Community Health Program
The Community Health Program began in February of this year. Dr. Maria about 20 community health workers over the past 6 weeks. The class, which meets Wednesday afternoons and will continue until the end of May, teaches participants about hygiene, nutrition and medicines. Participants are also learning how to take a person’s temperature and blood pressure. The goal at the end of the class is to assign 10 families from Cielo to each health worker. The health workers will be responsible for educating their assigned families about health, hygiene and nutrition. Topics will also include information on different diseases, their prevention and treatment. The health workers will check up on their assigned families monthly and report health issues to Dr. Maria.
Last Wednesday’s class covered medications. Students learned about different presentations of medications including pills, suspensions, and injections. Dr. Maria talked about the dangers of self-medicating, which is a widespread problem here in the community, as well as the side effects that come with different types of drugs. Dr. Maria emphasized that it is very important for each person to seek out a consult with a doctor or nurse and receive a prescription before buying or taking medicines. In the community, many people will go to the pharmacy and buy one pill of Amoxicillin when they have the flu. The members of the class learned valuable information, which they will then be able to pass on to the families in their charge.
In February and March, Dr. Maria and her assistant Diana gave mini-conferences in Cielo about Malaria and Dengue. The talks covered prevention, symptoms and treatment. As a result of these conferences, Dr. Maria ended up working with the community to pick up trash and discarded items where mosquitos lay their eggs. Over 50 members of Cielo showed up to help, the majority of which are youth.
Dental Program
Dr. Jose Manuel has been working hard with his new dental assistant, Heidi Caceres, to give teeth cleanings to all of the children at MIssion Emanuel’s school in Cielo. There are five classes: Maternal, Kinder, Pre-Primario, Primario, and Segundo in the Cielo school and over 100 students ages 3 to 9. Every Monday morning, Dr. Manuel meets with 8 to 10 of these students to give them an orientation as to how to clean their teeth. He then attends to them one by one to give them a thorough check up, which includes a cleaning and fluoride application and if necessary an emergency tooth extraction or cavity fillings. Each child is then given a toothbrush and toothpaste to take home as well as a piece of paper for their parents, which details what kind of additional work they need done.
Dr. Manuel and Heidi have almost finished providing teeth cleanings to all of the children in the Cielo school. We know that health starts at home and that even if we teach 3 year olds how to care for their teeth, they won’t be able to do it themselves. In light of this, we are meeting with the parents of the children in the school on Friday, May 28th to give the parents an orientation on dental hygiene and answer any questions that they may have on their children’s oral health.
Pediatric Clinic
In February, we purchased an executive fridge for the clinic, which today has over 1,000 doses of different vaccines including MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella), Tetanus, Hepatitis B, and Polio. The vaccine count is not normally that high, however, this past week, in cooperation with a campaign initiated by the Dominican Republic’s Public Health Department, Mission Emanuel clinic staff vaccinated 300 children in four schools in four days. These children, aged 3 to 8 years old, were vaccinated against Measles, Mumps and Rubella. The schools included both Mission Emanuel schools (Cielo and Nazareth), the public school in Nazareth and the Haitian Education Program that Mission Emanuel runs. The campaign continues throughout May concentrating on MMR and Polio. The clinic continues to vaccinate children and adults on a regular basis free of charge.
The pediatric clinic has undergone quite a few changes including new pharmacy cabinets in the reception area, swapping the doctor’s office with the vaccination area, and donations of equipment including an otoscope, glucose meters, electronic blood pressure machine and thermometers and emergency supplies. The clinic has been organized, cleaned and is in the process of being outfitted with all the equipment it lacks (hopefully in the next few months) as well as being painted with fun murals for the kids. With relief aid for Haiti pouring in from donors, we have also created a storage room in the clinic. Construction is being completed on bathrooms inside of the clinic as well. New policies and procedures have been put in place that cover things like medications, which cannot be dispensed without a prescription from a doctor. Also, employees now have job descriptions. All in all, I believe that the working environment has improved for employees and that the patient care that is being provided has also improved greatly.
Physical Therapy Program
The beautifully outfitted and whimsically painted physical therapy room is the most complete part of the clinic. In October of 2009 it was equipped and dedicated to continue caring for special needs children living in the community. All of this after years of hard work by Anna Harper, a physical therapist from Texas who raised the money and equipment for the center and also provides technical support for Aquilino. We currently have about 15 special needs children that attend therapy weekly. Aquilino provides therapy for children with cerebral palsy, Down’s Syndrome and other developmental issues. The therapy that he provides allows the children to strengthen their muscles and gain more mobility. The children that are in the physical therapy program are such a blessing to all of us. I know that the groups enjoy volunteering in the physical therapy room the most!
In order to utilize the space and resources that God has given us more, Mission Emanuel is working with the Asociacion Dominicana de Rehabilitacion, Inc. (ADR). ADR is a national non-profit in the Dominican that provides physical, occupational, hearing and speech therapies. They have been working in the country for over 50 years and have 22 centers across the island. We are hoping that a partnership agreement with the ADR to become a satellite center for them will allow us to better serve Bayona’s therapy needs. In the physical therapy room, we could have up to six therapists working at a time with children. We would like to grow towards this capacity in the near future.
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