From Sherry's Journal

Preparing for the Despeezo Clinic

May 6-12, 2014
A Creole Proverb…“Men anpil chay pa lou.”
“Many hands make the load lighter.”

Can you imagine what it is like for a poor mother not to be able to get medical help for her sick child?

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

We know that most poor mothers here in Haiti cannot get medical care for their children and that is why Love A Child goes to the “regions beyond.”

 

Pregnant-mother-&-baby

 

It takes weeks to prepare for a Mobile Medical Clinic. Our Love A Child staff works many days just packing medicines to take with us. Medications like antibiotics; fever, pain, and anti-diarrheal medicines, and Silvadene for burns are always needed.

 

Bags-of-medicines

 

We have much of the groundwork completed by the time the medical team arrives in Haiti. It is important that we have all of this done so that we can finish up the last details and get prepared for the mobile medical clinic. We thank Daniella (below right) for helping to get all of the medicines ready to go for when the team arrives.

 

Daniella-and-Cassandra

 

The first day, I meet with the team for a short devotion and prayer. We go over who will work where in the clinic and try to get things very organized so that when we reach the village, we can “hit the ground running.”

 

Sherry-meets-with-medical-team

This team came in ready to work. We thank each volunteer for being a part of Love A Child.

Volunteer-Medical-Team

(From left to right: Kentrina and Fred Zirkle, Alice Weerstra, Jordanie Mertil, Kaeli Fletcher, Caron Allen, Cheryl Lucero, Lana and Charlie Shumaker and Sarah Jerrell is not pictured.)

The next step is sharing information on the process of how things work out in the land where there are no doctors, nurses, or even an aspirin.

 

Sherry-explans-dossier

 

I explain the dossiers (medical paperwork) carefully. As part of our preparation, we sent a group of Haitians ahead of our volunteer team to collect information about each family in the village. Having this information makes things go much quicker when we arrive.

 

Carole spends time reviewing the medicines and the types of sicknesses that we will probably see while working in the village. We thank Carole Stufflebeam, our Jesus Healing Center Medical Administrator, for all of her help with the Despeezo Mobile Medical Clinic.

 

Carole-explans-medicines

 Then, the team helps finish packing the medicines and the “Family Pharmacy Packs.”

Sherry-holding-family-pack

These packs are bags full of medicines for mothers to take home for future needs. These packs are given to mothers who are not able to see the doctor because of the large crowds.

  Medical-team-packs-medicines

After all the medicines are prepared, it is time to pack them in our traveling cases.

Team-packs-medicines

Our friends Chris and Cassandra Baker helped us with this clinic and they were a huge blessing. Thank you two so much.

Chris-and-Cassandra-Baker

Now, we are ready to load up the ambulance.

 Ambulance-and-medicines-before-loading

Everyone pitches in and it goes pretty fast.

Packing-ambulance

It doesn’t take long and the ambulance is almost loaded.

  Packing-ambulance-2

 

We were all very thankful that Pastor Mark left the Marketplace construction site to come help pack the ambulance. He was able to fit most everything needed for the clinic inside our ambulance.

 

Packing-ambulance-3

 

We thank Pastor Mark and his wife Evie (below middle) for coming to help with this Mobile Medical Clinic. On the right below is Carlos, our Team Host, and he was right there helping to get the job done!

 

Sherry-Evie-Carlos

 

The vehicles are all packed and ready to go. We say our “good nights” and plan to leave by 6:30 the next morning. We like to get an early start because we never know what roadblocks might get in our way. We are going to the voodoo village of Despeezo.

 

Make sure you keep checking for journals that will share all about our mobile medical clinic.

 

Love,
Sherry

 

P.S. Please pray about what you can do to help us continue to provide mobile medical care to the “regions beyond.” Visit our Special Needs List web page for a list of medical supplies needed for future Mobile Medical Clinics. Thank you for your heart of compassion. May God bless you.

Posted in Sherry's Journal