Over the past 10 years, Ve’ahavta volunteers, drawn from a variety of health disciplines, have visited Guyana for two weeks each winter, and with the logistical support of the local Lions Club, have assessed and treated a large number of patients in Bartica, its surrounding river (”riverine”) communities and the interior of Region 7 in Guyana. This has included the direct provision of medical care and the donation of $300,000.00 worth of medical supplies. Volunteer team members cover all of their costs associated with the trip, including flight, food, accommodation and ground travel.
The team, comprised of first-time and returning volunteers, sets up mobile clinics which typically include a triage area, examining rooms, pharmacy, fully functioning laboratory, physiotherapy clinic and family planning/sexual health counseling center. Over a two-week period, the team typically treats between 1,500 and 2,000 patients.
Volunteers stay within communities they are serving and live alongside the Amerindian Aikiwao people that are indigenous to the Upper Mazaruni River Region and the Afro- and Indo-Guyanese population who are residents of Bartica and its surrounding Riverine communities.
In addition to direct health care delivery, the team has undertaken a number of ongoing public health initiatives in collaboration with local health care workers, including:
- Distribution of multivitamins to youth and adults to combat the effects of vitamin A deficiency
- Distribution of mosquito nets to pregnant women and children below the age of 5 to combat malaria
- A yaws treatment program, involving the provision of oral penicillin
- Family planning interventions for local women, men and youth, including distribution of contraceptives, as well as educational literature on prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections
- Distribution of iron sprinkles to combat the effects of anemia in young children
The scientific focus of our mission has been on trying to find inexpensive ways that health care can be delivered such that sustainable systems can be set up which will no longer be dependent on charitable organizations.
As a result of previous mission interventions:
- Acquired childhood blindness or pathological eye symptoms from vitamin A deficiency, a significant problem 10 years ago, is no longer present in the region
- Yaws has been eradicated from the region
- There has been a dramatic reduction in malaria in the communities visited by Ve’ahavta and the Lions Club
- Most residents of Bartica now drink purified or rain water and dysentery has been reduced, though this is not the case in more remote areas
Additionally, Ve’ahavta has directly facilitated the life-saving surgery of four Guyanese children, diagnosed during past medical missions, at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto via the Herbie Fund, a charitable arm of the hospital’s International Patient Program.
Our overall development objective is to increase the Human Development Index (HDI) of clients served by Ve’ahavta and the Lions Club in Guyana. This objective can be achieved in the long-term through the development of a health care model that will increase the capacity of our local partners. Our goal is to continue to harness the local expertise that is available to Ve’ahavta through our volunteers and use this expertise to work with local NGOs and health care providers, and carry out achievable, capacity building initiatives while providing primary and preventative health care in Guyana.
Our development model has proven successful, as our annual two-week medical missions have resulted in long-term impact in terms of overall health and health practices of isolated villagers, knowledge gleaned and applied from research, and improved capacity of local medical services.
Ve’ahavta is the recent proud recipient of a $150,000 grant from the Canadian Auto Workers Social Justice Fund, to be implemented over a three year period. This grant will allow Ve’ahavta to expand the capacity of our mobile clinic, as well as the capacity of local health care providers in Region 7 to provide medical services to their communities, including the establishment of a Maternal/Infant Health program in Region 7.