Veronica's project
on Wendy Bird in Cameroon (Cameroon), 06/Jul/2009 17:26, 34 days ago
Another experience was voluntary (voluntary) work. At the Baptist Centre we met Veronica, a Cameroonian woman who is from Bamenda and now lives in the USA. She had come to visit herfamily but also to set up an outreach screening clinic for hypertension and diabetes. This meant doing some work back in the USA so as to be able to access the population, get medicines and equipment so as to demonstrate the value of such a project home in the USA where she hopes to raise more funds so as to establish regular screening service. I offered to help as I thought it would be useful to do some hands on clinical work. So we went to Bali hospital first to get the signed authorization before going on to the small clinic where a number of nurses and a pharmacist from the Bali Hospital not unlike the one in Bamenda but much smaller, had also offered to help. In the time available about 200 people from around the village came. We started about 10.30 and people arrived steadily through the morning, walking to the clinic form outlying areas. Two reporters were present and interviewed Veronica as part of promoting her project. We saw people of all ages, men, womenand children, many with symptoms such as general aches, pains, (it is a farming area which involves hard physical work), temperature at night and belly bite. also babies with nappy rash. I helped with blood pressurescreening andtaking blood samples (finger pricks) to measure blood sugar levels; those with high levels were advised to go to the hospital. The nurse I worked with,Renee prescribed some medicines which they collected free from the pharmacist. Free medicines for those that needed it was an inducement that worked. Some were already on medication for hypertension so it was advice about seeing the doctor again and the importance of continuing to take the prescribed medication. I hope the photos give some indication of what it was like. It was a great day, I was so pleased to be able to help and I enjoyed the experience.Next blog will be traditional dental care....