"Each day we are treating 200 to 400 patients."
January 23, 2012
Medical Teams International's clinics in east Africa continue to address the sickness and malnutrition of those suffering from the famine. One of our staff, Andrew Njenga, is the Disaster Response East Africa Program Manager. This month, one of our partners, World Concern, spoke with Andrew on the work we're doing in the region. Here is an excerpt from their conversation.
Why is medical care in this region important?
The Horn of Africa region has seen destabilization of the economy due to constant conflict and drought. There is poor infrastructure which means food,water and medicine are not effectively transported. Therefore, people will not drink safe water, will not have safe food and are getting sick.
How did it feel the first time you went out to the field?
My first trip was to Damajale. There, crowd control was a challenge as everyone wanted to be seen first. By the second and third visit, we became very efficient. Whenever we go to a clinic, we make a quick assessment. The sickest get seen first.
Are there some memorable patients you’ve treated?
A child was brought in with high fever and was so dehydrated that when she was crying, there were no tears from her eyes. We treated this child for malaria and dehydration. When we got back, four days later, the girl was playing and running after other children. Looking at the scarce resources we have there, it is amazing to see God could use us in such a case.
How does Medical Teams International operate in this setting?
With safe water and good treatmentof diseases , we eradicate waterborne diseases. When we eradicate water borne diseases, then comes sanitation and hygiene training to show people how to maintain good health.
In the long-term we will focus on capacity building. With food and good nutrition, diseases are reduced. In many places we visit, children are sick not because of their surroundings, but because they do not eat a balanced diet.
What can be done to improve health care in the region?
By helping people understand that health is theirs, when they have good health, they can do things for their country. That can only be done by behavior change which comes through information, education and communication.
How do you feel about working in the region so far?
I am glad I came. To experience new people and a new culture has made me grow. Also, although we are Christians, we cannot preach God to hungry and sick people. We need to address their needs. It makes a difference when they see us acting instead of talking.
What keeps you going?
I like to help people. Growing up, I volunteered to help in a group called the least of these by one of my mentors, Dr. Michael Johnson. He used to teach me that there is nothing as good as putting a smile on someone’s face and sharing what God has put in you. One of the things I was taught is to give of myself until I have none of myself. It’s what drives me. To see an infant stop crying is also very fulfilling.
I want to see people not get sick.
November 21, 2011
Rains impact care delivery
Rains have now fallen in East Africa. The torrential rains have caused widespread disease – like increasing cases of severe diarrhea – among already weakened people. These same people still seek medical care in the midst of fighting.
Medical Teams International volunteers and local health care providers we have hired continue to provide care along the Somali/Kenya border. We no longer are publishing which towns where we serve to ensure safety of our volunteers and workers.
Thank you for praying and supporting this lifesaving effort. On some days, volunteers report they see 120-160 patients in three hours.
November 8, 2011
Increase in Infectious Diseases
Our work in east Africa continues as Somalis are now threatened by more disease. Infectious diseases are increasing in various places as families move to find water and safety in Somalia’s worst drought in 60 years.
“The people have weakened immune systems as they travel and they have little to eat and drink,” reports Janis Lindsteadt, senior technical health director for Medical Teams International.
Staff and volunteers on the ground are preparing to treat and prevent cholera and measles outbreaks to stop deaths. Even if rains come, incidents of cholera and other infectious diseases could increase from contaminated water supplies.
Please pray for the Somali people as they move through areas where safety and disease are a problem. Donate now.
September 23, 2011
Somalis in Need Face Many Needs and Challenges
Dr. Randy Jacobs has gone into areas where very sick people have needed help – witnessing thousands of people running from war and suffering. He did that as people escaped war in the Congo coming into Uganda in 2009.
The people in Somalia are facing a different set of circumstances. They are fighting for their lives against many elements.
There is the worst drought in 60 years. Followed by a horrible famine. No water to feed their livestock – their principle means of support.
So, they start a long walk in search of food and water.
Then, they run into another problem. Ongoing war and battles that have plagued their country for more than 20 years.
So, they are not only on a flight in search for food and water, but they must dodge bullets as they go.
Often, patients who arrive at our mobile clinics – when security is safe for patients and our medical volunteers – those patients are battling a number of factors:
- Fatigue from walking for so long.
- Illnesses that are complicated by the long journey. One aid worker reported that women often walk for weeks with urinary tract infections, saving what water they have for their children and weakening their own conditions immensely.
- As a result, when patients see doctors like Randy, they rush to caregiving for help. The sick refuse to wait their turn for care in fear they will not see help again for weeks. “We were seeing secondary signs of stress. It was a major issue of patients not wanting to take their turn. Sometimes they were coming in through windows trying to get help,” Jacobs explained. “It was challenging but workable. The community leaders would step in and help out.”
During his two weeks along the Somali/Kenyan border, Jacobs’ team treated 2000 patients. The challenge, he said, was that seeing patients with such a disruption of security “We could help them through an acute illness. We could help them on the scene, yes, but you hoped what you could do in a short time was going to be enough.”
Because of fighting in the area, the doctors could not always ensure that they could return to care for patients each day—but they would try.
Dr. Jacobs asks that Medical Teams International supports pray for peace. The general population lives in fear. Children are taken hostage to serve as soldiers in militias. Young girls and women are raped without penalty to their violators.
“I am really burdened for these people,” Dr. Jacobs says. “They are amazing people in their ability to survive.”
September 9, 2011
Medical Teams International Volunteers Continue with Mobile Medical Clinics to Reach the Needy
After a fighting forced our doctors out of a clinic they normally went to on Monday, they carried on and provided care for 170 Somalis on the Kenyan side of the border. Dr. Randy Jacobs writes: "The photos below show our clinic which is held in the village office for the community health workers.
"It’s a very dry area with animal carcasses along the road. The bore hole pump here in the village of 4000-5000 has broken down. World Concern (our partner) is arranging to repair. Animals have had to be taken 30 km to the next village to water. Malnutrition here – nine month old twins one with severe malnutrition which we treated."
August 29, 2011
Medical Teams International Volunteer Reports on Uganda and Somalia
Hey family and friends,
It seems that our clinic there is beginning to be discovered by local residents and internally displaced people and AFREC (African Rescue Committee - Somali organization). Their staff are putting the word out and we have received very positive reception -developing good reputation and reception - people more and more friendly.
We saw many refugees who had crossed over the border in the bush waiting at UN pickup point. Also saw families walking along the road to pickup point. Saw very thin people, with 5 year-old children carrying the few family belongings. These are such resilient people. There are more animal carcasses along road.
It takes five liters of water daily to just survive. Imagine a mother carrying enough water for four to five children to supply survival needs daily. Of course, that doesn't include washing, bathing or water needed for animals.
There are many military check points along road and increased weapons at Somali border yesterday. Good news is that fighting has been pushed back 200 km from where we are working. Still there are daily shootings. We hear occasional gunfire while working. We treated a gunshot victim in the clinic yesterday.
Staff treated to dinner at UN compound last night - very nice and good food. We have accomplished a lot and the next team should be able to move constructively ahead with providing care. Received good news that we are going to fly to Nairobi this afternoon rather than make a 10-hour drive - so grateful after riding about 1000 miles over sand tracks during the past three weeks! Will meet with new team there tomorrow and fly home tomorrow night!
Dr. Randy Jacobs
August 23, 2011
Submitted by Megan McAninch
Driving back to Kampala Thursday, [August 18, 2011] we passed by David Alula who was driving up to Lira. David pulled over and we turned around to meet him on the road, though it was pretty funny because he didn’t know who was in the vehicle until he saw me get out. He ran across the road and gave me a huge hug. We chatted for a few minutes on the roadside.
He was just back from having spent the last three weeks in Somalia. A new doctor/nurse team is over there now and Medical Teams Uganda will be sending one doctor and one nurse to Somalia on two-week rotations, along with volunteers from the United States.
They stay in Kenya along the Somali border and travel into Somalia every day, working in partnership with World Concern. As we talked, we drove into a HUGE rainstorm that covered about 80 kilometers of the road. In the vehicle we were all talking about how we wished there was a way to just collect all of that water that was running down the road in a cistern and send it to the camps in Somalia.
I’m going to take a little time here to share some stories from Somalia according to David. Reader discretion is advised as your heart may very well be broken:
First off, they have to travel with armed security in front and behind to avoid being attacked by bandits who are lining the road to the border.
David said that they had seen a bus where the driver had been shot, the bus went off the road, and all of the passengers and luggage had been looted. Travelling across the border there are police, and al-Shabaab (whom though they are now “out” of Mogadishu means that they are simply in the towns and camps surrounding it) to contend with and there doesn’t seem to be much except prayer and armed guards to protect you.
While working in the camps there were often gunshots and David said it was almost impossible to know where they were coming from. You can’t drive more than 50 M without having to avoid an animal carcass on the road—including those of camels.
They saw many children walking into the feeding camps whose parents had died walking the 400 to 500 KM to the camps … David did say that he had learned much about grace and generosity from the hearts of the Somalis. Even if they had little, if there was someone who had nothing, they would always share what little they did have.
Parents would sacrifice their own lives for their children, offering their children water if they found it instead of taking it for themselves, and setting their children on the backs of a fellow walker or in the care of a family member as they sat down to die.
Again, short but heartbreaking. I’ll see David again this week and will be able to gather some more stories from him to share with you ….
(Back in Lira, Uganda)
I was walking through town; people definitely connect me with Medical Teams International.
At almost every shop or stand I stopped by in the market, the owner greeted me “Good morning, doctor.” It has also been surprising the number of people who have thanked me explicitly for the work Medical Teams has been doing in the community. While I consistently remind them that I’m just a volunteer, I think because I’ve spent so much time up North they associate me very much with being somehow responsible for the work that happens.
The owner of the hotel where I spent a few nights joined me for dinner the second night and said, “Whenever you see Medical Teams staff or vehicles, you just know they are good people; you know that they are people with a true heart for their work and for their community.” The owner is himself from Ogur and his children (one of them HIV+) receive treatment from the Youth Centre.
We stopped by the District Health Offices in both Dokolo and Lira, and at both of them were very well received. I signed visitor books, met with the staff present and spoke with the Volunteer Health Trainers. One man mentioned that when new organizations come in to speak with them, they direct them to look at how Medical Teams has worked and mobilized the communities and to do the same thing. For most of them, they identify MTI as the only organization still in the North producing lasting (and legitimate) change.
It was definitely one of those moments when I was exceptionally proud of the staff and programs on the ground here—to matter enough that people want to pull you aside and tell you about it and thank you? You know that’s a good thing.
Anyway, regardless, I have been reminded—even more so this week—of the amazing kindness of Ugandans in general, and specifically the staff. These are people with such good hearts it’s impossible not to be inspired by them and their love for people. It has reminded me of a quote from John Wray, across which I stumbled some time ago but has stuck in my mind: “Nothing multiplies so much as kindness.”
Something else I noted was that, at Faith Mission (the church), as with most organizations in Uganda, they have their Vision, Mission and Core Values painted on the wall. They have five Core Values listed, the first three of which are Love, Peace and Faith. I love the fact that love and peace are listed first (the others are Justice and Kindness).
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