January 2009 Medical Mission Newsletter

Everyone from the January mission returned home and has recovered from their travels! We were honored to have medical professionals from Des Moines, Florida, Colorado, North Dakota, and many other hospitals, the water team, and a Kids Against Hunger team all with us. The set up group with Jerry Chance and Chuck Pryzmus left on January 9th. The first thing on our list was to get the container of meds, hospital equipment, and food which was sent in September to Singida. Thanks to everyone here for all the prayers! The container arrived to the Social Center at 9:00 pm the 15th. We started unloading it at 8:30 am the 16th. The first flight of team members were to arrive at 10 am, the second group at noon, and the last group at 2 pm. We were madly unloading the container trying to find food so lunch could be fixed for the team. Several items were missing and buckets of food were empty. We finally found a note on the inspection manifest – “some items weren’t fit for human consumption”! I am sure glad they saved us from those awful potato chips and Velveeta cheese!! A big thanks to the September team for the food which was left, it became lunch!

Items were taken to the hospital and work began immediately. Triage was set up, offices were arranged, people were seen, and surgeries were scheduled. Many stories were told and shared. Over 1,000 patients were seen, 210 children at the Kids Feeding Center, 339 adults and 362 children at the Singida Hospital, 5 children were hospitalized, 4 patients already admitted were seen, 36 children were treated at the ENT clinic, with 17 ENT surgeries. In general surgery clinic, 25 children were seen, also with 17 surgeries resulting, and there was one emergency femur fracture.

The medical team set up a teaching program with Dr. Robert and Dr. Mushi from the Singida Hospital. Evenings after dinner, the medical team was learning from the local staff about local diseases, tropical diseases, and their treatment, or they were holding classes to teach the doctors and nurses from the Hospital, American methods of diagnosing and treating different diseases, and care and treatment for infants. This was much appreciated by our team and the Hospital staff.

The medical team enjoyed the time spent at the Kids Feeding Center and had great reports on the children there. It was obvious to them the difference in the children who were coming to the center. The group of children, who began eating one meal a day at the Kids Center last August had put on weight, had a larger upper arm circumference, didn’t have the protruding bellies, and their skin texture was healthier. Anemia was also less in the 1st group. The next group of children began their one meal a day in November; their skin looked better, however, not as good as the 1st group. They had put on a little weight. The last group had started in January. After working with the children, the doctors could tell by just looking at them which group they came to the Kids Center in. It was a great testimonial for the Kids Against Hunger meals!

The water team spent several days setting up each village in Ilunda Ward with a chlorination system, and teaching the village leaders how to use the system. This means one complete ward (county) now has the availability of potable water! We should be getting reports soon on the impact it is generating with the absence of Cholera, Typhoid, and Dysentery among the people who are actually using the potable water! The villages sent an email to us with special thanks to John and his team and asked them to come again and bring more systems!

The Kids Against Hunger team met with Regional Commissioner Kone. They were invited to the village of Manyoni to speak to and meet the people. There are approximately 4,000 at risk children in Manyoni. The village was requested by RC Kone to provide 5 acres of land to Outreach for building another Kids Feeding Center. The land has now been given and construction drawings are being drafted.

One evening the San Diego construction team came to Singida Town from Nkungi Village. It was fun and we were blessed to have Phil Harris and his team staying with us at the Catholic Social Center and joining the medical team for dinner. Thank you to them for all the work accomplished in Nkungi Village!

When the medical team went on safari, RC Kone asked Floyd and me to travel to Dar es Salaam to finalize the government paper work for the 1,000 bed hospital in Singida Town. We met Poul Bertelson, President of MASSADA Architects from Minneapolis, in Dar es Salaam. Contracts for design work were completed. The ground breaking and the first building is to be started by June 1st 2009! The Outpatient building will be the first constructed, then the OBGYN.

Much was accomplished and more is yet to do.

The next mission trip will be this May 28, 2009. The next large medical mission will be late March / April 2010. Dr. Lisa Menzes, from Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, and Dr. Paul Milloy, Brainerd, MN, are team leaders of the 2010 medical mission. If anyone is interested in being a part of this mission, please let us know and we will keep you informed of mission details.

Thank you to everyone who made this a successful mission.