From the Field

For years, we have wanted a dentist.  At times, there have been visiting dentists who have come for a few weeks or a month – long enough to try and treat the staff, but not long enough to care for the Papua New Guineans who live outside of our station.  About a year ago, we learned from Samaritan’s Purse that they had a dentist that was suppose to go to Liberia, to the heart of the Ebola outbreak, and wondered if we could use her instead.  We quickly said yes, and began working on creating a dental clinic for her to work out of. In January of this year, we had 2 volunteers who came and helped to get our clinic set up and help us (non dentists) know and understand what we need and don’t need.  After they left, we have been trying to get our clinic ready for our dentist – Sheena.  Well Sheena has now arrived.  She got into country a few weeks ago, and has been getting acclimated to the culture and doing some language learning.  She is getting close to be ready to see patients, and we are excited. Initially she will continue to see our staff here on station, as there are still many for her to see and it will give her time to adjust and figure out how things in PNG work.  After that, she will start to see PNGers from out of station.  There really hasn’t been a good dentist in…
Source: We have a dentist from Erin Meier – Asia Pacific

To celebrate International Children’s Day on June 1, a special activity was added to the Kids’ Club program at Veritas – an NCM partner organization in Sighisoara, Romania. The children were shown pictures from Nepal – both before and after the earthquake in April. They learned about how the lives of people in Nepal – including children like themselves – have been affected by the earthquake.
Source: Romanian Children Pray for Nepal from Romania

A patient comes into my room complaining of swelling of her neck for about a year.  On exam I am concerned for Tuberculosis or Lymphoma.  A chest x-ray increasee my concern for lymphoma and so I talked to her and her brother about our treatment options.  Treatment for lymphoma in PNG is chemotherapy, given about one time a month for a number of months.  This brings with it many challenges: the challenge of getting to the hospital each month, the challenge of having the money to come to the hospital, the challenge of feeling sick with the medicine and not wanting to continue, the challenge of having the cancer respond to the chemo and actually help her, and more. For this patient and her brother, the challenges were just too much.  They live in a remote part of Southern Highlands Province where they have to walk a day from their village, and then spend the night to get to a road to catch a car the following day and come into Kudjip.  They also don’t have the money for this expensive PMV ride.  They have a health center near them, but they aren’t able to treat cancer, and the hospital in their province, is also a day’s walk and PMV ride away. As we talked about the options for treatment and they explained why coming to Kudjip wouldn’t work, my heart dropped, I wouldn’t be able to give them chemo and she would likely die of her Lymphoma sooner rather…
Source: Challenges to treatment from Erin Meier – Asia Pacific