist, or any other clinical professional) in the Indiana or Southern Ohio area, LCMS World Relief and Human Care could use your volunteer “elbow grease” to help us identify, sort, and pack a huge load of donated recycled medical equipment for our shipping container to the Lutheran Hospital in Madagascar.

WHAT?

We will spend one full day at the Indiana Orphan Grain Train Warehouse unloading the large semi of goods, making an inventory and then re-loading the items on a metal overseas shipping container. If you are in good health and can help us identify different medical goods and equipment, we would love to have you along.

WHEN?

Sat., October 3 from 9 am until evening.
Meet at the Orphan Grain Train warehouse in Elizabethtown, IN, Pack a lunch/supper picnic and we will supply water and drinks….and a lot a Christian fellowship as we serve joyfully together. Wear comfortable clothes for working. Bring a hat, work gloves and an allergy mask if you have problems with dust. Bring sturdy boxes with lids if you can obtain them. Rain Date: Sunday, October 4 from noon-evening.

More Info & Directions:

Call Maggie Karner

LCMS World Relief and Human Care
Director of Health and Life Ministries
Cell: 765-748-7743
Maggie.karner@lcms.org

Mercy Medical Teams in Special Need of Pastors and Pharmacists

Scarlet Holcombe interviewed on the Morning Show at KFUO

You can read more about our need for Pastors and Pharmacists on the World Relief and Human Care website here:

http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=15586

Maggie Karner discusses Mercy Medical Teams with LCMS World Relief and Human Care Director, Matthew Harrison

Maggie is the director of Health and Life Ministries. She served as a team leader on the MMT trip to Kenya this July. Scarlet Holcombe, PharmD and LCMS WR-HR Coordinator of Special Projects, also led the team. During this trip the team served over 800 patients in Matango, Kenya and the Kibera Slums in Nairobi, Kenya.

I was not able to join this trip so I would like to put out a special thanks to our staff and our wonderful volunteers for another meaningful and effective trip!