Well, outreach in India has come to an end. I just spent 5 1/2 months with a small group of strangers who became friends (in Kona & India), and we have now all separated and gone on to the next season of life. It's a bit surreal.
Outreach was different than I expected, but I have learned a lot from my whole IPHC (Intro to Primary Health Care) experience.
First, it wasn't really something I learned, but was reminded of, and that is how incredibly blessed I am. I have been privileged to grow up in a developed country, I have an education, and while it sometimes feels like I'm poor, in reality I have way more than billions of people on this earth. I have the ability to get clean water, to have a solid roof over my head, to buy food & clothing. I have supportive family & friends. I am loved. I have a relationship with the Creator of the universe. In short, I. Am. Blessed.
Second, I see how important and needed primary health care really is. There are so many people who are suffering from various illnesses & diseases that can be totally prevented or cured. They need people to go and teach them. I interacted with so many people who had so many misguided ideas about why things happen or what you should or shouldn't do to cure things. They need to be taught, and that is the job of a primary health care worker.
Third, I realized that I do not want to be a part of short term medical missions on a regular basis. While I believe there is some benefit in a short term trip (i.e. the person with pneumonia or an ear infection getting the needed antibiotics at that time), most the people we saw really needed follow up care and education. We saw somewhere around 2300 people at our clinics. Most of them had simple, every day ailments that could be helped with a little education and follow-up care (primary health care). For example, they needed to be educated on the importance of drinking water and how their dehydration was causing the headache they had, or how if they changed their lifting technique they could avoid serious back strain, or how simply washing your hands after going to the bathroom and before touching food could save yourself some serious stomach issues. While we could teach them these things, and we did, I wonder how much was lost in translation and how much will actually be implemented.
It seems to me that a community would benefit much more from a health care worker who is able to plant themselves in a community, to be able to live alongside the people and see what they struggle with, what conditions are like, and be there to keep educating on health, to get rid of the old misguided ideas. Someone who is able to follow up with patients and be sure they are healing correctly, that they are taking their medicines correctly (no one that we saw seemed to know what medicines a doctor had ever given them or why they even took it, and they didn't always finish it, thus creating the possibility of drug resistance), and someone to make sure they didn't have an allergic reaction or that the medicine even worked, would be of much greater value to a community than a random health care worker from America who visits for a day.
I understand that this was an "Intro" program and was just meant to give you a taste of primary health care, which I think it did. I am incredibly thankful to have been able to have done this program, and I know that the information & skills I learned will be useful no matter where I end up, and I can help teach people in any country, but I'm also pretty sure that I don't want to do short term medical trips very often. I am so thankful that I have done it though, because I have always wondered what it could be like, and I feel like I've been able to have a little taste of it.
While the outreach was challenging (due to various factors such as personal sickness & culture differences), I believe that there were 2300 people in India who were cared for, if only for a few minutes, were touched by the love of Jesus, and that because of prayer, things were changed in the heavenlies. So outreach wasn't what I expected, and I'm thankful it's over, I'm also very thankful to have been able to go.
Outreach was different than I expected, but I have learned a lot from my whole IPHC (Intro to Primary Health Care) experience.
First, it wasn't really something I learned, but was reminded of, and that is how incredibly blessed I am. I have been privileged to grow up in a developed country, I have an education, and while it sometimes feels like I'm poor, in reality I have way more than billions of people on this earth. I have the ability to get clean water, to have a solid roof over my head, to buy food & clothing. I have supportive family & friends. I am loved. I have a relationship with the Creator of the universe. In short, I. Am. Blessed.
Second, I see how important and needed primary health care really is. There are so many people who are suffering from various illnesses & diseases that can be totally prevented or cured. They need people to go and teach them. I interacted with so many people who had so many misguided ideas about why things happen or what you should or shouldn't do to cure things. They need to be taught, and that is the job of a primary health care worker.
Third, I realized that I do not want to be a part of short term medical missions on a regular basis. While I believe there is some benefit in a short term trip (i.e. the person with pneumonia or an ear infection getting the needed antibiotics at that time), most the people we saw really needed follow up care and education. We saw somewhere around 2300 people at our clinics. Most of them had simple, every day ailments that could be helped with a little education and follow-up care (primary health care). For example, they needed to be educated on the importance of drinking water and how their dehydration was causing the headache they had, or how if they changed their lifting technique they could avoid serious back strain, or how simply washing your hands after going to the bathroom and before touching food could save yourself some serious stomach issues. While we could teach them these things, and we did, I wonder how much was lost in translation and how much will actually be implemented.
It seems to me that a community would benefit much more from a health care worker who is able to plant themselves in a community, to be able to live alongside the people and see what they struggle with, what conditions are like, and be there to keep educating on health, to get rid of the old misguided ideas. Someone who is able to follow up with patients and be sure they are healing correctly, that they are taking their medicines correctly (no one that we saw seemed to know what medicines a doctor had ever given them or why they even took it, and they didn't always finish it, thus creating the possibility of drug resistance), and someone to make sure they didn't have an allergic reaction or that the medicine even worked, would be of much greater value to a community than a random health care worker from America who visits for a day.
I understand that this was an "Intro" program and was just meant to give you a taste of primary health care, which I think it did. I am incredibly thankful to have been able to have done this program, and I know that the information & skills I learned will be useful no matter where I end up, and I can help teach people in any country, but I'm also pretty sure that I don't want to do short term medical trips very often. I am so thankful that I have done it though, because I have always wondered what it could be like, and I feel like I've been able to have a little taste of it.
While the outreach was challenging (due to various factors such as personal sickness & culture differences), I believe that there were 2300 people in India who were cared for, if only for a few minutes, were touched by the love of Jesus, and that because of prayer, things were changed in the heavenlies. So outreach wasn't what I expected, and I'm thankful it's over, I'm also very thankful to have been able to go.
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