Inspiration from India

Physicians for Peace work in Nagpur, India was featured in the region's English language newspaper.

One of the most important things we do at Physicians for Peace, through the talent and devotion of our volunteers, is address problems related to women’s and children’s health in developing countries. Often, sharing knowledge of simple post-natal care techniques can result in saving the lives of countless infants. Karen Horton, a senior nurse educator from Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in Norfolk, Virginia, is currently on a Physicians for Peace mission to Nagpur, India where she and the Physicians for Peace team are training hundreds of pediatric nurses in these valuable techniques. She files this report about her inspiring experience:

After almost a day and a half of travel (including a 16 hour long direct flight between New York-Bombay) the Physicians for Peace team (consisting of Dr. Ed Kratokin, Dr. Sheetal Ajmani, and me) arrived at the Bombay International Airport on the evening of Oct 31st.  We left Norfolk around noon on Thursday so, by this point, we had been traveling for almost a day and a half, and all we could think of was a hot shower and bed!  Unlike Drs. Karatokin and Ajmani, who have been to India more than once, this was my very first trip to the country. I was anxious for my Indian adventure to begin and equally nervous about all our checked in bags (that included our training material and supplies) arriving in time and in one piece.
The scene at the airport, which is the busiest airport in South Asia and serves over 20 million passengers annually, could only be described as one of “organized chaos.” The minute you land, you are overwhelmed by the sheer number of people around you and yet somehow, at least as was the case with our flight, even with all the crowds and chaos, the process to get through the customs and baggage claim is rather painless (and yes, all our bags arrived safe and sound !:-). About 5 hours in a hotel room near the airport and we were back at the airport (this time it was the Mumbai domestic airport) to catch a 6AM flight to go to Nagpur, so we didn’t have any time to explore Mumbai, something we hope to do before we return to the U.S.
In my little experience, I find India to be a land of contrast, chaos, and wonderful impressions that are impossible to describe without resorting to clichés. Here in the world’s largest democracy that is home to almost 1/6th of total population, the enormous weight of history and the unparalleled drive toward development and modernity, the pervasive display of the wealth of the very rich and the stark picture of the extremely poor not only coexist but seem to flourish.  Where cows and goats and people share the same overcrowded roads along with every form of mechanized and non-mechanized mode of transportation…It’s a sight and experience unlike any I have ever had before….
After a little rest on Saturday, we started on busy and productive training days on Sunday and Monday. Our focus during these two days was to conduct neonatal/pediatric support and nursing training for health professionals in Nagpur.  On Sunday, we conducted a day long training session for over 150 pediatric nurses at the Central India’s Child Hospital and Research Institute in Nagpur. This was an overwhelming response since we were expecting less than a hundred participants to show up for this session and ended up with double the number of very keen nurses hungry to learn and had to scramble to accommodate them all since many of these nurses had travelled a good distance, and at a considerable expense of their time and money, to take part in the training… I started the training day with a lecture on infection control and basic hygiene (something that’s still a big issue health facilities in developing countries, including in India)…We also conducted S.T.A.B.L.E. (which stands for Sugar, Temperature, Airway, Blood pressure, Lab work, and Emotional support) training session. S.T.A.B.L.E. is a neonatal education program focusing exclusively on the post-resuscitation/pre-transport stabilization care of sick infants and has been proven to reduce infant mortality and morbidity and to improve the future health of children and their families. It is of particular need in India where the child mortality rate is still one of the highest among the developing countries. We continued working on the following two days with lectures and training sessions for nurses, doctors, and other health professionals in the area of NG tube placement, IV therapy techniques, thermal regulation, developmental care, and much more… Jumping right into teaching big groups of very eager health professionals, while also getting adjusted to summer-like heat, coupled with jet-lag and travel fatigue, has definitely been a new, and in some ways a hard, experience for me …However, the hunger for learning and attentiveness of those being trained, and being in the company of some of the most generous and hospitable people I have ever encountered, makes this more than a worthwhile experience, and one that I am ready to do all over again the next day with a new group of health professionals. Before I do that, I must catch some sleep since it is well past midnight here, and we have to get on the road pretty early tomorrow to travel to the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in Swangi (a town two hours drive from the city of Nagpur where we have been working for the last three days) to conduct the second phase of the training. Stay tuned for more…

Dominican ‘Resource Mothers’ Visit US

 

“Resource Mothers” Altagracia Luna and Kissairis Rodriquez of the Dominican Republic visited the United States for the first time last week on a trip to Physicians for Peace headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia. Altagracia and Kissairis have played an important role in establishing the “Resouce Mothers” Program in the Dominica Republic with the support of Physicians for Peace. During their visit, they were able to tour a local children’s hospital and meet women who do the same type of prenatal education and mentoring here in the US. In turn, we benefited greatly from learning about their experiences in working with mothers in need:

 

“As Resources Mothers, we help the people of the barrios we live in. We go out into the barrio, door to door, and find girls who are pregnant, and need help and advice. We are trained to teach young women about all the ways they can have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy happy baby. We help them keep away from drugs, alcohol and tobacco, which are common in our community. We accompany the girls to their prenatal check-ups, visit them at their homes, and advise them and their family how to have a healthy pregnancy.  We also advise them how to eat well, even when there is so little to eat, because of their poverty.  We help them to learn how to nourish not just their body but also their soul so they can deal with all their worries and fears.”

 

“All of us Resource Mothers are thankful for the opportunity to be part of this program. Every day, I thank God and Physicians for Peace for the chance to help my neighbors and my barrio. We feel that we are changing the lives of the girls we help. We are changing the lives of so many people for the better. In the first year of the program, 94 healthy babies were born, and we feel like we are a part of all of those families. And it has changed our lives as well! The Program has motivated me to go to Medical School in the Dominican Republic. In a few years I am going to be a Doctor. Thank all of you for making all of this happen.”

 

Their compassion and dedication is an inspiration to everyone at Physicians for Peace, and we hope they will come visit us again soon! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflections on Nigeria

Physicians for Peace CEO, Brig. Gen. Ron Sconyers (USAF Ret.) shares his thoughts on returning from the recent VVF mission in Nigeria:

 

There are moments in one’s life that become defining.  For me, this past week was one…on multiple fronts.  I can honestly say after multiple trips to Africa, Asia, the Americas, eastern Europe and elsewhere watching the work of our volunteers, none has touched me like what I experienced this past week.  I was personally brought to tears on more than one occasion as I looked into the frightened—yet hopeful—eyes of these beautiful Nigerian girls and tried so unsuccessfully to imagine in some way their experience.  Why should they have to suffer so?

 

But that needless suffering was countered by knowing this incredible team of medical professionals had given of their time and talent to restore hope and life where there was little or none before.  YOU ALL WERE AMAZING! Under the most difficult of conditions, each of you came together as a team united in one common goal…and you achieved it.  THANKS!

 

I could go on indefinitely about each of you and what you brought to the effort…but it was about teamwork…and we all succeeded as a team. 

 

I took away so many images and emotions, but none so indelible as this coming together of Nigerians and Americans to change the lives of these innocent, vulnerable girls.  As their lives were changed, so, too, was mine. 

 

My thanks to Jaya Tiwari for her magic in making all the moving parts work together;  to Dr. Emejuru for his steadfast love of his homeland which got us there; to Dr. Sa’ad for his surgical brilliance and leadership;  and to all of you for your friendship, your selflessness and your heroic efforts in the face of some pretty difficult odds. 

 

You have served Physicians for Peace and those we teach and heal well.  We are grateful.   

 

With great respect,

 

Ron

Reporting from Nigeria

Physicians for Peace CEO, Brig. Gen. Ron Sconyers (USAF Ret.) is currently traveling in Nigeria and sends us this report:

 

It was just a year ago this month I was in the Niger Delta of Africa, visiting the oil rich region of Rivers State, Nigeria.  It was striking then that an area so rich in oil production was so wracked with overwhelming poverty.  And that the health care system there was so completely inadequate.  We pledged then that Physicians for Peace would continue to do what we could to help give those incredibly vulnerable people what help we could. 

 

Today, I find myself in the capital city of Abuja, en route tomorrow to northern Nigeria to visit with our team on the ground there, providing (and I might add, receiving) surgical training in vaginal fistula repair.  (More on this later in the week.)  Today, in preparation for the rest of the week, I met with two of our allies here:  the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP -www.ng.undp.org ) and Family Health International (FHIÑ www.fhi.org.) Mary Symmonds, the deputy resident representative for UNDP in Nigeria is an amazing lady (from Barbados) who has committed her life to serving othersƒparticularly in Africa.  And Dr. Christoph Hamelmann, of Germany, Chief of Party for FHIÕs 500 or so employees in Nigeria is equally committed to leading the way to help the people of Nigeria.

 

It is so uplifting to be in the presence of people who have truly sacrificed the ÒcushyÓ life for one less glamorous but far more rewarding.

 

I am most anxious to get to Kaduna tomorrow to see the brilliant work being done by our team.  Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women’s Health Mission to Nigeria

 

There is a particularly devastating complication of childbirth, known as VVF, the effects of which often cause young women to be ostracized by their families or discarded by their husbands. In Kaduna, Nigeria, physicians perform surgeries to try to correct this condition, but poor equipment and limited resources often result in botched procedures, or the inability of patients to reach the places where they could receive care. A team of volunteers from Physicians for Peace recently completed a successful mission to Kaduna, carried out in support of the Millennium Cities Initiative, to help perform surgeries on VVF and RVF patients.

VVF/RVF – vesicovaginal or rectovaginal fistula – describes a condition where prolonged labor results in serious tissue damage and creation of holes between the vaginal wall and the bladder or rectum of a woman. Both conditions cause leakage through the vagina. There is a high prevalence of these cases in Northern Nigeria, where many girls aged 11-15 become mothers, either after early marriage to older men, or through accidental pregnancy. The small pelvic size of these young girls causes them to experience obstructed labor (sometimes lasting for weeks) causing damage to their internal organs and resulting in VVF or RVF. Sometimes VVF or RVF is also caused by unskilled birth attendants simply cutting through the vagina of young girls suffering prolonged labor to create a passage for the baby. The constant leakage of urine or feces that results from this condition often results in these women being abandoned by their husbands, families, and neighbors, condemned to living the life of social outcasts. With no means of supporting themselves or their children, they often end up homeless.   

The PFP team worked at the Gambo Sawaba General Hospital in Zaria, Kaduna during the first week of April 2008. Dr. Margie Corney, Dr. Olugbenga Oredein, and Frances Dargan together with Dr. Sa’ad Idris (a local Nigerian physician) were able to perform 25 surgeries in 5 days, 18 of those being serious cases. The women ranged in age from 16 to 50+ years, many of whom had been living with VVF/RVF for years. A number of these cases were the result of previously botched VVF/RVF repairs. Frances Dargan, a surgical assistant, was also able to educate the local hospital personnel in hygiene and pre- and post-operative care of patients. The Physicians for Peace team also delivered badly needed basic medical supplies to make these surgeries possible.

The impact of missions such as these are profound and far reaching. Woman who are able to have VVF surgery are literally given a whole new life. During the six-week convalescent period in the hospital, they are given the opportunity to learn a skill, such as weaving or sewing, that they can use to support themselves financially when they are finally discharged. The hospital itself benefited from the mission, learning new hygiene procedures, and the American doctors were continually inspired by the skill and flexibility of their Nigerian counterparts, who were able to accomplish so much with so little.

There is still much to be done!! The United Nations Population Fund estimates the number of VVF and RVF cases in Nigeria to be over 400,000. Unofficial and NGO sources put this number much higher and continually growing.  Physicians for Peace is committed to working with health officials in Nigeria to help women suffering with this horrific condition, which scars them physically and emotionally. A number of VVF/RVF repair missions, along with educational campaigns to help young women, midwives, and birth attendants recognize signs of complicated labor and correct birthing procedures are needed to assist women currently living with VVF/RVF and to reduce and prevent future cases. Peace recently donated a 40 foot container of the medical/hospital supplies needed to help various health facilities in Kaduna State, but this is only a drop in the bucket in terms of meeting the need there.

The task is enormous and the need is urgent: Physicians for Peace needs your help to reach out to and, literally, repair the lives of these remarkable women living with the terrible burden of VVF and RVF. Even small financial contributions or donations of medical supplies, including quality needles, sutures, antibiotics, hospital gowns, and anesthesia medications will go a long way in making the next VVF/RVF mission possible. VVF clinics in Nigeria are in particular need of catheter kits, which cost as little as a dollar a piece, and can help a woman to be mobile after surgery instead of carrying around a bowl into which the catheter must drain.

The faces in the pictures above show the incredible courage of Nigerian woman who have lived with shame and neglect, but who smile with hope at being given the chance to start a new life.