Week Ending 10/1/10
This week has been intense. We worked 4 days at the hospital seeing over 200 people and fit more than 75 hearing aids. Yesterday we went to a village instead of working at the hospital. It was difficult to travel there (no good roads) and once we were there over 600 people came to see us. This village has no running water or electricity so our services were limited. As part of the ear team we screened everyone for infections or bugs we could remove from their ears- whereas at the hospital we could also do ear washes, hearing tests, and fit those eligible for custom hearing aids.
Here are some links you might be interested in:
Here are some links you might be interested in:
Anidaso Health is the organization I went to Ghana with: http://www.anidasohealth.org/Anidaso_Health/Akwaaba_(Welcome).html
The Slaormey Volunteers Group (SVG) is the organization that coordinated everything in Africa: http://www.svgafrica.org/
The Starkey Hearing Foundation is where we get the hearing aids from at affordable prices for global missions. http://www.starkeyhearingfoundation.org/
Here is a Flickr site with photos of the 2010 Ghana mission: Anidaso Health is the organization
The medical team did a lot of work this week as well, focusing a lot on diabetes and hypertension screenings. Although many associate developing countries with infectious disease, chronic disease is an important part of the disease burden experienced there.
I leave for the US in the morning and expect it to be a long but uneventful trip home, just as it was coming here. I am looking forward to seeing my family and have to get back to work on my project and school assignments, but I wish I was able to stay longer. There is way more need than a 5 day trip can provide.
