For a change it was my turn to be the pupil listening to someone else doing the teaching!! I have just taken part in a 4 day mini medical school here at Ruel. We had some guests from America who were really keen to do some medical training and I was also given the opportunity to take part. We studied the 'Integrated Treatment and Management of Childhood diseases', a course set by the World Health Organisation (WHO). It is a mini medical course which enables me to diagnose and treat childhood disesases and it is specifically aimed at the third world. This qualification now means I can volunteer as a health worker at a health centre anywhere in the 3rd world.
It was a quite a difficult course to take part in as daily we saw pictures and video footage of children in Africa, India and the philippines who were extremely ill and dying. We were trained to look for danger signs and recognise pneumonia, measles, Dengue fever, malaria, malnutrition, dehydration amongst more milder conditions. Over 70% of the deaths in children are caused by one of these treatable and preventable diseases. A figure that completely astounds me as it just would not happen at home. Many of the families simply cannot afford to get their children treated or seen by a doctor! Makes you appreciate our FREE health service. Here if the parents dont have the money for the medicines the child is left to die!
Following our training we put it all into practise and boy was that an experience! We went to a Mangyan village in the mountains. The journey alone was full of adventure and great excitement! There was not enough room for all of us in the Ruel van so it was decided the 'youngies' could go in the back of the yellow van! It was rather small in the back and after 20 minutes of stooping and bashing our heads we decided it would be far easier to stand for the remaining 40 mins! Holding on tightly and watching for the bumps in the road was great fun!!! You may recognise the bridge from the Ruel video I showed many many times! This is the only way to reach the village.
On arrival to the Mangyan village it did not take long for news to spread we were here for medical outreach and soon we had well over a hundred people waiting with their children. We had been taught to fill in charts and prescriptions in the comfort of Ruel House with very little pressure and lots of time. On the field it was a completely different scenario! Conscious of all the people waiting and precious time available you had to get quick! It was such an amazing experience and to think that because we were there lives will have been saved. At the same time it was devastating as some cases we saw we knew that there was not a lot we could do. I felt very helpless - especially as one 4 year old girl severly malnourished stood naked before us with an obvious heart condition. There are no medical services available to help and nothing anyone can do for them. With virtually no money the family are without hope. Makes me so angry and breaks my heart to think what an unjust world we live in.
I shall certainly never forget my experience on medical outreach I am so grateful I have had this chance to add to my skills and hopefully sometime in the future I can use them again!
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