Photos

Hi all,

I realized last weekend that the news article (which has apparently had quite a readership!   It's fun to have my patients come in and tell me that they saw the article, for example), which came out on Friday after Thanksgiving, was published 5 years to the day from when Jen and I sent off an email to Vanessa at Angel Missions Haiti saying that we would host Anderson for heart surgery.

We had no idea what that 'simple' decision would mean for our family, for our church, for my work, for the joyful introductions of so many people to Pestel, and the good work that would be furthered on behalf of Pestel.

I received a couple of photos from the September trip with Vitamin Angels.  Thought I'd pass them along to you.  

Ben

--

http://thrivingvillages.blogspot.com/

www.thrivingvillages.org

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hi all,

This article was featured on the front page of The Patriot News

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/11/hershey_doctor_helps_improve_h.html#postComment

It is nicely written and came out on Friday.  My wife went out and bought 10 copies    :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Ben

--

http://thrivingvillages.blogspot.com/

www.thrivingvillages.org

Bonus email

Hi All,

I was just sent these photos from Water Missions International.  They show a bit of the very real challenge WMI faced in getting out to Pestel to install the water unit on the island (village of Boucan Philippe).  The technicians were halted by very bad rains (you'll see!).  Then they had to transport the items by boat out onto the island, and in order to do it they had to construct a special 'box' to hold some of the containers upright.  Then, from the big boat to a smaller boat....then hand-carry the items out to the housing unit....

https://picasaweb.google.com/112297978976866356808/BoucanPhilippe?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMCa663IwNLxTA&feat=directlink#

  Thanks to Water Missions International for the fantastic work and the amazing water purification unit!!  And to Variety International for providing the funding to be able to undertake this important project for the people of Boucan Philippe!!

You can learn more about Water Missions International at

http://www.watermissions.org/

And Variety International at

http://www.varietychildrenscharity.org/

Ben

--

http://thrivingvillages.blogspot.com/

www.thrivingvillages.org

A few Haiti updates

Hi all,

Thanks to all who have volunteered to help with the data entry!  We still have a bunch more, so if you're interested please let me know.

I'm attaching a couple of photos that were sent by Sister Fidelis.  This is her guest house which is well underway.  They are hoping to finish sometime in the late winter or early spring at this point.  It will be a two story building on her property up in the mountain village of Ferye.  This is really exciting!!! One of the photos shows the view from the guest house veranda.  Very pretty spot.

Also, Sister Fidelis and her community in Pestel recently celebrated 10 years of her commitment to and life in Haiti!!!   Congratulations Sister Fidelis!   We all rejoice with you and we would not even know about Pestel, Haiti if it were not for your persistent concern and care for Nelson, the boy who received a heart valve replacement.  

We simply do not know how God might wish to use even our smallest faithful responses.  

Yesterday I met with my Chair to explore with him something I'd like to do:   I want to recruit some of our family medicine faculty to work with an organization, Heart to Heart International, in Haiti.   It's a fantastic, well-organized group that provides ongoing care in Leogane, Haiti....the city at the epicenter of the earthquake.  I met with them in September and was very impressed.  The purpose of recruiting them to Haiti is many-fold, including care for the underserved, increase interest among faculty in helping Haitians, and....in preparation in order to bring the Global Health Scholars Program to Haiti.   I would like to do this in 2012, if possible.  The scholars (about 3-4) would likely spend 2 weeks with faculty in Leogane in the clinical setting, organized by Heart to Heart International.  Then they would spend another 10 days or so with me in Pestel in the community health setting.  In that way they would get a really robust experience, while contributing over time to the people of Pestel.

My Chair enthusiastically supports the idea.  He definitely thinks it's a good idea.  It's one thing to get the green light...but it's quite another to get enthusiastic support with the green light.

:)

Ben

--

http://thrivingvillages.blogspot.com/

www.thrivingvillages.org

It's that time again...

It seems like we just finished data entry.   :)

If you're willing to do some data entry please email me.   There is good news and not-so-good news.

The not-so-good news is that there are lots of records.

The GOOD NEWS!!  is that we only have to enter about 10 items per record!! 

{how's that for a spin!}

So it will go fast if there are many hands.  This is NOT like the household survey which took a long time per form.  This will be a faster process.

I'm attaching the template (excel spreadsheet) if you want to see how it is set up.    You would

1.  Save the spreadsheet with your name in the title ("Save as...")

2.  Enter your initials where it says to

3.  Start entering the information horizontally (in rows).   Most of the cells are drop-down boxes.   If the worker left the answer blank, just leave the cell blank.  Select the answer that is closest to the answer the worker put down.  

4.  For the height/weight cells:  just enter the number  (11.2) but don't enter "cm" or "kg" etc.  

This data is important because it is the follow-up data on height, weight, and anemia  to be able to compare with 2010's information.   We want to see if the Vitamin A and Albendazole campaigns made any difference in malnutrition & anemia.

What do you think?  Easy right?!?   Would you be willing to help?   I'm hoping to have this all entered before Thanksgiving.  

Thanks!!

Ben

--

http://thrivingvillages.blogspot.com/

www.thrivingvillages.org

And again

This is a VERY popular medical student website.   Nice to see the reprint.  And this will be a much bigger readership:

http://studentdoctor.net/

Ben

--

Thriving Villages website

www.thrivingvillages.org

Thriving Villages blog
http://thrivingvillages.blogspot.com/

Article

FYI...an article by yours truly.

http://coastalresearch.org/2011/09/on-presence-and-courage-penn-statehershey-mc-family-doc-volunteers-in-haiti/

Ben

--

Thriving Villages website

www.thrivingvillages.org

Thriving Villages blog
http://thrivingvillages.blogspot.com/