|
|
| (link to other newsletters) | link to Hurricane Mitch report |
  |
Urgent Needs:
 The
ventilator that CAMO donated to the hospital last year saved this young
boy's life.
Walking through the open-air halls of the hospital in Honduras, I recall the suffering that lies behind each door, knowledge gained during the time I was a nurse here for two years in the Peace Corps. These memories flood my mind as I peek into my old wards and still see two patients to a bed. I wonder if the toils of the past 11 years with CAMO have been worth it. Reminiscing as I finished up with a few details before my return home in May, I was approached by the hospital's pediatrician, Dr. Hector Sandoval. When he first came to the hospital several years ago he was leery of CAMO and hesitant to use the new equipment we donated. But today, he greeted me and said, "Kathy, did you hear we saved two children this week with the ventilators!" I continue to be amazed at the change I've witnessed in him, and I asked if I could see these children. We visited Arlen first. Only 18 months old, Arlen had been on the ventilator for three days. Now, with the ventilator removed for 24 hours and his breathing unlabored, we found him  asleep
with his mother at his side. I looked up from his face and into the nurse's
eyes and saw that they were just as proud as the doctor was. They told
me how they applied the instructions we had taught them in March about
caring for children on ventilators, and their eyes danced with joy as they
shared their success. The second child we saw was Frelin. Near death when
he was brought in, Frelin had been on the ventilator for a week. Losing
hope, his father wanted to take him off the machine and allow his son to
die at home. But Dr. Sandoval insisted that Frelin could be saved. The
doctor was true to his word -- the father will soon take his son home,
but it will be to recover and live a healthy life.
This day in the hospital, I witnessed that 11 years of work have had purpose and many lives have been saved! Sometimes the work seems too hard and the hours too long, but Dr. Sandoval, the two boys and the nurses help put the long hours of CAMO into perspective. CAMO is so honored to be able to serve those in need and those willing to learn. Arlin and Frelin were saved with supplies, equipment and education provided through the respiratory program of AMO. These boys are just one example of the life saving work that CAMO is able to do with your support. Thank You. Patients served January 1 - June 30, 2004 This chart represents programs and the work they are producing on a daily basis. There are many aspects of CAMO. As the founder of the organization, sometimes I find it overwhelming. CAMO started 11 years ago from a duffel bag in my living room. My purpose was to alleviate suffering, to do something, to make the world a better place during my stay on it. I am not sure where this journey will end, but through faith and many individuals like yourself you can see many lives are better. I am grateful to God for being my constant companion and I want to personally thank each one of you for being part of this journey.
"I just want to wear a blouse" This seems like a simple request. But for Marie Luisa Corea it was a dream and an impossibility.  She
lived alone and had lost her left breast and left shoulder and arm to an
aggressive cancer, which was treated on July 5, 1995 in Tegucigalpa. In
November 2002 she presented herself to the CAMO prosthetic and orthotics
laboratory. Marie shared with us her difficulty to work, to make her tortillas
and to wash her clothes. She was embarrassed to go out of her home, and
her clothes would always fall off her shoulder. Now, all she wanted from
us was to keep her shirt from failing off of her. Jorge, the prosthetic
technologist, was overwhelmed by her story and her need for a functioning
prosthesis. He asked Maria to return the next week when Mark Gorman, Jorge's
counterpart from the USA, would be there. They evaluated Marie and then
put themselves to work to find the best possible solution for the single
woman. Maria would return at the end of the week for her prosthetic device.
At home, she returned to her wood stove and would make her tortillas using
her mouth and her right hand to peel them off the paper
and place them on the grill. Her clothes would be taken one at a time off
the rope between her tree and her house, for she had no shoulder or arm
to drape them over. Her chores were difficult, but she is a survivor. At
the end of the week Maria returned to CAMO prosthetic lab and was fitted
with her device. She placed her blouse on and it stayed up. Then she was
shown how it worked. She could use the hand piece to peel the totillas
off the wax paper, she could drape her clothes over it, and for Maria the
mpossible became possible. She left us with new hope for her life. Maria
visits our lab from time to time and she shares stories of how her prosthetic
arm and hand have made her life better and the new things that she is doing
with them. Jorge smiles as he shares this story with me, and states, "She
is happy with Mark and my work." I say, "So am I Jorge, so am I."
I am not dumb The greatest opportunity for any child is a good education, but what happens  when
the teachers and your parents believe you to be not smart enough to make
it through first grade, and you have been there for the third year in a
row? You are nine years old. You observe what is going on around you, but
no one knows why you are this poor child that pays no attention to anyone.
You are locked into silence, which no one has come to detect. Only Edin
Francisco, who is too small, helpless to explain that his silence and lack
of ability to capture sound has robed him of his right to an education.
It is not he who is deaf, but it is those who surround him that are not
listening to him. Edin Francisco's life changed the day the screening program
from another city came to his village. This woman (Gloria) in a white lab
coat stuck something into his ears. He heard nothing, but he could see
she was different -- her eyes understood  him,
and soon he would visit her place of employment, CAMO. Gloria would give
him things to put behind his ears and then something to place in his ears.
They called them hearing aids. For the first time, he heard clearly. Six
months later his mom brought him back to CAMO for more batteries. This
time his eyes were bright and there was a big smile on his face. He had
passed first grade and was moving very rapidly thorough 2nd grade. His
life had changed forever. Now his parents and teacher understood,
and more importantly, he would not lose the precious opportunities of an
education in the years to come.
This year we have tested over 2,272 children's hearing, and we have pulled cockroaches and other bugs from their ears. We are finding about nine percent with infections , plugged ear canals and hearing loss. The school screening is done on Tuesday and Thursday, and it is the only such program in Honduras. The clinic is open daily for the general public. Each school visit costs $50.00. If you would like to sponsor one poor school, please let us know. Do I have cancer? 
Doña Blanca, a 47-year-old female, had traveled all day from a distant
village by bus, thinking and fearing the worst. She had never had a mammogram,
but she knew she must do something, because she had severe pain in her
right breast for four months. Now the doctor in the village insisted that
she have a mammogram. Dona Blanca had heard stories from well-meaning friends
that this fancy machine would cause cancer, that the machine would flatten
and deform her breast. All kinds of stories were shared with her. She would
remain brave and continue her journey to Santa Rosa. Doña Blanca
would soon know first-hand if her friends were telling her the truth. She
would also learn if her lump and pain were due to cancer. She arrived at
the CAMO mammography program in Santa Rosa and was greeted by a smiling,
friendly Bonnie Medina. Bonnie soon put Doña Blanca at ease and
educated her on self-breast examination and the importance of women's health.
The exam was done. Then the film was showed to the radiologist and followed
up with an ultrasound. Her lump was a cyst, and the appropriate  treatment
was given. This service was never available before, but so much more is
needed. We need foundations that are willing to support women's health
issues, not only in education, but also in actual provision of funds to
provide the service. There are so many services we take for granted that
are not available to the women in Honduras. Other than a Pap smear, there
are no other instruments to diagnose cervical cancer, which is the leading
cause of death of women in the western part of Honduras. If your Pap smear
comes back abnormal, no private or public facility has a Colposcopy unit,
cryo or loop treatments available. This is not a costly program -- a good
used Colposcopy and cryo with the instruments would cost no more than $6,000.
Please consider helping us with the women's education and treatment programs.
Asking Comes with Responsibility 
Our dental program began in 1995, and since then we have visited many communities.
In the last eight months we have visited 39 communities and have given
dental care to 3,150 children. We always attempt to visit the poorest sites
that have no access to dental care. The word is getting out to the communities.
They send their representatives to the CAMO offices in Honduras and ask
us to come to their village. We request that the village pay for the gas
and the lunch for the dentist and the assistants. This program is booked
out 6 months in advance, and the communities are sharing the responsibility
for their children. This is vital step in the right direction. Teaching
communities to be responsible for their own will never occur if everything
is given to them. The community has to learn responsibility and be given
viable ways to demonstrate that they are willing to be a part of the solution.
It is interesting to note that when we offered the program without criteria
that gave them responsibility for the visit, the schools were not ready.
No one would help with the cost, and to him or her the services had no
personal value. Today we receive their requests and provide them with the
responsibilities of the community, and without fail the community has been
responsible and they're there to help us provide care to their youngsters.
The dental program has seen a change in attitude. Before, it was common
to have a toothache and the parents and children would say, " Pull my tooth
-- it hurts," but nine years later parents and their children are asking,
"Can you save my tooth?" This is called long, torturous development. It
is the difference between teams coming in one week a year and pulling teeth
or a permanent presence. Our programs work every day of the week in those
poor areas, educating the community and its children to be responsible
not only for themselves, but for others as well.
Surprise Acquaintance The staff of CAMO Honduras visits poor communities with medical services and school supplies. Often the older women of the village help us. They will sit and talk with the staff as the children are seen for dental problems and screenings for ear problems. During one of these visits Doña Maria Cruz was helping our staff and  visiting
at the same time. She shared with us her life and the fact that she loved
sewing, but at times she could not find in her small village the supplies
she needed. Carmen, the assistant director, shared this with the office
manager of CAMO USA, Helen Smith.
Carmen had remembered her conversation with Helen concerning sewing and that Helen is always organizing her sewing materials and thinking about different craft ideas. On the next truck, Helen placed a package of various sewing supplies for Doña Maria Cruz. Upon their arrival in Honduras, Carmen tucked them away until the next visit that would take us close to this village. As on every day at CAMO Honduras, the halls were full of people with needs and this day, many months later, was no different. A group of women had arrived at the CAMO offices for ear exams. As they passed in the hallway, Carmen recognized Doña Maria Cruz! With surprise and delight, she asked Doña Maria Cruz to come to her office, where she pulled out the sewing supplies prepared for her by Helen Smith. Doña Maria Cruz was pleased, but sad, and Carmen asked her why. Then she shared that she could not hear or see well anymore and had to give up her sewing. Two hours later, Doña Maria Cruz left CAMO with a hearing aid, eyeglasses and most of all, her ability to keep doing what she loved, to work with a needle and thread Many Hands 
The gastric program has many aspects to it. It is equipment intensive,
requiring trained staff for the research aspect and trained staff to provide
quality services. In 1995, the Secretary of Health of Honduras had only
23 documented cases of stomach cancer. CAMO knew this data to be incorrect
and set out to find the truth. Through the efforts of Dr. Doug Morgan and
a research team, we now know that the incidence of stomach cancer in Honduras
is very high- close to the second in the world! We are looking at the nutritional,
health and genetic factors to identify the cause of this high incidence.
Patients present themselves every day with stomach pain. The fully equipped Endoscopy department by CAMO provides this service with equipment purchased by CAMO with the help of Peter Coyle from the Republic of Ireland, who, through the charitable organization called Voluntary Services Abroad (VSA), helped to purchase a Endoscopy system for the Endoscopy lab. Thank you, Peter and VSA! We look forward to a continued relationship with your group.
Biopsy's are
then acquired and are sent to the lab for a pathology reports. It takes
at least 2 weeks to get the results back due to no pathology lab close
to the western part of Honduras. (This is a big problem for all types of
biopsies, pap smears etc.-the western part of Honduras is in great need
of a pathology lab.) Demographics are obtained, along with blood samples
for genetic studies. The study is registered in Washington DC according
to the standards of genetic research. The studies coming out of this research
have been presented to the International Gastric Cancer Congress, first
in 2001, with annual update on the study.
 Updates:
Community Center/Gym TThe community center and gym will be fully functional by October 30th. We look forward to the presentation of this facility to Dave and Gail Noble, who will be in Honduras for the ceremony. We would like to extend a very special thank you to the Noble Foundation for making this center a reality. The community of Santa Rosa also stepped up to the challenge and was able to match the requested amount. Many, many good people have given this gift to the Western part of this country. Already, it has been money and time well spent. The facility is being used daily by all the schools and churches and for other activities. Even as we work with scaffolding, plastering the walls, the concerts and other sport activities are going on at the same time. It is exciting to see the enthusiasm of the community as they explore all the opportunities that this will provide for them. Daycare Center Receives Boost Thanks to the Jack Deloss Charitable Trust, the daycare center is receiving support for food, vitamins. Also, the kitchen is receiving some vital repairs. Classes are being given day and night in the areas of carpentry and masonry. The students are helping to revive the school structure at the same time. Dan Greaser and Mort Curie are helping to acquire more tools and carpentry equipment to look at giving a micro loan to the student who shows the most responsibility and talent. US Ambassador Larry Palmer of Honduras I had a thoughtful meeting with the ambassador of Honduras Larry Palmer, a fellow former Peace Corps volunteer. It was an honor to meet him; he is what all ambassadors should be like! Also, a thanks to the state department and our leaders for making themselves available to us. In the USA Here at the CAMO office in the USA we are without two of the four staff members. Christine Burkhart, Assistant Director is in Washington DC until the end of August and Helen Smith is on a 6 week medical leave of absence after surgery. We would like to extend our prayers and support during Helen's recovery. She is a vital staff member who keeps everything running smoothly in the USA while Kathy is managing the many programs and projects in Honduras.
|
