Four members of the SSM Health Wisconsin team traveled to Guatemala to put their skills to work to help impoverished people there during a mission trip run by a Madison-based non-profit organization called Heart to Heart Experiences. The organization develops service trips to Central America to help provide basic housing and medical care for families there.
The largest country in Central America, Guatemala has one of the highest poverty rates worldwide. More than 59 percent of the population lives below the poverty line with indigenous people most affected by poverty, according to the World Bank. The four SSM Health caregivers joined a team of 36 health care providers and employees earlier this month on a service mission to the southern city of Antigua, Guatemala.
Those from SSM Health Wisconsin making the journey in order to offer medical and homebuilding services to needy families in the area were: Agnesian Healthcare’s Dr. Elizabeth Bensen, SSM Health Dean Medical Group’s Scott Longley and Maliha Rahim, and SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital-Madison’s Rachel Snow.
“Guatemala is way more impoverished than I anticipated,” said Dr. Elizabeth Bensen, “but the people also are resilient and there is incredible longevity there.” During her week in country, Bensen said she treated about 100 patients.
“We saw an 85-year-old woman and she had to walk a great distance to get to us but she was able to do it. It was impressive,” she said. “They have a strong family structure with most people in multi-generational living situations. It was inspiring and great to see.”
For 200 years Antigua served as the capital of colonial Guatemala. It is renowned for its restored Spanish colonial buildings and amazing views. Ringed by three large volcanoes, it is earthquake-prone and has suffered great devastation throughout its history. While the area attracts tourists, it also is home to many of the country’s poorest who have limited access to educational and economic opportunities.
“Many of the people are indigenous Mayans,” Bensen said. “We saw a lot of respiratory illnesses from cooking over an open fire. Diabetes was fairly rampant and also irritable bowel syndrome. We had a limited formulary in the trenches. It was both unsettling and inspiring. We had no ability to do diagnostic testing so you have to go back to the fundamentals.”
This mission trip was a first for Bensen who said she was inspired to serve after talking with a medical school friend who took part in a similar experience last year. She described her experience as “powerful” and said she would definitely consider making another trip.
Fellow traveler Rachel Snow has participated in several other service trips but Antigua was her first international mission. “It’s just a beautiful, beautiful country,” she said. The gratitude she felt from the people she met there left a lasting impression.
“At the end of the first day our last patient was the mother of a little girl who was just this beaming ray of light, super energetic and loving. As the dentist was treating her mom, she just crawled up in my lap,” Snow recalled. “I will always remember just how grateful these people are and how patient they are. They wait patiently in lines outside the doctor’s office, and the line is going around the block. Here if our appointment were to be 15 minutes late, we would get anxious and frustrated. It’s just very different.”
A veteran of international travel, fellow traveler Maliha Rahim said she found Guatemala to be a “beautiful country with beautiful scenery.” She also said she found the stark poverty to be very similar to that she had observed in her native Pakistan.
Although not directly involved in patient care for her job with SSM Health’s Human Resources team, Rahim assisted the medical team during the week-long free clinic. A bit nervous at first, Rahim said it did not take long for her to get comfortable with working directly with the patients to conduct intake conversations and take their weight and blood pressure readings.
While his three SSM Health traveling companions worked in the free clinic, Scott Longley spent his days helping to construct new cinderblock dwellings for families in the Chimaltenango area of Guatemala. The homes he helped to build are modest in comparison to structures in the United States, but Longley said they are vastly superior to the corrugated metal lean-tos in which many of the poorest live.
“People have so few resources, not the basic necessities that we take for granted here,” he said. “A 13 by 19 cinderblock home for them is like the Taj Mahal.” Longley said he won’t forget the smiles on the faces of the four-member Colop Sinay family as they saw their new home for the first time.
“I’m already planning on going back next year. It’s already on the schedule,” Longley said. “I’d strongly encourage it for anyone. I think it’s how we make a better world out there.”
Source link : https://www.ssmhealth.com/newsroom/blogs/ssm-health-matters/january-2019/guatemalan-mission-trip-inspires-4-from-ssm-health
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Publish date : 2019-01-28 03:00:00
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