GRID and NEA News

With Canadian Thanksgiving fast approaching, I find myself observing our Ghana Health Team through the lens of gratitude this week. With 40 days until departure, my heart is full of thanksgiving for so many who make this life-saving work possible.

I give thanks for NEA— our Ghanaian partners who are running a development program that continues to gain international attention for its holistic, community-based, integrated programming that is making a big dent in poverty alleviation. They are bringing life to thousands of northern Ghanaians every day. How grateful we are to be part of this.

I give thanks for the Ghanaian health care professionals— our dear colleagues who do their best to care for their people under exceptional circumstances and limited resources.  They inspire us to be better at what we do at home. Their lives cause us to respond in bigger ways to transfer knowledge, skills and resources until such a time as they can stand on their own.

I give thanks for our team leaders. A mission of this magnitude requires an incredible amount of leadership. How thankful I am for our large leadership team — over 20 in number — who volunteer their minds, hearts and hands to ensure we serve with excellence. They are some of the busiest people I know, yet they give and give and give some more to the people of Ghana.

I give thanks for our past and present team members. They are the heart and soul of this work. They give so much to prepare for our mission and then execute our mission with compassion, resilience and professionalism.  We are a growing family and community of people who refuse to ignore what is happening in the developing world and are committed to being part of the solution.

I give thanks for our volunteers and donors. We have raised 90% of our budget due to the hundreds of individuals who contribute their time, resources, finances and ideas. The small kindnesses extended to us by so many elevate our work to a unique level.

I give thanks for our families. They sacrifice a lot for us to serve in Ghana. They worry about us. They give so much for people they will probably never meet. None of us could do what we do without their support.

I give thanks to God. Thanksgiving originated as a public celebration acknowledging divine favours. Our mission has seen divine favours over and over in countless ways.  I am thankful that God cares for the poor by empowering and assisting ordinary people like us to make an extraordinary difference in this world.

So as I eat my turkey and hug my family this weekend, my heart is bursting with the giving of thanks for all of these things and so much more.

I’ve noticed an interesting pattern in my global health work. Anytime I seem to get proud or content with the accomplishments of our Ghana Health Team, I receive a stark reminder that humbles me and reminds me that there is much more work to be done. It happened again this week.

A health care colleague in Ghana sent me an urgent message and photo regarding a critically ill young patient. We discussed the medical details of the care needed and I signed off saying “my heart breaks to see the picture of this child.”

She responded, “Don’t let your heart brake Doctor, I will support her for sure.”

I am certain these moments are God’s way of preventing me, a privileged health care provider in the developed world, from getting complacent with my efforts. In fact, looking back, these devastating reminders always become a catalyst for something within me. For change. For perspective. For stepping outside my comfort zone. For not allowing my heart to “brake” but rather to accelerate towards helping to create a more preferable future for my global neighbours.

Our next mission departs in less than 100 days. Sixty-eight of the busiest people I know are preparing for an intense time of service. Hundreds of NEA staff and volunteers are busy preparing for and anticipating our arrival. I challenge myself and my colleagues and our supporters to ensure that our foot is not on the brake in any way. Rather, may our hearts and minds and efforts be firmly on the accelerator as we drive on towards our objectives of exposing ourselves to the needs of the majority (developing) world, visiting the sick, training health professionals and helping NEA reach their goal of sustainable health care for all.

“Brake” was definitely not a typo — it was a well-timed reminder.

Pedal to the metal,

Jennifer

Pictured here are 11 of our wonderful Ghanaian health care colleagues who Dr. Jensen and I had the privilege of training to be trainers in neonatal resuscitation. Through their efforts and the efforts of their trainees in 156 communities and 45 facilities, 1037 (97%) of non-breathing babies have been successfully resuscitated since this picture was taken. We are so proud of the support they provide to children every day in Northern Ghana!

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Together, we have done it. Today we completed our final day of providing health services to the Carpenter area. It was wonderful for all 61 of us and all our Ghanaian volunteers to be together on the compound for two days. With no need to travel, our clinics ran an extra 2-3 hours, allowing us to serve the massive crowds. Patience, our chef extraordinaire, ensured the 30-cup coffee perk was brewing all day long to keep us going! Having washrooms and running water was a luxury!

Together, we have extended compassion to Northern Ghana. When we met a young 5 year-old boy with a congenitally small stump for a left leg in our clinic four days ago we felt helpless. Our team had compassion for him and we discussed what could be done to improve his quality of life. A referral was made using our team funds to a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon 10 hours away in Accra where we hoped and prayed a prosthetic limb might be available. We were doubtful. Yesterday, our little lame friend ran into the clinic to greet us with a new prosthesis. This boy, who had never walked on two legs was now running and running and running all over our clinic. He was free.

Yesterday, a young teenager with a very serious complication from a surgery that had gone wrong in Ghana arrived. She was being ostracized from her community. Unfortunately, there was not much we could do to help her. A while later I saw her walking with Ernestina our Ghanaian medical assistant who has been by our team’s side since 2007. Ernestina had taken the child to her own room, cleaned her up, removed her rags and gave her one of her very own dresses to wear. That child was so proud to be wearing a beautiful dress and, for that moment, her suffering was forgotten. Dr. Elizabeth took up a collection from our team so that Ernestina could purchase a new dress.

Together, we have extended care to Northern Ghana. We had the privilege of being joined all week by Moses, a fourth year medical student from Ghana. Today we snuck away from our consulting table and I walked him through our entire clinic and witnessed, through Moses’ eyes, the excellence with which every team member was caring for every patient side by side with their Ghanaian translator. We moved through nursing triage with Sandra, Val and Leslie; registration with Emily, research station; paediatric weight and temperature station with Dale and Jessica; to our lab with Tracey, Lisa and Joan and Lissa. We then toured the physician consulting areas where our ten doctors were hard at work, and then to the nursing treatment gazebo where IVs were running and emergency care being given by Jennifer, Tonja and Colleen; wounds were being dressed by Kelly and Antje; dehydrated kids were being rehydrated by Claudia and minor surgical procedures were being done by Dr. Martin. We toured our state-of-the-art mobile pharmacy and pharmacy counselling areas with Linda, Sherry, Stacey, Mary, Karen and Nicole. We watched a peripheral iridotomy being done to cure glaucoma by Dr. Martin and Marion and hernia operations on children by Magdi’s 18-member incredible surgical and anaesthesia team. We also stopped by our dental tent where Dr. Kyle (here for his 6th time) was pulling challenging painful teeth while Dr. Francois was doing a filling with Laura (while the patient tried not to laugh at his jokes). Final stop was our eye clinic, where hundreds were being seen by Dr. Larry and Dr. Mai and their team of Laurel, Paul, and Jane in the peanut storage facility (AKA the “nut house”). Crowds were controlled and patients were flowing seamlessly through these stations due to the incredible effort of our logistics and operations team of Kim, Bry, Dave together Abraham, Soale and Charles. As we moved through the clinic I witnessed afresh the professionalism, quality of care and excellence with which each team member played their role. Moses could not believe his eyes.

Together, we have participated in capacity building in Northern Ghana. Transferring skills to our Ghanaian medical, nursing and pharmacy colleagues is always a highlight for us. How rewarding to hear from them how much they have learned during our short time together and how our presence has inspired them and spurred them on. How amazing for us to have Nicole, a pharmacy student from University of Toronto working along side Emmanuel, a pharmacy student from Ghana on this very team. Eric cannot stop talking about all he has learned from our anaesthesia colleagues Dr. Tony and Dr. Perry and Nicola. Moses, the medical student wants me to keep “grilling him” even today whilst we pack.

Together, we are standing in the gap extending compassion, care and capacity-building while we pray, plan and work towards what these patients so desperately need and deserve — a hospital. Our day ended with lots of hugs and high fives and pictures being taken as we celebrated all that we accomplished together. Esther arrived with 35 new outfits she had made for our team that they will wear at tomorrow night’s party under the stars with all of the NEA staff and families.

We will all look upon this 2016 team photo with many fond memories remembering our precious partnership with NEA staff and remembering the individual faces of the thousands of patients that we had the privilege of caring for. Tomorrow is wrap up and packing day with a few surgeries and procedures to go and then we can begin to turn our hearts and minds to our journey home to our loved ones.

The medical team spent the last two days in the village of Asantekwa and faced extreme crowds and extreme heat. There were many moments to remember …

There were heartbreaking moments … Dr. Charlie cared for a teenager in terribly ill health due to chronic osteomyelitis (bone infection) simply due to lack of access to health care at the right time in his young life. Collecting statistics on the number of children each woman has lost continues to be heartbreaking for us all. I’m so thankful for the Leyaata program which is saving a generation of children and a soon-to-be hospital which will put an end to so many needless deaths.

We served hard, caring for many SIPs (seriously ill patients). Our nursing station had ten kids and four adults on IV fluids on Tuesday alone. Right at the end of the clinic a woman, bitten by a viper, arrived by taxi.

Pharmacy was able to wrap up in record time (4:01 pm to be exact) and we finished the day by receiving our third ram and many yams. The chief made a special point of saying how much they appreciated the gentle hands with which we cared for their people. It was great feedback, as our goal is always to give each patient our attention, love and compassion despite the crowds, noise and distractions.

There were some fun and lighthearted moments … Dr. John decided to rig up some music during the set-up of our clinic and “You Raise Me Up” played on a wireless speaker while we all sang along. Watching team members find ways of dealing with the extreme heat gave us all a few laughs too. My favourite is watching team members resort to wiping their faces with Lysol wipes in a desperate attempt to lower their body temperature. They work!

There were hopeful moments … What a privilege to work along side and transfer skills to NEA scholars. Moses is a fourth year medical student sponsored by NEA; Eric is a nurse anaethetist who is being sponsored to do his Masters of Anaesthesia by NEA; and Emmanuel, David and Brenda’s nephew, is studying pharmacy on scholarship from NEA. Abraham, our fearless and kind leader, just completed his Masters of Hospital Administration in England. The future of health care delivery at our NEA hospital is so very bright with these capable young professionals preparing to serve.

Gentle hands were also at work back on the compound in the operating theatres as our surgical team operated from dawn to well after dusk. They too are facing very challenging conditions in which to work but are completing long lists due to the support from wonderful nurses, the anaesthesia team and NEA support staff.

And we must not forget about the gentle hands of Dr. Martin who had a very productive day restoring sight and preventing blindness due to glaucoma. Let the blind see.

Today and tomorrow we have home court advantage as we all remain on the compound together to run the last two clinics for the Carpenter area. St. Augustine said, “Pray as though everything depended on God; work as though everything depended on you.” What a combination! Thanks to friends and family praying for us and sending through comments of encouragement as we make every effort to work hard, finish well, and return home to our loved ones.

Sunday morning we were treated to a scrambled ostrich egg breakfast — only four eggs were required to feed all sixty-one of us.

After breakfast we attended an outdoor church service on the grounds of the compound. The worship band was amazing and the service began with a beautiful time of dancing and singing praises to God for who he is and all he has done. Despite the scorching sun, our team enthusiastically joined dance lines. We thought we did pretty well; that is, until Pastor Charles told us later that we dance out of tune. He said the band made an attempt to change the beat of the drum to help us out but it was to no avail!

My brother-in-law Bryan, who is part of our logistics team, was invited to preach the sermon. He did an amazing job speaking from Mark Ch. 5 while Pastor Ranse translated. Many of the NEA staff told me he touched their hearts and they want to recruit him off the medical team to join the pastoral training team in the future!

Sunday afternoon a local artisan named Peter arrived and a great deal of shopping took place. Peter explained to me that the income he earned from today is the equivalent of at least one year’s income for him and for the other artisans whose crafts he brought. “Now we can feed our families,” he told me with a big hug.

For dinner we were treated to a roast turkey and gravy dinner. We’ve been getting to know the turkeys roaming around the compound this week and didn’t know that two of them would be “taking one for the team.” They were delicious, as was the crème caramel Patience made us for dessert.

Later in the evening we were treated to an incredible presentation by the Leyaata Ane Project staff. Leyaata (which translates “rescue us”) is NEA’s year-round newborn and maternal mortality reduction program that receives funding support from the Government of Canada. Our team was impressed beyond belief with the incredible work that Mumuni, Rachel, Linda, Patrick and Prosper are doing to save the lives of countless women and children through this program that is working in 160 villages. Despite many challenges, the newborn death rates have dropped from 30/1000 to 5/1000 due to this program. We all expressed how proud we are of this team and how we want to do more to support them.

Ernestina, our Ghanaian medical assistant, informed us at dinner that we should expect extremely large crowds over the next two days. She suggested we go to bed early, “buck up,” and apply “more grease to our elbows” in anticipation of two very busy days in the village and on the compound.

We appreciate your prayers over these busy days!