Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable. This Kenyan proverb embraces the discovery that the combined strengths of like-hearted people can realize superb results. In this light, those of us passionate about health improvement among the world’s most poor can indeed realize progress, but only as we cooperate together. Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable is the 2014 EMMC (Exploring Medical Missions Conference) theme – an event that challenges us to increase our skills, to forge alliances, and to progress together towards health for all.
Would you like to learn to suture, to deliver babies, to bandage, to use ultrasound? The pre-conference day on May 29 will feature Ultrasound for Low Resource Healthcare Course and Helping Babies Breathe Course. The main conference days, May 30-31, will include hands-on skill stations in suturing, ultrasound, obstetrics, tropical medicine rounds, wound care, crisis response drills, and community health surveying. Also included are sessions on eye diseases, tropical fever, dermatology, traveler safety, physical disabilities, working with an interpreter, and medical missions for non-clinicians.
The conference will feature John and Lori Clements from Angola in southern Africa. John, an ophthalmologist, over the last three years has restored sight for hundreds of blind persons, including Helder, the fun loving 6-year-old boy in this photo born with congenital cataracts. John realizes that collaboration with nationals is vital, so he also trains Angolan physicians in eye surgery skills, including Dr. Sabastiao Mavatiti, pictured above, who is commissioned to serve in the rural provinces and completed 100 cataract surgeries.
Lori Clements, mother of three small boys, lends her creative energies to the Blind Association where food assistance is provided. Lori also recognizes that Angolans themselves have much to offer, so she teams up with church leaders to teach Braille, to train the blind in a trade, and to open a store to sell the crafts and hence generate income for those who are disabled.
Sticks in a bundle are indeed unbreakable. So expand your skills, forge alliances, and progress in cooperation with the thirty global health organizations that will be on hand at the 2014 EMMC. Like the Clements, you may discover how strong is your own contribution when united with a quality team.