An MMT to Kenya from June 2008 was featured in the Rockford Register Star. This was before I began working for World Relief and Human Care, however, I was fortunate enough to meet this team while I was living in Kenya. I was very ill and they took care of me...So I can say I have experienced a Mercy Medical Team Clinic from the patients perspective!
Mission to Kenya called humbling - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star
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Mercy Medical Team Serves Communities in Madagascar
A team of 10 volunteers and two staff traveled to Madagascar to offer medical clinics to communities surrounding the city of Antsirabe. We carried with us tens of thousands of dollars worth of medication and were able to treat 910 individuals over the course of 4 days of clinics.The team held orientation in Atlanta during the evening of the 22nd and the morning of the 23rd. Activities included exercises intended to familiarize volunteers with each other, a group dinner, devotions, and a lecture on some of the basics in tropical medicine in Madagascar.
The evening of the 23rd, the team departed as a group from Atlanta to Antananarivo, Madagascar via Johannesburg South Africa, arriving in Antsirabe, Madagascar in the evening of the 25th.
We spent the first day touring the Lutheran Hospital in Antsirabe, the Lutheran Seminary in Ansirabe and the local institution for people living with developmental disabilities and drug addictions. The tour of the hospital placed a specific empha-sis on the newly constructed pediatric unit that was funded through LCMS World Relief and Human Care. While completion of the building was complete, the re-sources necessary for operations were still not sufficient, and the unit was still not opened to the public. Towards the end of our trip, Dr. Harison informed LCMS World Relief and Human Care staff that the pediatric unit had received authorization from the Malagasy Ministry of Health to open the unit, as it met all necessary criteria. Additional funding has been designated to further equip the unit with the resources necessary to be fully opera-tional pending the completion of a grant request to LCMS World Relief and Human Care.
The building was scheduled to be officially dedicated the week after we left Madagascar, sometime between No-vember 2nd and 5th and the hospital will begin operations after grant money has been received.
The following four days were spent traveling through beautiful mountains and winding roads to hold clinic is generally remote areas. Each of the Clinics was held in a building associated with the Malagasy Lutheran Church.
During these clinics each patients received de-worming pills; had their blood pressure, heart rate, and weight monitored; explained their complaints; and received the appropriate medications from our pharmacy. All services and medications were free. Most patients received vitamins in addition to medications specific to their complaints.
While these clinics went on, a couple of our volunteers remained at the hospital to assist in the operating room. While these volunteers were not able to see the volume of patients we saw during clinics, they did have a pretty amazing impact on both the patients they served and the hospital staff.
Once again we experienced a successful trip with: an incredible team of kindhearted medical professionals, renewed relationships with extraordinary partners, and nearly a thousand thankful patients who experienced firsthand the kind of compassion inspired by Christ’s Mercy.
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."
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