Medical Missions, Missionaries & Victims

By: Joe Mauricio

 

“In this mission, we shall be dealing with Flesh and Bones and Sinews, and there are going to be times when it’s going to be terribly cold-blooded. But never forget, it’s alive,” (Anonymous)

It’s about the season to get ready for another year of medical mission to the Philippines. Numerous physicians and other medical professionals are encouraged by the volume of interest. These professionals are willing to volunteer their time and money to provide needed medical services to the regions of the Philippines that don’t have it as already experienced, these are numerous physicians and other medical specialists who are in the health care industry who truly care for others.

In case of emergency these medical professionals are willing to make sacrifices, assessing damage, delivering critically needed medicines and supplies and mobilizing to provide emergercy care to survivors of calamities and poverty.

The Philippines is made of several islands. Heavy rains, floods or even landslides from monsoons will make recovery even more difficult in delivering much needed medical supplies. Also needed are engineers along with the medical group to revitalize health service delivery, improve damaged water, sanitation, hygiene condition, mental health and psychological support, especially rebuilding food security for the locals.

As rainy season progresses, the medical missionaries need to intervene to avoid the spread of communicable diseases, especially as rains take their tolls on people staying in damaged shelters or outdoors, not counting households with older, vulnerable persons.

Health services in the Philippines are poor by international standards, with many Pinoys unable to access or pay for them. I don’t know what percentage of Philippines’ gross domestic product is spent on public health.

Ordinary Filipino have long come second to Philippines’ self-serving leaders, and the country has been left behind by the country’s political instability, Philippines is still reeling from a brutal NPA rebellion and Muslim fighting for selfgovernance in the South.

Rural life is very, very hard. If someone is sick, it will take several hours to get to town for medical treatment. Most villagers don’t go to town’s hospital because of distance and many people die because of this reason. Villages are rudimentary rural living. They eat everything they grow and they don’t bring anything in from the outside world. They basically live in the dust of summer and mud during rainy season, Very hard lifestyle.

Anybody in the health profession is driven by a need to help those who really need it, and these people need the most help, the most education, and the most assistance in getting towards a better life. We are not trying to change their lives completely, we’re trying to help them create a better life for themselves.

The government of the Philippines needs to do more than attracting medical missionaries from abroad. They need to build the basic infrastructure of good medicine. The medical missionaries are mostly retirement age, and soon it will be physically impossible for the Good Samaritans to perform the medical tasks that they have been sharing with the local population. The government should shoulder the burden, especially in the long maintenance treatment after the medical missionaries left for home.

Countless other agencies are also organizing relief efforts to give aid and supplies, but what makes Chicago medical missionaries unique is that they personally provide much needed care and support.

Aside from the medical part of the mission, they are distributing relief goods, such as food, clothing, and supplies to help uplift the spirits of the underserved Filipinos.

Remember, after each mission, recovery and the rebuilding, the victims’ lives will continue, and it will take years before they get back to normalcy.