March Medical and Dental Clinics

Me with our Haitian-Dominican translators at one of the rural clinics.

Hello everyone!  We had a very busy spring down here in the D.R. with Orphanage Outreach and an extremely busy month of medical and dental clinics!  In fact, this spring we had the most successful medical and dental clinics since we started running free clinics back in 2008.  In order to put on free clinics it’s important to have partnerships with local organizations to ensure adequate follow-through with patient care when needed.  Here, in the small costal town of Monte Cristi, we partner with a local NGO called Banelino, which is a Fair Trade Banana operation that uses profits to provide services to the people that live and work in the plantation areas.  A well respected local physician named Dr. Miguel Garcia works with the Banelino Preventative Health Care Program and also partners with us during our medical and dental clinic weeks.  After finishing a busy spring of clinics he sent a review of the services to Banelino’s CEO, which sums up some of what we did.  He said..

“Friends, I can tell you that I feel swollen with emotion! Never before have we carried out three Medical Clinics in a year.  It has been a huge success.  ORPHANAGE OUTREACH & BANELINO have achieved it.  Congratulations to Bryson, Kevin, and Conor for their efforts.  To Marike for her support.  There have been 2,227 actions of health that have been carried out from January 10 to March 24.  In three clinics with three medical and nurse teams and two dental teams we have achieved it.  I want to highlight this last team from March 21-24: Tremendous, Excellent, Marvelous.  The doctors, the nurses, the students, those blessed dentists and their personnel.  Very good people, healthy, caring, hard working and with a great sense of humanity.  Here you have the results for yourselves to analyze!  Thank you,      -Dr. Miguel Garcia Tatis”

As you can see in Dr. Garcia’s words, we served the medical and dental needs of so many people in the relatively short time period that we ran clinics.  In just three major clinics we met the needs of over 2,000 people in very poor, rural villages where residents don’t even have access to medications as simple as Tylenol or Benedryl.  Our American and Canadian clinic teams met patients with a tremendous amount of pathology....infections, skin disease, STD’s and more...and not only treated their ailments, but treated them with the kindness and dignity that all human beings deserve.  Unfortunately, the people living in these remote villages are all-to-used to living and suffering with whatever affliction they have, simply because they don’t have access to care.  A young mother caring for her two year old child with scabies, for example, may be not be able to do anything about it and so her child simply suffers.  

Some of the incredible dental work during our spring clinics. Click for a larger view.

Consequently,  people in these very small villages and remote areas will go to great lengths to get the respected, high quality free care we provided.  One of our patient’s effort to see a doctor, painted a clear picture for me of the daily struggle so many people face in this part of the world.  After talking to a Haitian man waiting in line, I discovered that he was from a village named Meyac just across the Massacre River that creates the natural northern border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  That morning, he walked 3 kilometers from his town to the river, then swam across the river with his two-year old daughter on his back and his clothes in a plastic bag to keep them dry.  Then, as he walked into the Dominican Republic he had to pay a bribe of $50-100 pesos (about$1.50-$3.00USD) to a Dominican Border Patrol Officer in order to be allowed to cross in.  Finally, he walked another kilometer or so to the clinic site where we had set up, just so his daughter could get a check up.  Fortunately, neither him nor his daughter needed any severe care and were able to get some much needed vitamins and Tylenol.  Nonetheless, I think something as simple as Tylenol or Vitamins are taken for granted in the United States.  Do you ever think twice about going to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom or kitchen to grab some Tylenol when you have a headache?  How about some Ibuprofen when your back hurts?  I can pretty much guarantee that I will NEVER have to walk five miles, swim across a river with my child on my back, and risk being beaten or thrown in jail by military border patrol, just to get a small bag of Tylenol.  Sadly, this is the way of life for many Dominicans and Haitians as well as most of the rest of the developing world.  Fortunately, life is perhaps a little bit easier this spring for many of the people living in these ares of poverty thanks to the many volunteers that came to serve, and thanks to the support of generous people like yourselves that are willing to give of themselves or give financially to help make a difference!