Hi Dr Edwards,
It is great to hear of your interest in joining one of the 10 or so teams we are hoping to have! The dates are from 15 Feb until 2 March, 2008. Yes, we certainly can use more of your profession and eye care professionals for many open positions on teams! Yes, we can get you and your wife on the same team even though you would be with a med clinic and she would be with an eye team. One location we plan to go to has both teams colocated.
Yes, we can be a little flexible on dates you can participate. Below is an info letter I sent out before. I wrote it a couple years ago but it has a lot of current info about the planned Feb mission. It should answer most of your questions about all the things IHS provides to a team during the mission. Also, I have attached 2 files including the application form fyou asked for. Before you fill it out, contact me so I can help get you to where you want with your spouse.
Our hope is to have 3 or 4 medical clinic teams in LaMosquitia (eastern) Honduras and 2 or 4 in teh central mountains. The combined team is planned of the mountain area. Currently we want to have at least one prescription eye glasses team in the LaMosquitia where Hurricane Felix hit (we would like to have two there) plus one in the central mountain area. So far we have just one eye examiner and many support people signed up for the teams.
Although you are not going to a surgery site, we are hoping for another general surgeon. So far we have one. We also have a couple OR nurses and anesthetists signed up to support such team(s) but we could use more of them, too. IHS also would like to sponsor an eye surgery team. Recently, we had one in LaCeiba and it worked out well in the facilities there. Our dentist situation is getting better. We have 4 of the 7 we need. If you know of any such medical/surgical/dental folks, let them know of our critical need for their skills.
Thanks for your interest in helping and for the financial support. If this doesn not work this time, we do this the last 2 weeks of Feb. each year.
John
320-634-4386
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Info letter about IHS (International Health Services)
- the first part of this letter was originally written several years ago for a radio guy but it is still very applicable and informative, so I still use it to give people an idea of the mission.
Since we finished our most recent medical mission to Honduras the end of February, many amazing events are still fresh in our minds! Paul was our radio net controller and once again he was in the thick of things. We had a medical emergency where several ham radio operators helped to get a severe burn patient out of the remote village of Auka and into a burn center in Tegucigalpa. That was in the middle of seeing the thousands of patients we see on a ‘normal’ basis.
This year Bill and I were providing radio and engineering support for a medical and dental team in the remote village of Uhi. We set up our radio gear for shortwave radio voice communications and for e-mailing back home (yes, e-mail through a radio system!). I also set up a smaller radio system to talk to other nearby IHS village teams and Puerto Lempira. We got up and running just in time for patient referrals and other critical messages.
One of the first mornings a woman showed up in a wheelbarrow because she could not walk on her own. This is not surprising since there are no roads or vehicles in this village (to get here we must travel by boat or use a small plane). We did not have any adaptive devices on hand, so Jim, our doctor, advised her to return the following week. We called in on the radio to see if a walker could be brought by our small airplane. When the woman came back several days later, we had a walker waiting for her. We cleared out the waiting room and waited to witness this great event. Dr. Jim helped her out of the wheelbarrow and tremendous joy spread over her face and all of ours as she began to walk!! It was the greatest feeling in the world knowing that we made a big difference in her life.
Another time, a girl about 9 years old was brought into the clinic with a fever of 104 and was shaking terribly. She had been vomiting, had a poor appetite, and was not drinking anything. We immediately sprung into action, with Dr. Jim making a consult radio call to another IHS team doctor in another village. Dr. Jim determined she had malaria. Malaria is not very common here but it does happen on rare occasions. Jack, our pharmacist, gave the young girl a combination of chloroquine and primidone for the malaria. She was given liquid Tylenol and placed in a back room with cool wet towels to reduce her fever. Dr. Jim also started an IV to keep the girl well hydrated. In a few hours she was improving. The next day we made a house call to the hut she lived in and she was amazingly better. Her fever had gone down, she was drinking water, and even eating a little. It is a good thing we can take chloroquine as a preventative.
About the same time we saw the girl, we also had a middle-aged woman come to the clinic with a deep cut on her forehead. She said it was from a large stick but it looked more like a machete cut to us. Dr. Jim did a great job of cleaning the wound and stitching her up but the lady must have been tough as nails. She hardly flinched through the entire procedure.
Manuel was our team dentist. He is from LaCeiba, Honduras and has come with our Uhi team for 3 years now, due to our shortage of U.S. dentists signing up. He did great, pulling many teeth during our 10 days of work in the village. That is about all he had time to do since there is no dental care available in the village. The one village nurse (who is the entire medical care for the village) has her hands full delivering babies and all the other medical care needed. I also ended up being Manuel’s dental assistant when a squirming kid needed to be held still plus I helped to sterilize his equipment. The kids had no idea what was happening when Manuel came with the lidocaine needle. Occasionally, some teams may do fillings when time permits. This year we even had a dentist who made dentures on the Yocon team.
We also had a young lady show up with her baby that was about a month old. The baby was not feeding properly, causing malnourishment and was in very grave condition. Bill immediately got on the radio and again talked to Jaime, our radio operator in Puerto Lempira, to send the small airplane to get our patient. Within a couple hours we had the mother and the struggling baby flown to the hospital where she now has a chance at life. A special thanks goes to Ruth our translator who is also a nurse and helped a lot to get the baby on to the plane. She also did a ton of good work to talk with the locals plus she helped a lot with other babies and children. Thanks Ruth !
By the end of the mission, we had flown about 10 referral surgery patients from Uhi to Puerto Lempira to see Dr. Tim, our surgeon with the IHS surgical team there. Other IHS village teams did the same. It is a good thing we have a small plane available to do this and radios to make it happen. Dr.Tim performed many surgeries while he was there and no doubt saved lives. That makes our medical care in that part of Honduras able to handle most anything that we see from simple cuts to important surgical care.
Near the end of the mission we had a radio call asking if we had any spare reading glasses. We did, so the small plane came in, got them, and took them to another village where IHS had an Eye Glasses team. They saw many hundreds of eye patients and distributed many prescription and reading glasses. It turns out no one had ever been in that location before to give out glasses so they gave out several hundred pairs of glasses. We can also thank the Lions clubs that collect the glasses for us!
…..I could go on and on with stories of our daily work but I must also tell you about International Health Services, the great organization that makes all this possible…..
Are you interested in volunteer medical work or translating for a team going to Honduras? Are you looking for a worthy place to give support or to donate medical or radio gear? If you are considering any of these, you certainly have come to the right place. Joining our next mission next February is easier than you think. We are always in dire need for translators, dentists, doctors, nurses, anesthetists, eye specialists, and pharmacists… anyone with medical skills. We also need radio folks plus engineers and helpers. Please consider this.
Obviously, this is an important decision for anyone who is considering going and I want to give you as much info as needed so you can make an informed decision. I have one warning, for most who go it is something you get hooked on. Of those who sign up each year, over half are repeat team members. Some will bring along friends, spouse, and mature sons and daughters. I have gone to Honduras a dozen times and another trip is planned. In the past I have taken my wife, my brother, two of my nieces, a teen-age Spanish student, and friends. IHS has been doing this for about 25 years so we are very organized and have many trusted friends in Honduras to help us. That helps so there are not a lot of unpleasant surprises along the way (relatively speaking). Since Honduras is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, it is very stable and safe, even when we get out into the local villages.
What we do... about 100 volunteers will go to Honduras the last two weeks of February. We usually have 2 surgery teams and about 6 or 7 medical/dental clinics. In addition, we usually send 1 or 2 eyeglasses clinics. We would have more teams if enough people signed up. The village clinic teams typically have one or two doctors, one or two nurses, a pharmacist, a dentist, sometimes a dental assistant, a ham radio operator, an engineer, 1 or 2 translators, and 2 or 3 general helpers. Depending on the qualifications of those who apply, sometimes a person may do two positions. I am a ham radio operator but I usually do the engineer job and some general helper tasks as well. The engineer work is just a basic task of keeping the small generator going and other basic handy-man tasks. In that capacity I have repaired many things including door handles, installed shower curtains, put up a clothes lines, repaired LP cooksets, and other basic fix-it tasks besides keeping my own
gear in good repair. For the general helpers and others there is a LOT of miscellaneous work to do to assist the doctors, dentists, and pharmacists to keep them going in a busy day. So, if you have someone who wants to go with you (spouse/friend) they can usually fit on to the same team as you. Once we get to a village, we all tend to share the work so we all get a hand in doing many different things. Each village is different but generally we will have a medical clinic open for about 10 full days plus at most sites we will also have a dental clinic. Most years we will also have two surgery sites. At those locations we will have one or two surgeons, two O.R. nurses, an anesthetist, a radio person, one or two general helpers and in some locations, an engineer. For radio operators plus the doctors, nurses, and other medical folks, we do need to have copies of licenses in advance to give to officials in Honduras to get everyone certified for operations there.
Normally, copies get sent in with applications and when the October logistics team travels to LaCeiba, Honduras, all the papers are filed. That is good, all we do is turn in the paperwork and the rest is taken care of.
Where do we go... we have a variety of locations. We have a couple medical/dental clinic teams that go to the mountain areas of central Honduras. There, it is semi-modern (relatively speaking) usually with local electricity available some of the day. Other clinic teams are in small remote villages in the eastern ‘LaMosquitia’ region where there are very few roads and no phones or local electricity. In these places we bring our own generator and a radio for communications. We do use a few trucks and buses but our transportation is mostly by large and small airplanes. The Wings of Hope and other organizations donate the use of their small planes during the days of our mission. Because of this, we can bring all the supplies we need such as our food, gear, personal items, and medical supplies. We have been doing this for 25 years so we have a good idea what we need. We send out a detailed Orientation information to give you a lot of detailed info including what IHS
provides each team.
Radio operations… while each of us are with our team in a village we mostly use basic HF voice operations on 40 meters to contact our local net three times a day. We will also have e-mail capability in most of the villages through our radio. We will use the e-mail for IHS work and for personal e-mails back home to family and friends. IHS has a 2 Icom IC-706 transceivers plus all the needed antennas, power supplies, and miscellaneous gear. Since about 8 or 9 sites require a radio, most operators choose to bring their own HF transceiver along. We try to keep the amount of gear that has to be brought with us from the U.S. to a minimum but still enough to handle all our needs. Each team will get a Comm box issued to them that has all the basic radio gear needed for HF voice ops except the transceiver. We also provide generators to team sites that will need them. Each team will also get an Engineering box which is stocked with many common hand tools plus commonly
needed supplies of nails, wire, rope, extension cords, water purifier kit, and the like.
A typical day has the radio voice net operate once in the morning, once at noon and once around 5:00 p.m. to pass along general info on how the team is doing and to receive news and information from our net control. Our village teams also use the radio to call for the small plane when we get a very serious patient that needs to get to our surgery site. In between those three net times, radio operators will help out others in doing whatever needs to be done. Since we talk on the radio just to other IHS teams, knowing Spanish is not necessary for the radio part of the work. If you do know some Spanish, that is nice for doing some of the other helper work. This past year we had many teams with two radio operators. One ‘officially’ was designated as the radio operator and the other was assigned as the team engineer who basically does a lot of handy man work.
In some ways the radio work has similarities to ‘Field Day’ and from this perspective we will put a less experienced person on a team with someone with a lot of HF voice expertise (when we have more radio people apply then the number of teams that need them). The past few years nearly all the teams also brought some Pactor gear and they were able to send and receive e-mail messages for all their team members. That helped us stay in touch with families back home. It even helped when there was a medical emergency back in the U.S. Our net control in LaCeiba has daily radio and telephone contact with the U.S. but for team members in a village, getting and sending e-mails a few times sure is nice when you are away from home. We have a lot of interest in ham folks signing up to go but we do try to get at least one ham with Pactor e-mail/messaging capability on each team and they usually get assigned the team radio operator position.
Giving support... this can be done easily and fills a vital need of support for our mission. Many folks realize the true value of the work we do. Unfortunately, some can not actually go, so they help out those that can in several ways. Whether it is financial support or vitally needed donated equipment, you can contact us at the addresses at the bottom of this letter. I also have an official address for you to send financial support to. All appropriate medical and radio gear can be sent to IHS but call or write me first to see where is best. For radio gear, we are mostly in need of laptops, portable HF transceivers, and pactor controllers (SCS pactor III preferred) and we sure can use a lot of other support items as well. Since we are a bonafied charitable organization, all donations are tax deductible and donators will get a nice thank you letter with the official tax deduction information. More importantly, you will be helping your fellow medical and radio folks to
give quality medical and dental care to people who desperately need it and appreciate it. Just check out their smiling faces on the web site or CD mentioned below.
Costs... the project fee is about $500. This is actually a bargain since this is less than half of the total average cost to send someone. With that fee, and many large and small donations from organizations and friends, we are able to take care of nearly all of your basic needs for the entire two weeks you are on the mission. It also helps us to buy needed medical and pharmacy supplies. It is only logical to bring the necessary medications to treat what the doctors find with the patients they see. On the average, each of the clinic teams will receive over $4500 in medical supplies. From your project fee, you receive a lot. From the time you arrive in LaCeiba, all food, transportation, and basic housing are taken care of. When in small villages, it is obviously NOT in a Raddison Hotel but it is in a clean facility of some type. For example, many choose to stay with a host family while we are in LaCeiba. They are VERY nice homes and are close to the Hotel Paris,
our headquarters and radio net control for the mission. The other expense to participants of the mission is transportation from our homes in the U.S (or wherever you live), to LaCeiba, Honduras and return. Some people choose to make their own plans because there are many great sites to see and places to go before or after the mission. Diving or checking the beach on Roatan Island, visiting the Copan Mayan ruins, visiting a rain forest park, white water rafting, sightseeing in the mountains, or just shopping for bargains are some things people do. 75% of the IHS people do some little venture, usually after the mission. Obviously our main purpose is not to just go and have fun, we have very important work to do in the villages, etc. However, after 2 weeks of work it is nice to take a day or two and relax. We do have a group travel plan that has various arrival and departure dates to accommodate some of these side adventures. It goes from Minneapolis through Houston to
San Pedro Sula, Honduras and return on Continental Airlines. Donna Bench, our agent, can also connect other cities through Houston. Also note that flights to San Pedro Sula can go on Delta via Miami and on American via Miami so you have some options. I do have a handy letter that describes how to get your airline tickets to and from Honduras.… just let me know if you want it and I can e-mail that to you. Karen and I lived in England for four years and did a lot of travelling, but I can honestly say, this is the best two week trip we ever do for the price, even though it is work.
What is happening right now. We are actively seeking applications right now. We would like to have all applications for a February mission by mid September due to our need to collect names of applicants and then complete a roster of team assignments before our October planning team leaves for Honduras. From that schedule many things get done prior to February on a time line that is important to get all our gear, supplies, and participants to Honduras and get everyone well informed about the mission. Later applications get accepted, too, but then it is to fill in spots on teams where they still need people. Besides our need for experienced medical folks and radio operators, we are currently looking for medical and radio equipment. With a very tight budget, we can not afford to purchase a lot of new and expensive gear yet we do want to provide good team support.
When to apply…. We receive the bulk of our applications in July through September for a February mission although a person can apply anytime before then if they know they will be available. After September, applications will get taken to fill empty team positions. Actually, we prefer early applications so we can pass on a lot of information. We also want to work with people to get them up to speed on our particular routine of doing things and getting them familiar with specific places and such. Each place has a unique work situation and good preparation makes for a great mission with few surprises… there are no Radio Shack or other stores in those remote villages! Each village has its own unique medical needs as well. On the application form, there is a place where you can put down the names of someone you may want to be on a team with. So, you need to fill that in if you want to be with someone you know. Getting assigned to one of the many teams mostly depends on
how well qualified you are to handle the job you are applying for. Most people who contact me about radio jobs will put on their application that they are willing to be a radio operator or an engineer or a general helper. Applying for all positions a person is qualified helps if certain jobs are filled early. For example, this past mission had 7 radio operators but we also had many other “extra” hams assigned other positions on the team (mostly engineers and general helpers). So, applying for several positions is obviously beneficial to go on the mission. Another consideration is which team location you want to get assigned to. Some teams take a boat up a river, many teams use a small plane to get to their remote village, some travel into the mountains by bus. Obviously surgical teams will be in less primitive conditions since they need to be at an adequate facility to do their work. In my opinion all locations are good. Obviously, later applicants (after
October) will have less selection of places to go and job positions since they will be assigned to the teams that are missing certain positions, if there are any. If you need an application, a good place to get one is from our IHS web site (IHSOFMN mentioned below). Just click on “Contact IHS” and download the application (.pdf or Word file).
Radio personnel - We SOMETIMES have a large number of IHS hams who go. At those times we fill many of the team radio operator and other positions. One benefit for a newcomer to be a team radio operator is if they have pactor/Winlink experience and gear but it is not a requirment. If you are a ham and you get assigned on a team with another radio person, you will actually share the radio work and other tasks regardless of which title you have on the paperwork.
Shipping items to Honduras….. yes we can. Dole Fruit graciously lets us use several of their containers to send down our gear, personal items, purchased medical supplies, food, and lots of medical equipment (for hospitals and clinics). We will send down our IHS radios plus any donated and other replacement gear. Larry, our shipping guy, buys a lot of the food for each team. He will buy soups, and a lot of dehydrated type things that actually cook up pretty good, at least it is better than beans and rice every day. Most of that is shipped in the container although some beans and rice, plus a lot of other fruits and vegetables get purchased in LaCeiba on the first day down there. Each year we also get generators and such things purchased or donated and they get shipped as well. So, if you want to send some clothes or whatever, so you have less to drag through the airport, that is fine. Your personal box or tub needs to be sent to our collection point in Minneapolis
by the end of December. The only thing to remember is that the shipment is one way. If you want to get items back home, it has to come back with you. Many people send clothes and other items that they just give to the local people when they leave, so their suitcase stays light coming home, too.
More info... IHS has a web site with some basic info for all applicants, it is: www.IHSOFMN.org I suggest looking at the Newsbreak newsletters for a lot of personal info and stories of past experiences. We also have a special link to a site where we distibute a lot of info to inquirers and to people signed up to go. That site is: www.groups.Yahoo.com/group/IHSmission/ Our IHS radio group also has some info (especially radio items) on a Yahoo site. The link to that site is: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IHSradio/ You can see several things there but I recommend going to the left side of the site’s home page and clicking on PHOTO. From there you will see some of our people in action. Also, the FILES area has a LOT of items related to the radio work of a mission plus other things. These two sites should give you a lot of extra info plus application forms. I also have many materials for you including a great computer CD with lots of info on it. The photos
(hundreds of them) and journals on the CD show typical medical/dental teams in villages plus eye care and surgery teams. The CD is packed with other info including several super Power Point presentations that give a lot of detail in our work. I often use the CD as orientation materials for group presentations and for first time applicants. If you want any of these items, just let me know what to send and where to mail them and I will send them to you right away.
When you sign up and are put on a team, you will receive a large amount of information, usually in later November. There is a ton of handy information on what clothes, gear, and other items to bring plus many other tips. Also, this information will have very comprehensive Orientation information. It will give lots of info on how to prepare for the mission and what to expect during the trip. It also talks about health care issues, such as what vaccinations to have, etc. Most importantly, you will get the name of your team Leader who is a veteran going to your team location who can tell you all about the village you are going to and other details. I am available to answer any questions that relate to the general mission and to the radio work that goes with it. If you have any questions related to other jobs on a team, let me know and I will pass on the info or I will get you in touch with another Director or someone who can get you all the latest info for that job.
Early applicants have a very good chance of going, especially if they are flexible in what work position on the team they are willing to take. I do ask that whether or not this mission works for you, consider passing the word along… we can always use a few extra folks and support to help us out. If it is not this year, we can plan ahead for next time. This is especially true for doctors, nurses, translators, dentists, and other medical folks who we have a tougher job in recruiting.
Most new folks have called me directly, before signing up for a mission. I highly recommend that you do that to start with. My evening phone number is: 320-634-4386. I am home most evenings and some on weekends. You have my e-mail address, so write whatever questions you have, if you prefer that over a phone call.
I and the very poor of Honduras thank you so much for an interest in this very wonderful and rewarding work!
Best regards,
John Kirckof
JMKKEK%40Yahoo.com">JMKKEK
Yahoo.com
Phone: 320-634-4386
IHS Board Of Directors
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DEAR SIR
I would like to sign up but send me the details. I got
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