Day 4 Clinic

Distribution of food and supplies is a big part of the work that we do here. After passing through the medical and/or dental clinic, families are referred to our distribution station for food, clothing and shoes, and even toys.

It is hard to describe the difference in lifestyle here. Even the small towns feel densely populated and crowded, and dirty and simply lacking most everything.

Janice in distribution told us today that the most sought after item in distribution was not the brand new Crocs or the sandals that had been donated, it wasn’t even the toys or soccer balls for the kids, and it wasn’t even the food, although that was a close second. It was the large boxes the Crocs shoes came in! One lady vehemently asked for a box so she could have a mattress for her and her children. It would create a barrier between them and the dirt floor they normally slept on.

Pictured below is a family receiving some food, new shoes and hand made toys from Canada.

The medical team and pharmacy were moving swiftly and effectively again today seeing 643 people, and the dental team saw an incredible 101 patients today. The team worked right until dark again. Unfortunately, today was a day that for all of our efforts, there were still at least a couple of hundred people we were not able to see.

Pictured below is Michelle from the dental clinic before the day began. Below that is a shot of the whole medical team seeing patients.

One of the tougher cases that we heard today was about a 9 year old boy with Cerebral Palsy. Christine was able to diagnose him and speak with his mother about his condition. He was confined to his wheel chair because his mother did not know that he should be encouraged to exercise. Mentally he was obviously sharp and of age, but a lack of knowledge about the disease had unfortunately ensured the family had not worked with him to make his life more normal.

In Canada someone with CP would receive physiotherapy and speech therapy among other things and that would greatly increase quality of life. That sort of treatment is not readily available here and is certainly not easily attained financially.

Susan works in the pharmacy, but by profession is a speech therapist. Today there was a unique case where a child was slow developmentally and had a very limited vocabulary. The mother and child were walked over to pharmacy and introduced to Susan. Susan was able to show the mother, through an interpreter, how this little 3 year-old could be helped to move beyond a vocabulary of just three words.

Tomorrow is a day off before our last day of clinics on Saturday, and then we return home to Canada on Sunday.