CAMO’s Fall Trip to Honduras

  • By: Karen Skubik
  • November 11, 2013
  • 384
                        
Thirty area professionals recently returned from Central American Medical Outreach’s (CAMO)’s fall trip to Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras supporting the Orrville-based non-profit health care organization’s mission: to improve the quality of life of people in Central America by strengthening health care systems and promoting sustainable community development. Forty years ago Kathy Tschiegg founded CAMO after serving as a Peace Corps nurse who saw the need to help the people of Honduras. Seeing infants and children dying from lack of medical equipment and technology, Tschiegg has made it her life’s work to create a sustainable organization that serves about 100,000 people annually. CAMO sends two teams per year down to the Central American country and focuses on three programs: Women and Children’s Health, Medical Services, and Education. Part of the success of the organization is their unique counterpart system. According to their website, www.camo.org, “American experts are paired with Honduran counterparts and together the team addresses a problem and implements a program to combat it. This type of programming creates a situation where the community receiving the assistance does not become forever reliant on the patron, but instead, increases its capacity through training and improved equipment.” Fran Gengo of Wooster shared her experience from her recent trip to the Public Health Center in Honduras and explained, “I prepared a presentation on wound care….. repeated my class from last year on ostomies, and did a hands-on evaluation of ostomy patients as well.” Gengo said she participates, “because I have been blessed and want to give back. My nursing specialty is not one many nurses pick so I have a somewhat unique set of skills related to ostomy equipment and its use.” After volunteering regularly at the Orrville CAMO site, Anne Wilson of Wooster decided to be a part of the fall team heading to Santa Rosa de Capon to work on the bar coding system used to catalog supplies. She found it helpful to see how CAMO-Honduras operates and shared a story that portrays the type of rewarding experience that keeps many physicians returning year after year. Wilson told of a blind native with a growth on their pituitary gland. After surgery to remove the growth, the patient started gaining their vision back. Not all success stories are medical, however. Tschiegg noted, “A fun thing happened this year. We converted an abandoned shell that was just walls in 2004 into a handicapped accessible community gym.” As a result, they held their first wheelchair basketball game under the direction of Mark Gorman, a prosthetics expert on the CAMO team. There is no special programming for the disabled in the area and they serve 358 wheel chair clients, so it was rewarding to blend together different programs for better community health. Tschiegg said, “We had 10 specialties here last week with over 30 professionals, each with a specific purpose which related to our mission of strengthening the health care system and community development.” Locals Aaron and Misty Shields, Steve Curtis, and Mike and Robyn McClintock all travelled to the construction site of the Public Health Center. McClintock Electric secured donated items and worked on the electrical system. According to Tschiegg, “When done it will be the largest in Honduras providing diagnostics services in the areas of mammography, cervical cancer detection and treatment, prenatal ultrasounds, dental care, vaccination, planned parenting, youth counseling services, laboratory services and general medical services. The value of this project if done in the USA would cost 3.2 million. It will cost us $600,000 in Honduras. This clinic everyday sees more than 500 people. It is the first and main access of care for the poor.” Some local physicians bring a team with them, resulting in an even larger impact during their visit. According to Tschiegg, “Dr. Tabet of Aultman Hospital and his neuro team preformed 13 surgeries during the fall trip to Honduras, all of which could not have been done due to lack of instruments and spinal column sets which are valued at more than $400,000 dollars. If these set could be in Honduras we could care for the needs of neck and back issues, but a developing country where the mean income per day is $2.30 this type of surgery is only a dream. So for the few cases we could do it has changed their lives.” Volunteers are always welcome at CAMO's Orrville warehouse. For more information email camo@camo.org or call (330) 683-5956.


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