Outreach Summary December, 2004

Sailing into Puerto Castilla, the ship held a well attended reception for local media and government, motivating the media to quickly inform the surrounding community of the return of the Mercy Ship.  Because the Caribbean Mercy was previously on assignment to Puerto Castilla in April-July, most of the community was already well acquainted with Mercy Ships and glad for the hospital ship to sail back to their shore.

MEDICAL REPORT:
 

After screening many Honduran villagers, the medical crew filled up a seven week surgery schedule where life changing cataract removal operations were performed.   

Eight-year-old Dilcia was born both blind and deaf.  When Dilcia’s mother heard about Mercy Ships, she and her daughter bussed 60 miles to the ship.  Mercy Ships doctors performed two surgeries on the girl’s eyes, removing both of her life-long cataracts.  Just two weeks after her surgeries, this once blind child could already see objects as fine as a needle and distances up to 20 feet in front of her.

Medical crew dispensed 989 pair of glasses, and performed 176 surgeries.

DENTAL REPORT:
 

The Caribbean Mercy dental team took advantage of their return to Puerto Castilla by bringing back some of the patients with severe dental problems whom they had treated on their previous visit and offer more extensive work.

Along with the returning patients, the team treated school children, soldiers on the naval base and people from three different villages.  The dental team saw an average of 20 patients per day; 710 patients total and performed 3,017 procedures.  Treatments included extractions, fillings, decay removal and amalgams. 

Dental Coordinator Dr. Marcia Roulet-Miller said, “A highlight for me was working on the school children…because when you treat children you are treating them for their future.”

ORTHOPAEDICS:

The Mercy Ships orthopaedic team performed four weeks of surgery in the Regional Atlantida Hospital in Le Cieba, where the team operated on patients like 22-year-old Vincente.

Vincente suffered a gun shot wound to his upper tibia.  Ten days after his mother removed the bullet from his leg with a machete, Vincente sought help from the Mercy Ships orthopaedic team.  By the time he got to the hospital, his wound was badly infected, emitting an overwhelming infectious odor.  The team performed four operations and saved Vincente’s leg.

The Mercy Ships orthopaedic team team provided 275 consultations, 143 physical therapy treatments and performed 64 operations.

COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION:

Two Community Health Education (CHE) teams taught the village’s leading women about health; how diseases are spread and the importance of good hygiene.  

The CHE teams conducted health training in three schools and one prison, graduating 114 students, who in turn are expected to practice their new education.  They will also teach and encourage their friends to follow the same important keys to good health, such as hand washing before eating or preparing food.   

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT SERVICES:

The Community Development Services (CDS) team onboard teaches villagers how and why they should grow the highly nutritious Moringa tree and how to purify their village drinking water.

Since the team had already taught in many of the surrounding villages last summer, they used the return visit to follow up on the villager’s progress.  The CDS team scouted the area in search of villagers who had enacted the new health principles.  They were encouraged when they came across a whole family who, after purifying their water, had gone from sickness to health.

Community Development Services taught 8 classes, training over 1,220 people.

OUTREACH TEAM:

The outreach team continued their work in the local prison by visiting prisoners and their families.  They also counseled groups of men and women prisoners and offered the inmates weekly English classes.

The team held a Bible study for naval soldiers on the base where the Mercy Ship was docked, as well as for some of the villagers in Guadalupe Carney.  They also gave a class on AIDS prevention, performed as an inspirational dance team and taught Bibles stories and songs to many children. The team facilitated a Youth Leaders’ conference, taught a group of women on intercessory prayer and went on prayer walks.   

The team distributed 604 Bibles, showed the Jesus film 204 times and prayed with 2,957 people.

CREW SERVICE TEAMS:

Guadalupe Carney is the poorest community around the Puerto Castilla area.  Using their days off, Mercy Ships medical crew voluntarily set up a two-day medical clinic in the village.  The team provided a small pharmacy and treated general village ailments such as wounds, infections and parasites.  

Several Caribbean Mercy crew continued the work they started at a Honduran orphanage last summer.  The volunteers put in approximately 450 man-hours of painting, carpentry, rock moving, brush clearing, vehicle repairing and applying mud on a mud house.  Another team came out to play and teach the children at the orphanage for several consecutive weeks

Collene Myers, a Mercy Ships nurse serving in Health Care Services, met a 13-year-old boy named Omar last summer while the hospital ship was docked in Honduras.  Omar had a tumour on his neck that launched Collene’s heart into action.  Sympathy motivated Collene to facilitate Mercy Ships to partner with the First Lady of Honduras to have Omar’s tumour removed at a hospital in Tegucigalpa, the country’s capital.  When the Caribbean Mercy returned to Honduras, Collene visited Omar to check up on his healing process.  He has healed well and the now 14-year-old is attending school for the first time in his life.

STATISTICS