If working during your vacation is your idea of a great holiday, then look no further. The non-profit, Hawaii-based group Aloha Medical Mission (AMM) has just the travel package for you.
Volunteers on Guinsaugon, Philippines mission in March 2006.
AMM conducts half a dozen overseas missions a year to help poor peole in underdeveloped countries around the world, but its volunteers use their own vacation time and money to pay their way.
Butch Dela Cruz (in yellow) on Philippines mission.
“It might sound unappealing, but really, it’s an experience that you would not have as a regular tourist,” says AMM executive director Butch Dela Cruz, who went on a recent mission to the Philippines. “You really learn new perspectives and insight into the local culture as well as yourself. It's an inspiring experience and you'll take home wonderful memories.”
St.Bernard, Philippines clinic. March 2006.
Minor surgery at St.Bernard, Philippines clinic. March 2006.
The volunteers pay on average $1,500 per 10 day mission, which includes air, room, ground travel, and food. You don’t have to have medical training to volunteer. Dela Cruz explains, “Laypeople can definitely help. For instance, professional chaplain Alex Vergara was very helpful during our 2006 trip to Guinsaugon in the Philippines. He played three roles: because this was a disaster site where people were hurt or killed, he tended the spiritually wounded. He is an amateur photographer so he was our official trip documentarian. And if he had spare time after that, he worked in the clinic to register new patients’ paperwork.”
Guinsaugon, Philippines. This was a village of 900 people until February 2006 landslide.
Micronesia mission
AMM recently forged ties with a new area, Micronesia. Right now, a new clinic is being built, thanks to a first of its kind partnership between the famed voyaging canoe Hokule’a and AMM. Their goal is to improve healthcare in Micronesia. Hokule’a’s owner, The Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS), and AMM teamed up for what both groups call a prescedent-setting venture.
AMM volunteers in Chuuk. Photo courtesy Michelle Marineau.
Dr. Vernon Ansdell, one of three team leaders on AMM’s mission, says, “I think it’s really exciting. It’s the first time we’ve done it. Being part of PVS is a real privilege. It’s a great opportunity for us to have a real long-term beneficial effect in Micronesia.”
Aerial of Chuuk. Courtesy Michelle Marineau.
PVS president Nainoa Thompson adds, "We wanted to tie the concept of the well-being of the islands together culturally, environmentally, and physically. This was a perfect fit for our mission."
The voyaging canoes Hokule’a and Alingano Maisu left Hawai’i on January 23 for the islands of Kosrae, Pohnpei, Chuuk, Pulap, and Satawal, where the Alingano Maisu was gifted to PVS teacher/master navigator Mau Piailug in honor of his 30 years of sharing his traditional knowledge that empowered a revival of Hawaiian and Polynesian canoe building, navigation, and voyaging. From there, the canoes continued on to Woleai, Ulithi, Yap and Palau.
From Palau, the Alingano Maisu went back to Yap, its permanent home. Hokule’a set early April as the target date to sail solo to Okinawa, followed by seven other stops in Japan to honor the cultural and historical ties between Japan and Hawai’i and the historic journey of King David Kalakaua to Yokohama in 1881, which led to the start of Japanese immigration to Hawai’i.
AMM was only involved in the Micronesia segment of this journey. Four teams, each with half a dozen volunteer doctors, nurses, and laypeople, flew to Ponhpei, Chuuk (also known as Truk), and Yap (which received two AMM groups) starting in late February. Each team stayed about a week; in all, AMM’s visit lasted just over a month. The schedule of the medical teams was planned so each of AMM’s missions coincided with the arrival of the canoes to each island.
Dr. Ansdell says the teams are excited about the partnership, which is the brainchild of AMM founder Dr. Ramon Sy and Thompson. “For a long time, our members have wanted to go to that part of the Pacific, because it’s nearby and there’s a lot of links between Hawai’i and that area, but there was never a good opportunity until now. Plus, it’s preferable to be invited to a community, as we were with PVS,” says Dr. Sy.
Thompson expands, “Tying in the Aloha Medical Mission doctors was a natural extension of our goal for the area. We hope our canoes play a role in restoring the well being of the island culture and health, both of which have suffered since the introduction of Western culture. The original plan was to have the AMM doctors sail on the canoe with us, but for logistical purposes, it ended up being easier for them to meet us at each island. Our crew (of roughly 80 people) worked at the clinic during our layovers.”
The trip presented some unexpectedly large challenges for AMM. Dr. Ansdell reflects on the multiple delays of the canoes’ trip. “It’s fairly ambitious to think you can (fly teams into) in several areas and get the time right because, obviously, the canoes’ progress is governed by the weather. They were several weeks late in leaving, so we had to scramble and adjust our schedule, which made it difficult for the volunteers to switch at the last minute. Quite a few had to drop out.” He calls this a learning experience which AMM will be better prepared for next time.
Health Problems in Micronesia
AMM volunteer physicians treated about 1,500 patients in the clinics. Numerous studies indicate modernization is the root of many health problems for the 100,000 residents of the Federated States of Micronesia. According to nopukob.com, “Diet, of course, is the major cause. With the heavy imports of American and Japanese junk foods - especially American junk foods - the daily diet has suffered. Traditionally, the islanders ate fish, taro and breadfruit and drank water or coconut water. Now they eat canned corned beef, canned luncheon meats, soft drinks, candy, etc.”
Dr. Vernon Ansdell examines patient in Chuuk. Courtesy Michelle Marineau.
The website says this has created an "emerging epidemic" of diabetes, hypertension and other conditions associated with obesity. It also lists a startling upswing in non-communicable diseases (cancer, alcoholism, mental illness) as well as a lingering problem with infectious diseases (leprosy, elephantitis, TB, and other exotic diseases.)
Dr. Ansdell explains, “The (healthcare) funding isn’t there, hygiene and sanitation are poor, the standard of health is poor, there’s poor nutrition. Now they’ve lost a lot of their cultural background and are adopting Western diets, so they get the worst of both worlds. That’s where the team of PVS is trying to get people to recognize their culture again.”
Urologist Dr. Antonio Tan, AMM's president, was on the Pohnpei mission. "This is a new venture, and it's exciting because we connected with Micronesia as a whole. The area has a lack of health providers and health services. For instance, the hospital there received a resectoscope machine – which opens a blocked urethra- but didn't know how to use it. I was able to help train the staff on how to use this valuable piece of equipment."
That’s also where AMM hopes to have an impact. In the short term, it shipped half a dozen boxes of medical supplies and about $6,000 worth of drugs, like antibiotics, painkillers, and even simple vitamins, to hand out free to villagers. It also responded to a request from Micronesian physicians and nurses to provide recent medical textbooks.
“We got hundreds of books for the doctors and nurses because they don’t have anything. They have limited amounts of materials, like one textbook they share with others, and it may be out of date. The timing is good. Most of the information doctors in Hawaii access is online so people here are looking to get rid of their books anyway,” says Dr. Ansdell.
In the long term, AMM has established a relationship with a medical clinic. “One of the big drawbacks on the medical side is you go in, you do some clinics, and you leave, and that’s the end. Typically you don’t have a lot of long lasting benefits. So that’s why we want to do things like education and training,” projects Dr. Ansdell. “It wouldn’t be an Aloha Medical Mission clinic in title; it would be more like having someone to go out a couple times a year to run clinics and do training. If we find good volunteers there we might even pay to bring them back here to train.”
“Additionally,” inserts Dr. Sy, “a lot of the patients we see at our free Interim Health Clinic in Kalihi-Palama are from Micronesia, so it brings this mission back full circle.”
En route to outlying islands in Chuuk. Courtesy Michelle Marineau.
Dr. Lisa Grininger, one of the three team leaders, enthuses, "We were in contact with the local physicians and worked closely with them with the goal of establishing an ongoing relationship and collaboration between our island homes. We held clinics, consulted with patients, performed surgery, donated medications and supplies, provided medical education where appropriate, and learned about the health needs and issues in these islands and where we can continue to provide assistance in the future."
Groundbreaking Discoveries Possible
On the remote island of Satuwan in Chuuk, an ugly disease has been spreading over the last two decades among the villagers. It’s an undiagnosed skin affliction which more than 100 people have – and it’s migrated to about 10 more people on the neighboring atoll of Lekinioch. There is no scientific name, but the locals have nicknamed it “Spam disease” because it takes on the mottled appearance of the popular luncheon meat.
Dr. William Bloedon examines patient in Chuuk. Courtesy Michelle Marineau.
Dr. Ansdell explains, “There’s quite a stigma attached to it. They’ve never been able to find a cure. It seems to occur mainly on the limbs and when people are doing agricultural work. It comes on after a cut or abrasion. We’re going to try to figure out the cause of that. If we do that, it’ll be very exciting.”
He is well qualified for such a task, as a boarded specialist in tropical medicine. “While the condition is not life threatening, we believe it's a Mycobacterial marinum infection. It comes from the same family as tuberculosis and leprosy. We saw six patients with the disease and left them treatment. Now the question is why is this so prevalent in Chuuk?"
Their time, their dime
This trip, like all the other overseas missions, was a labor of love for the AMM volunteers. Dela Cruz clarifies, “All the money we spend on supplies and equipment for overseas missions is money we’ve raised through fundraisers and grants. The volunteers who fly overseas spend their own money and their own vacation time to help.”
AMM volunteers on Hokulea Mission to Yap. Courtesy Butch Dela Cruz.
Dr. Ansdell appreciates the help Continental Airlines provided as an AMM trip sponsor, but estimates each volunteer still paid two thousand dollars out of pocket to finance their passage on this trip.
St.Bernard, Philippines, March 2006.
So why do it? “The healthcare problems are so severe in the places we visit; I feel I can make the biggest difference when I do missions like these. It is, after all, a global community, and I’m certain the work we do in another country will come back to us in some way. Put more simply, it just feels good to help.”
Aloha Medical Mission is a Honolulu-based, secular, nonprofit, volunteer organization that provides free health care to underserved people overseas and in Hawaii. http://www.alohamedicalmission.org/
For details on the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s sail to Micronesia and Japan, go to http://pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu/2007voyage/2007sailplan.html.
CELEBRITY SUITCASE: What can’t they travel without?
Wayne Brady and my wife
Entertainer Wayne Brady
Wayne Brady travels with two photos of tigers, given to him by his young daughter. “She told me, ‘Daddy, those are you and me!’” He keeps it in his suitcase. He also takes a Sony PS2 with him to fend off boredom on the plane.
FUN FINDS
Patagonia Lightweight Travel Tote in Starfruit, zipped up
Patagonia Lightweight Travel Tote in Stainless, converted to tote
Patagonia Lightweight Travel Tote in Stainless, half converted to backpack
I like the versatility and feather lightness of this tote. Patagonia describes it as “a versatile piece in a strong, extremely lightweight 30-denier triple-ripstop silicon nylon. Use it as a carry-on or farmer's market bag, this tote has a reinforced bottom with a DWR (durable water repellent) finish, is ultra light and doubles as a backpack with breathable Free Flow shoulder straps and a zippered closure with adjustable drawstring. Mesh side pockets hold water bottles. With an inside security pocket.” Or toss it into your suitcase and use it if you buy too much on a trip! $70, Patagonia Haleiwa (808) 637-1245
