March 2012
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Our first task in approaching
another people
another culture
another religion
is to take off our shoes
for the place we are approaching is holy.
Else we may find ourselves treading on another's dream.
More serious still, we may forget that God was there before our arrival.
Anonymous

Medical Mission Trip
Mombin Crochu, Haiti
Jan 20-27, 2012

Dr. Sylvia Campbell and team in Mombin Crochu

What a wonderful and amazing experience for all of us who traveled to Mombin Chrochu Hospital, Haiti. While there we offered medical care and service to those in this poorest part of the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Our team of 12 consisted of Dr. Sigsby Gayle, Dr. Ron O’Neal, Dr. Sylvia Campbell, Rev. John DeBevoise, Jeanne Gres CRNA, Maureen Doyle RN, Karen Muniz RN, Beckie Courtney RN, Terry L. Deal, Michael Crandall, Jim Cohen and Elizabeth Helfert MPH.

Dental, medical, and surgical care was given and an eyeglasses clinic was held. During this trip 200 dental procedures and 46 surgical procedures were performed, 134 patients were treated, and over 200 glasses were distributed. Teaching and lectures were given to staff as well as villagers, continuing the work of expanding knowledge and information. Food for Healing, the feeding program for the patients, serves a great function and is helping with healing, as well as offering work to villagers and purchasing supplies from the farmers.

We also began the initiation of a Moringa Project here, to help with malnutrition in this area. Children were measured pre-project and will be measured after implementation to determine the impact of added nutrition.

Following our return the new truck that we have been praying for has arrived and will allow transport of patients, drugs and supplies, a service so greatly needed

This trip was felt to be extremely successful, not only in the number of patients seen and cared for, but also in the teaching, the initiation of new projects and the confirmation that God continues to direct the efforts of these people as they try and help those in their community who are sick and suffering.

There continues to be great need in this small community and we will continue to seek support, both financially and spiritually, to allow continuation of God’s work here. We affirm in our belief that God continues to call us to be part of this journey, and to continue our commitment as the next generation of Haitians begins to more their community forward.

Medical team in Mombin Crochu

The Moringa Project
by Elizabeth Helfert

Moringa oleifera is a tree, also known as “the miracle tree” for its ability to offer nutritious food, clean water, and medicine. Moringa is easily propagated and it has the ability to thrive under difficult conditions, making it an ideal tree to be grown in both Haiti and Uganda. Given the anecdotal evidence of moringa combined with the superior nutritional profile of the leaves, it is believed to be an important resource in the fight against global malnutrition (Fuglie, 1999). Specifically, dried moringa leaf powder, when added to food, is a significant source of vitamins, minerals, protein and sufficient quantities of all essential amino acids (Fuglie, 1999).

Moringa leaves and flowers

Hunger is the world’s number one health risk; it kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Worldwide, more than 1 billion people are currently facing chronic hunger (FAO, 2009). Under nutrition contributes to five million deaths of children under five each year (UNICEF, 2008). Village Partners International recognizes the reduction of malnutrition as a primary prevention to other life threatening diseases. In an effort to reduce the prevalence of malnutrition in both Mombin Crochu, Haiti and Papoli, Uganda, VPI is assisting community members in starting a self-sustaining, community based moringa project in both locations.

During VPI’s medical mission to Mombin Crochu, Haiti, Elizabeth Helfert held a community interest meeting about moringa on January 22, 2012, where nearly 60 community members were present. Because of the strong interest the community of Mombin Crochu showed in the planning and implementation of a moringa project, Elizabeth prepared a workshop to teach community members about planting, harvesting, and pruning techniques, as well as a summary of the nutritional benefits of moringa. Again, the community showed up to the workshop in high numbers. After a 30 minute presentation and many questions, the community members decided to create a sign-up to form a board of directors to begin the planning of a moringa project. Since VPI’s medical mission team’s departure, Dr. Miles has organized a board of directors consisting of 14 community members and including an agronomist. The board had their first official planning meeting on February 25, 2012. At the meeting the board decided on a location for the first moringa nursery, began the planning of using a training of trainers technique to educate a team of community members on propagation and benefits of moringa that will be circulated throughout the community. They have also started to delegate tasks to ensure the success of their project. On March 3, 2012 Rodny the Covenant Hospital’s administrator traveled to Cap-Haitian to meet Cory Thede a contact made by Elizabeth, who graciously donated several hundred moringa seeds to the community of Mombin Crochu. Cory is an American agricultural specialist working with Wesleyan Missionaries in northern Haiti. On March 9, 2012 the community began preparing the land for planting; they have also prepared a budget estimate for the implementation of six community level nurseries.

Elizebeth Helfert - class on Moringa

The moringa trees were a popular item on the Christmas in Africa list this year. Two-hundred forty-six trees were purchased for the community of Papoli. While Elizabeth was in Papoli last summer she held a similar workshop to the one held in Mombin Crochu in January. Upon Elizabeth’s next visit to Papoli, it is the hope to use a similar model of what is being done in Mombin Crochu to start the first phase of a moringa project there. Much like Mombin Crochu, Papoli exudes a strong interest in the use of moringa to help combat malnutrition.

Additionally, on March 25, 2012, Elizabeth spoke at Tampa’s Green Fest about moringa and VPI’s work with this “miracle tree”.

Fourth Graders Collect $300 to Help Haitians in Need
By: Molly Logan Anderson

Fourth graders at Churchill Elementary

Oswego, Illinois – A short story read to her class resulted in a big surprise for 4th grade teacher, Dana Barnett of Churchill Elementary. After returning from a day off, the teacher happily learned of the giving spirit inspired in her students just a day before. The children, who are 9 and 10 years old, spontaneously started a fundraiser called "Help Haiti" in response to learning about the hardships so many Haitians face on a daily basis.

"I couldn’t believe it when I found out the kids had raised $87 in the day I was gone," says Barnett, who says the two-week effort eventually resulted in $300 donated to Village Partners International (VPI), a non-profit committed to partnering with villages in underprivileged countries on projects that create independence and are self-sustaining. "When I saw what the students were able to accomplish in just one day, I knew we needed to get behind them and support what they were trying to do." From lining school hallways with informational posters, to collecting pennies from each classroom, the students and school worked together to make the unplanned fundraiser a success. A personal connection to VPI and board president, Sylvia Campbell, through one student’s family provided the perfect place to donate the funds. The monies will specifically be used for the organization’s Food for Healing program, which feeds and promotes healing in patients in third world countries Chuchill's principal, Tammie Harmon, was thrilled to witness the students' giving spirit shine within school walls. "It is so rewarding to see the 4th grade students' learning the importance of helping others in real life who are in need. The students have ignited a new found passion within themselves and have awakened other students to sense the urgency to help those who are less fortunate," Harmon says.

Much Going on in Papoli
by Emmanuel Ofumbi

The new year, 2012 has started on high gear with lots of dedication to duties by our pediatric clinic day care staff and the volunteer teams spread all over the 11 sub-villages in Papoli and 5 other neighboring villages that share common facilities like borehole wells, school, clinic with the people of Papoli.

We designed an inclusive strategy that groups our small labor force coupled with volunteers into 4 Sectors; namely

1.Onsite day care service- catering for average 85 little kids who are brought to the day care centre on daily basis;

2.Home based care service for children who are being weaned from regular daycare and are given assistance from their homes numbering 52;

3.Community health education, where our staff go out to the people to teach and demonstrate to them how best they can improve upon their health right from the sleeping places, kitchen, compound, latrines, bathing, food preparation-cooking, vaccination against killer diseases like TB, tetanus, measles etc and

4.Medical treatment at the day care facility for all groups of people from Papoli and beyond.

We involve the community membership into active voluntary participation that results in less external requirements; including participation. We have also started construction of four in one unit for our health technical staff who currently live a distance to the work site; the community members have been very active here, they baked 42,000 bricks which are more than enough for the project and completed sinking pit latrines. They also collected local construction materials like sand, stones/hardcore, aggregates etc. Work is in progress and our target is to have the staff occupy the new house by May, all going fine. Having medical staff at site will enable them to attend to many emergencies including at night and also take care of the boarding students in our new primary school hostel that has been named after Martha Kawala.

Martha Kawala cuts the ribbon at the dedication of the dormitory


Construction is almost complete of a 40X30 ft building that will serve as office space for our community workers and a storage facility to store our health centre supplies like beds, mattresses etc. We have continued to engage with other partners in the district including, local government, World Vision area program office, Tororo general hospital and other players in the field of health. We actively participated in influencing their health service delivery in the rural areas of our district. Our partnership with VPI-Village Partners International is great and growing; the linkage with others through VPI like University of South Florida, The American Foundation for People with AIDS and others are maintained and continue to grow daily.




Admin offices and storage building on clinic grounds


Papoli Relationship-building Trip
by Dennis Bradt

VPI board member, Dennis Bradt, and B.J. Johns led a group of ten people on a relationship-building trip to Papoli, Uganda. All but one of the team are members of Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church. These were people who wanted to see and experience first-hand the fruits of God's plan that have taken place in the village of Papoli and were willing to pay all of their own expenses to make the trip. They spent eight full days in the village, one of the longest stays of any group, and were the first team made up of people who simply wanted to go. Village leader, Emmanuel Ofumbi, said they have been praying for these types of trips for a long time because relationship building is so very important for the villagers as well as those visiting.

Two of the team members conducted a two-day, regional training workshop for teachers and counselors on determining effective therapeutic measures to guide students by using case studies and interactive participation.

The team spent two full days painting the primary school buildings inside and out with help from several villagers. The villagers and children that saw our group painting got an eye opening lesson in western culture. Most of our team members were women and women don’t do painting in Papoli. In fact very few men do any kind of painting either. It’s sort of like a plumber in our country. Most people will call a plumber for even the simplest things simply because they think it takes a professional. From what we could tell, the women enjoyed seeing women working side by side with men on such a project. Even Martha Kawala worked with us. She was probably the first Papoli women ever to be a painter. Martha became very proficient at it and said laughing "I think I've found a new profession, but I don’t come cheap".

The team spent time at the Robert Cooley Pediatric Clinic. There was an average of about 35 children at the clinic each day and all were receiving loving, professional care from the excellent staff. Some of the team helped feed the children and one even helped bathe about 20 little girls. That team member also became very attached to a baby girl who recently arrived at the clinic extremely malnourished and required IVs to restore her to health.

Some of the other activities the Uganda Experience team participated in included: Sitting in on various preschool and primary school classes; passing out pens and pencils to all primary school children and book bags to the sixth and seventh graders; provided the school with posters, supplies and sturdy pencil sharpeners for each classroom; participated in the dedication of the recently completed dormitory; gave out Christmas in Africa gifts to the villagers –animals, household items, bicycles, & food; videotaped all of the children on the PCPC scholarship program and scholarship graduates; and were even able to go on a brief safari.

The team thoroughly enjoyed this life changing experience and we anticipate other groups such as this one will also make the trip to Papoli, Uganda to see the results of God's work accomplished through people who care.

Lunch time at the Robert Cooley Clinic