"Do not wait for leaders. Do it alone, person to person." Mother Teresa
HEALTH CARE
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 96 out of 1,000 Ghanaian infants will die. In Kenya, 80 infants will die. Life expectancy in Ghana is 47 years; in Kenya it is 49 years.
Community Health nurses, if they are supplied by the government, are often undertrained and overwhelmed. The villages are located near hospitals, but transportation in an emergency situation is difficult, and villagers are often unable to pay for their care. Due to the exceptional generosity of one WomensTrust donor, The Village Net is able to provide health insurance for its borrowers in Ghana. We do not yet know how much this insurance will be utlitized, and under what conditions. We have heard anecdotally that the insurance may actually impede a hospital's ability to treat the most critically ill patients, as those who receive the insurance may use the hospital for minor conditions (as happens in the United States, by the way).
Diseases such as HIV/AIDs, malaria, typhoid, dengue fever, and many more have been targeted as critical situations in Africa. Some private companies and non-governmental organizations are making vaccines, malaria nets and other medical tools available in the effort. But the need is enormous and the efforts have reached few of those who need help. The Village Net model involves partnering with the organizations that have tools to fight these diseases, and helping to implement the education programs and distribution systems to make the tools availabe to the villages.
WomensTrust has implemented a volunteer program in Pokuase, in which members of the New Hampshire Nurse Practitioner Association donate their time twice a year to serve the villagers. They conduct blood pressure and anemia screenings, both of which have a dire impact on the village women. They work with the government-employed community nurse to provide training and supplies. The volunteers have collected excellent data that will help increast the impact of their services.
We are looking for a similar group of health care professionals who would be willing to come and work in Ofankor. Ofankor does not have a community nurse, but we believe that the use of our volunteers would help build the case for significant need to have one supplied by the government.
We are also interested in involving naturopaths and similar practitioners of homeopathic medicine. There are many local remedies in use, but we don't know exactly what plants are used, in what doses, and how they are obtained.
The Village Net can help secure donated supplies. The volunteers would need to pay their own travel expenses.
This is care at its most basic. Come and practice medicine as it was practiced many generations ago. See the direct results of your work and know how much your contribution matters to this community. To discuss these opportunities, please contact Cindy Butler, Executive Director, at (206)226-8316 or cindy@thevillagenet.org.