Facilitating Cholera Care and Education in Haiti

The Grand Facilitator – that is one of the main roles Project HOPE is fulfilling in Haiti today to address the recent cholera outbreak.

In addition to providing medical volunteers, as well as donated medicines and medical supplies, to care for those now suffering from cholera and to assist in the prevention of the disease, Project HOPE is bringing a team of the world’s foremost experts in cholera to Haiti.

Project HOPE, with the assistance of HOPE volunteer and Massachusetts General Hospital physician Larry Ronan, is coordinating the participation of the International Center of Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) to assess the current situation and provide its clinical expertise to enhance the care of cholera patients.

The eight-person ICDDR,B team, under the direction of Dr. Alejandro Cravioto, is bringing decades of experience in the treatment of cholera and dysentery, as well as the management of major epidemic outbreaks. The ICDDR,B has assisted governments and local health authorities in countries such as Bahrain, Ecuador, Iraq, Mozambique, Peru, Zaire, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Zimbabwe, in successfully handling cholera outbreaks.

In addition to the ICDDR,B team, Project HOPE is facilitating the involvement of a four-person team from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with the ICDDR,B to help in the creation of a plan to slow and eventually stop the cholera outbreak.

Project HOPE has facilitated all of these resources, in addition to a volunteer team of physicians and nurses from the Massachusetts General Hospital and the delivery of nearly $200,000 of medical supplies in less than one week – all the result of 52 years of experience in dealing with natural disasters.

It is these types of resources – global expertise, medical volunteers and medicines and medical supplies – that Project HOPE is bringing to bear to benefit the people of Haiti and others around the world in need of our help.

Learn more about HOPE's response to the cholera outbreak in Haiti.

John

HOPE Working to Reduce Widespread Suffering from Cholera

At the request of the Haiti Minister of Health, Project HOPE has responded swiftly to the country’s cholera outbreak.

Yesterday, an additional six HOPE volunteers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston arrived at L’hopital Albert Schweitzer in Deschapelles, located in the Artibonite River Valley, the ground-zero for the cholera epidemic with a population of 300,000.

The good news is that these HOPE volunteers, when they arrived, found fewer patients being admitted with cholera. That said, they are now treating 60 cholera patients in a facility that normally has 80 beds -- and is still caring for patients with long-term injuries from the January earthquake.

In addition to patient care, the HOPE volunteers will train area residents, throughout the Artibonite Valley, how to prevent the spread of the disease with good personal hygiene and proper food handling, as well as clean water usage. Even with the current numbers of cholera patients at L’hopital Albert Schweitzer, it is still early in the disease outbreak process.

In keeping with our intent to do all we can to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, the spread of the disease, HOPE will be sending two additional volunteer physicians from the MGH to Haiti on Thursday, one a pediatric and the other an adult specialist in infectious diseases.

For the health of the Haitian people, we are working hard to reduce widespread suffering and death from the cholera outbreak. Your support means much to HOPE. I look forward to sharing my next update with you.

John

HOPE Delivering Humanitarian Assistance in Haiti

The world’s attention is once again focused on Haiti. In the face of this new crisis, Project HOPE is on the scene delivering humanitarian assistance.

The Haiti Ministry of Health contacted Project HOPE’s in-country office last week to inform us about a rapid increase in the number of reported cholera cases in the country’s Northwest region known as the Artibonite River Valley.

Our emergency response was set in action. Project HOPE soon delivered its first shipment of relief supplies to the city of Desdunes, a city in the Artibonite River Valley with a population of 40,000.

The relief supplies, which included antibacterial hand gels, Pedialyte oral rehydration, Life Straw water purifiers and bottled drinking water, were gratefully received by the Ministry of Health staff in Desdunes.

The desperate need for something as basic as antibacterial hand gel was experienced, in person, by a member of the HOPE staff. After the delivery of humanitarian supplies, our team was on its way back to Port-au-Prince. When they stopped for food along the road, the store clerk came up and said, “Please save my life. Do you have any hand gel?”

Our staff member returned to the truck and collected his three personal bottles of hand gel and gave them to the clerk, who then gave two of the bottles to a young boy and girl. It was then that he understood how worried the people in the affected area are about the outbreak.

In addition to supplies, a six-person team of HOPE volunteers from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston arrived this morning at L'hopital Albert Schweitzer in Deschapelles to augment our team of volunteers, already at the hospital, engaged in the care of cholera patients. Dr. Larry Ronan, a long-time HOPE volunteer, leads the MGH physicians and nurses.

As more details become available from our team in Haiti, I look forward to sharing them with you, through my blog and on the HOPE website.

Again, thank you for your support of HOPE’s emergency relief efforts for the many Haitians now in need.

Making a difference in the life of a child

One thing that people around the world have in common is the desire to make a difference in the life of a child.

Whether it be in the United States, Tajikistan, Nicaragua, Indonesia, Haiti, China or in virtually every nation around the world, people care about the health and well being of the world’s most valuable resource – our children.

There are no geographic boundaries for this selfless, heartfelt desire to help children.

Over the last seven days, I’ve looked into the faces of hundreds of Chinese children. The hope in their eyes has overwhelmed my heart.

I met the parents of an 18-month-old boy, who had brought their son to the Shanghai Children’s Medical Center from Tibet, the furthest most, and one of the poorest regions in the west of China. Their son was born with a heart defect, and the doctors and nurses at the SCMC would soon correct the problem, making it possible for the young child to grow and lead a healthy life.

Hope and gratitude were the expressions I saw in the faces of the Tibetan couple. In the past, other children and other families from their village had traveled many hours, if not days, to come to the SCMC to receive similar care.

Having seen the life-changing results for the children from their village, the Tibetan parents I met were confident that the SCMC had the medical staff and capabilities to make a difference in the life of their precious son.

Since you could not travel with me in China, I want to share with you several pictures of the remarkable children that I encountered. I’m sure you will see, as I did, the tremendous hope and passion for life in their young faces.

Enjoy these images, and thank you for your support that has allowed Project HOPE to care for the world’s children for the past 52 years -- and into the future.

Heroes

Today, I walked with heroes along the banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai.

Most of these heroes stood no taller than the height of my waist, but their big hearts and enthusiasm for life were unmatched. I’m talking about a group of young cancer and heart disease patients who accompanied me to the World Expo along Shanghai’s Huangpu River.

Some of my physician colleagues at the Shanghai Children’s Medical Center may be upset with me when they learn that their young patients didn’t get much sleep the previous night due to their anticipation of visiting the Expo. However, as seen in the energy from this young group of patients, there were no side effects from sleep deprivation to be found.

With wide eyes and even wider smiles, the children were warmly greeted by the High Commissioner General of the USA Pavilion, Jose Villarreal. U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton personally selected Jose to direct the country’s presence at the 2010 Expo through the USA Pavilion.

Jose rolled out the red carpet for the children, giving them an experience of a lifetime, as they left their concerns behind at the hospital for the day. It was a highlight for me as well. I will never forget the joy on the children’s faces.

But there were other heroes in our Expo entourage as well. In fact, because of these heroes, some of the children with heart defects in our group are alive today.

These heroes go by the names of Dr. Richard Jonas, Dr. Henry Issenberg and Peggy Hicks, R.N. These three heroes, and others, came to Shanghai more than 15 years ago to begin training the surgeons and nurses who would staff the pediatric cardiac surgery program at the SCMC. The three heroes are here with me at the Expo to enjoy the experience with the children and to catch their breath before they begin a full agenda of meetings at the World Society for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery Conference at the SCMC.

Drs. Jonas and Issenberg, as well as Ms. Hicks, selflessly gave of their time and talents to make sure the children of China, particularly those with heart defects, had the opportunity to receive the care they needed, and deserved, at the hands of Chinese doctors and nurses.

Early on, this dynamic team of doctors and nurses from the U.S. frequently traveled to Shanghai to provide hands-on training to their Chinese peers. They also hosted the Chinese doctors and nurses at their respective hospitals back in the States for further training opportunities.

Their generosity and hard work paid off. In twelve short years, the American trainers watched their trainees flourish. Today, the SCMC is the #1 hospital in the world for pediatric cardiac surgery. And literally thousands of lives, including the lives of some of the children in our group at the Expo, have been saved.

Welcome Home

“Welcome home.”

This phrase, as it appeared on the screen, made me pause and reflect as I sat in a meeting room at the Shanghai Children’s Medical Center nearly 7,500 miles away from my home in Washington, D.C. But as I pondered the phase, I thought to myself, “I am home.”

For the past ten years, I’ve visited my Shanghai “home,” also known as the Shanghai Children’s Medical Center, at least once a year. I have watched the hospital grow, develop and mature into the world’s #1 children’s hospital for pediatric cardiac surgery.

Last year, the dedicated surgeons at the SCMC, most of them trained through Project HOPE programs, performed more than 3,000 pediatric heart surgeries. To put this accomplishment into perspective, the largest program in the United States does nearly 1,000 pediatric heart surgeries in one year.

My Shanghai home has had many visitors. In 2009, more than 1.1 million children and their families walked through the doors for care at the SCMC. In addition, nearly 7,900 surgeries were performed on children.

Also, 44 children received bone marrow transplants at the SCMC – the highest number of any children’s hospital in China. And because more and more children from China and Asia are coming to the SCMC for cancer treatment, there will soon be a new addition to my Shanghai home – a seven-story oncology tower that will have more than 125 beds.

But that is just the beginning of the expansion plans now on the drawing board for my Shanghai home. My longtime friend, Jiang Zhongyi, Secretary of the Party Committee for the SCMC, shared with me an ambitious and visionary five-year plan for the hospital.

Over the next five years, the SCMC will continue to advance its three core programs in pediatric cardiology, pediatric oncology and hematology, as well as pediatric development and behavioral medicine. In addition, the hospital will expand its research capabilities and add another 500 clinical care beds. All this, with the goal of becoming China’s – if not Asia’s – leading children’s hospital by 2020.

When I think of “homes,” I often think of families. As my dear friend Mr. Jiang reminded me, Project HOPE and the SCMC are family.

Mr. Jiang then told me a touching story. He said that each new SCMC family member, whether they be a physician, nurse, technician or administrator, must visit the statue of Dr. William Walsh, Project HOPE’s founder, which sits on the SCMC grounds just next to the Cardiology Tower.

There the new family member reads this inscription, “Dr. William B. Walsh: Doctor, Teacher, and Friend to the World.” With that powerful and moving thought in mind, the new SCMC family member can then begin work at this very special institution.

A Hospital at the Heart of a City's Rebirth

Two weeks after the Sichuan Province earthquake in May 2008, Project HOPE Chairman Dr. Charles Sanders and I visited Du Jiang Yan City, located less than an hour from the quake’s epicenter, and saw firsthand the tragic devastation.

A little more than one year after the quake, I returned to Du Jiang Yan City. Rubble from the destruction was still visible. I toured a temporary hospital still brimming with patients from the local community. But I also saw the roots of the reconstruction beginning to emerge.

Now, as the van I ride in approaches Du Jiang Yan City, I see a new, modern, vibrant and blossoming city. The scars from the terrible quake virtually erased. And at the heart of the city’s rebirth is the beautiful Du Jiang Yan People’s Hospital.

Built on 100 acres, the 650-bed hospital was recognized by China’s President Hu as one of the best hospitals in China. The facility was even awarded a prestigious architecture award given to only a handful of buildings throughout China.

The Du Jiang Yan Hospital is also home to a state-of-the art rehabilitation center nearly 100 percent furnished by Project HOPE. I met three inspirational patients in the unit, who suffered injuries as a result of the 2008 earthquake – two of the patients were injured the day of the quake and the third was a young volunteer who was injured in a mudslide, while assisting earthquake survivors. All three were extremely optimistic about their futures and grateful for the care they are receiving at the center.

Not available prior to the earthquake, the rehabilitation medicine center now benefits the Du Jiang Yan community and region at large. I talked to two men in the center who were rehabilitating from stroke. In both cases, the strokes may have been caused by hypertension – a chronic condition that is a growing concern throughout China. In addition, the center is combining Western medicine with traditional Chinese medicine to enhance patient outcomes.

The Pediatric Unit was my next stop on the hospital tour. Eight doctors and nurses on staff were graduates of HOPE’s Rural Fellow Training Program or trainees from the Abbott Fund Institute of Nutrition Science. I met two Fellows who beamed as they shared stories about training and how it helped them improve the care they provided to children.

As I left the Unit, I was overwhelmed by a show-stopping smile of a seven-year-old girl. The fever and aches caused by the flu could not stifle her smile. Her infectious optimism demonstrated for me the tremendous resiliency of the people of Sichuan Province.

To assist in the rebuilding efforts of Du Jiang Yan City, not long ago, Shanghai government officials provided more than $1 billion. Recently, as Shanghai officials left Du Jiang Yan City after their last reconstruction meeting, City residents lined the streets for 10 miles waving their hands in an expression of gratitude. They truly have much to be thankful for.

Spreading HOPE Through Lifesaving Medical Training

As I entered the Great Hall at Shanghai Children’s Medical Center, I was taken by surprise by what I heard. No, it was not the commotion of the more than 900,000 children and their families who receive care at the hospital each year. It was the music of Chopin played on a grand piano.

A talented Fudan university student volunteers her time each week to turn the Great Hall into a concert hall. And by the expressions on the faces of the parents and their children, the music was a welcome distraction.

My real purpose for visiting the SCMC was to meet a special group of doctors and nurses who have come to the hospital from virtually every corner of China to participate in a year-long training program coordinated by Project HOPE.

Called the Rural Fellows Training Program, 25 doctors and nurses leave their home hospitals, and their families, to be trained in advanced medical techniques. Over the past eight years, Project HOPE and the SCMC staff have trained more than 200 rural fellows.

When the fellows return to their hospitals, not only do they bring new experiences and skills to improve patient care, but also knowledge to share with their colleagues. In fact, the train-the-trainer model is one reason why rural fellows chose to enlist in the program.

One doctor in this year’s class comes from China’s autonomous prefecture near the North Korea border called Yanbian. She caught me off guard, when I asked her what the most common ailment was in her hometown. Her response: vitamin D deficiency. She explained that in China’s northern regions the days were short and people often don’t get enough sunlight.

However, when I inquired of her classmates what illnesses they see most often, a familiar nemesis reappeared – pneumonia. Just as I saw in Honduras and Nicaragua last month, pneumonia is a significant problem throughout China, from the northwestern Province of Xinjiang that borders Kazakhstan to the southernmost Province Guangzi as reported by the Rural Fellows I met with.

Also, I met a heroic nurse who was one of the first responders to this year’s 6.9 magnitude earthquake that struck her home province of Qinghai. She expressed gratitude to be part of the Rural Fellows program and is looking forward to taking her new skills, such as advanced life support training, back to her colleagues so that they will be better prepared to face another natural disaster.

Just as the piano music in SCMC’s Great Hall warmed my heart, I left the hospital at the end of the day with a sense of pride knowing that Project HOPE’s lifesaving influence is spreading across China and the more than 37 countries around the world where there is HOPE.

John

The Power of Partnerships Helps Children and Families

It is easy to be intimidated by the numbers in China.

• 1.3 billion – Population of China, the most populous country in the world.
• 20 million – Approximate population of Shanghai, the largest city in the world and the first stop on my visit to China.
• 1.032 million – Attendance at the Shanghai World Expo on my first full day in the city. This number represents the largest single-day attendance since the Expo opened in May of this year and the largest single-day attendance in the history of World Expos.

Impressive numbers, absolutely – but in those numbers lay tremendous opportunity for Project HOPE and our partners.

On my first day in Shanghai, I had the privilege to open the Abbott Nutrition Forum that was attended by more than 100 physicians, nurses and dieticians from across China – some traveling as many as six hours by air to be in attendance.

The Forum celebrated the tremendous success of a powerful partnership between the Abbott Fund, Shanghai Children’s Medical Center and Project HOPE, known as the Abbott Fund Institute of Nutrition Science (AFINS).

Speaking of numbers, the AFINS has delivered very impressive results in the first three years of the partnership.

• 50,000 – Children and families who have benefitted from educational materials prepared by the AFINS.
• 1,500 – Health care professionals who have received nutrition training at the AFINS and who have returned to their hospitals to train thousands more.
• 35 – Number of hospitals throughout China represented by the AFINS trainees.
• 17 – Chinese provinces that trainees have come from to attend the AFINS training.

While these numbers too are impressive, I am reminded that it is the individual – the doctor, the nurse, the mother or the child –that ultimately benefits from our programs.

At the Abbott Nutrition Forum, I shared the story of Dr. Li Huai-Yu, the Vice Director of the Pediatric Emergency Department at Ningxia Medical University, who recently completed nutritional training at the AFINS.

Upon returning to his hospital, Dr. Li treated a three-year-old child suffering from dehydration caused by frequent diarrhea. The child did not respond to previous remedies, and the situation was worsening. Because of Dr. Li’s training, he correctly diagnosed a milk allergy. He immediately changed the child’s diet, and the child’s health improved rapidly.

Yes, the numbers in China may be daunting. But I am optimistic and encouraged by the potential health benefits that HOPE brings to China and to the world. With dedicated partners like Abbott, together we can influence the “one” who then will improve the lives of millions through increased knowledge and enhanced care.

John

HOPE in China

This year has been an especially inspiring one for me. I have had the privilege of visiting some of HOPE’s program sites around the world to meet with patients, their physicians and nurses, as well as donors, ministers of health and heads of state, to assess the impact of our lifesaving work. Earlier this year, I visited Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua. Today, I'm en route to China.

For more than 25 years, volunteers and staff from Project HOPE have addressed some of China’s most pressing health needs including children’s heart defects, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and nursing education. We have also provided support in times of natural disasters, including emergency relief efforts and long-term recovery work following the massive 2008 earthquake in China’s Sichuan Province.

Our China Rehabilitation Medicine Program, launched in 2009, is increasing both the accessibility and quality of rehabilitation services for the more than 70,000 injured in the earthquake-affected areas of the Sichuan Province, as well as contributing to the improvement of rehabilitation services throughout China.

I plan to visit one our rehabilitative medicine sites in Du Jiang Yan, while in China. I also plan to visit with beneficiaries at the Shanghai Children’s Medical Center and also talk with experts about our continuing nutrition work now benefiting children and their families nationwide.

I hope you will join me in the coming days, albeit online. You, too, will be inspired by what we will experience together, from Shanghai to Sichuan Province.

John

Long-term Sustainability Witnessed in Nicaragua

While I saw first-hand the long-term impact of our pneumococcal vaccine program among Nicaraguans in the Managua region, a team of Project HOPE volunteer doctors and nurses were making a difference in the lives of hundreds of Nicaraguans in the remote coastal town of Bluefields.

For ten days, beginning September 16th, HOPE volunteers, along with Navy medical personnel on board the USS Iwo Jima, have provided health care and health education to Nicaraguans in need, as part of the 2010 Continuing Promise humanitarian outreach program. (I hope you have been following the daily blogs from our volunteers on the ship.)

This 2010 Continuing Promise mission is the twentieth humanitarian assistance mission that HOPE has partnered with the U.S. Navy since the response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2005. Since then, HOPE volunteers, Navy medical personnel and representatives from other NGOs have cared for more than 550,000 patients and provided health education to more than 115,000 doctors, nurses and other health care workers.

In Bluefields, HOPE volunteers have seen more than 600 patients daily and provided health education classes on topics such as diabetes, hypertension, women’s health and basic hygiene to more than 300 people each day.

Anne Borden, MPH, RN, is one HOPE volunteer who is teaching patients to better manage their chronic diseases. Anne tells her students that the burden of a chronic disease, such as diabetes, may be heavy. But the knowledge gained by learning to live with the disease stays with you forever and helps you to better manage it.

Back in Managua, I had the pleasure of meeting the U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua, Robert Callahan. Ambassador Callahan has visited the USS Iwo Jima and witnessed the truly heroic humanitarian work of the HOPE volunteers and U.S. Navy personnel. I listened as the Ambassador and USAID Director for Nicaragua, Norma Parker, shared their support of a healthier Nicaragua through humanitarian aid initiatives.

Humanitarian aid is often believed to be only related to disaster relief efforts. Yet, this aid comes in many forms, as I have mentioned. A common thread in the humanitarian aid programs HOPE delivers, whether it be in response to a natural disaster or a pressing health challenge – is long-term sustainability. This is being seen in Nicaragua today.

John

Informing Nicaraguans About Pneumococcal Vaccine

I was an unexpected visitor in the homes of Nicaraguans, throughout the country, last Friday morning.

As a guest on the top-rated Nicaraguan morning show Primer Plano with its host, Adolfo Pastran, my message about Project HOPE was beamed into households across the country.

The focus of my message was to let Nicaraguans know about the pneumococcal vaccine program HOPE is conducting with the Nicaragua Ministry of Health, thanks to the generous donation of 1 million doses of vaccine from Merck & Co., Inc.

Communication is a critical element of any public health campaign. While ensuring that 1 million Nicaraguans will not develop pneumonia – Latin America’s #1 killer – is a monumental task, it will not achieve its objective without awareness of the program.

After my live 30-minute interview on Primer Plano, I returned to my hotel for a media briefing with several Nicaraguan television, newspaper and magazine reporters. I spent more than two hours with the reporters enlisting their support to make sure as many Nicaraguans as possible become aware of this vaccine initiative.

One reporter with whom I met with was Oscar Miranda Uriarte, perhaps the most recognized media personality in Nicaragua. Oscar said that 44 years ago he stood on the dock at Corinto reporting as a young journalist on the visit of the SS HOPE to Nicaragua. He told me that on that first historic visit, many Nicaraguans thought the SS HOPE belonged to the country’s First Family because at the time the First Lady’s name was Hope.

I also met with a young magazine journalist, Esther Pirado, from NICASALUD, the country’s organization of NGOs of which HOPE is a member. Esther is the daughter a nurse who received training from the American volunteer nurses aboard the SS HOPE in 1966. To this day, Esther’s mother, as well as the other Nicaraguan doctors and nurses who received training on the SS HOPE, still come together to share stories about their life-changing experience.

One observation made in my blogs from Honduras, holds true in Nicaragua as well. And that is the high caliber of the HOPE staff. Though smaller in number than their Honduras colleagues, the Nicaragua HOPE staff is accomplishing great things with its limited resources.

Under the direction of Dr. Mario Ortega, who has been among the leadership of HOPE Nicaragua for 15 years, the organization is well respected among the country’s health care leaders. So respected are HOPE and Dr. Ortega, that he has been asked to join a Pan American Health Organization team to conduct a countrywide assessment of vaccination programs. This is an immense honor for Dr. Ortega and HOPE.

HOPE’s objective in Nicaragua is to provide sustainable health care programs to address the country’s most pressing health care challenges. With the expertise of the HOPE staff, and with the support of the Nicaragua Ministry of Health, there are no limits to what we can accomplish together.

John

Renewing old relationships and forming new ones

Life is about relationships. And as far as relationships go, today was a banner day. New relationships were formed, and old ones renewed.

Along a winding, narrow, rocky road on the top of a mountain about two hours outside of Managua sits a small community called San Pedro. The people of San Pedro are fortunate in having a community health clinic operated by the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health. This is the setting where several new relationships were created today.

Dr. Samir Aguilar Parrales is the head of the MOH Regional Office in the Nicaraguan state of Chontales, where San Pedro is located. Dr. Parrales is passionate about seeing that Nicaraguans receive the best care possible. This was obvious as we watched him interact with members of the community.

Dr. Parrales greeted me warmly, and there was an instant connection. He said that words could not express the gratitude he felt toward Project HOPE and Merck for the generous donation of 1 million doses of PNEUMOVAX vaccine to protect people over age 50 from the pneumococcal organism, the leading cause of pneumonia.

Dr. Parrales gave me a tour of the bare three-room clinic. He introduced me to his dedicated nursing staff and to the gregarious Don Mario, the community’s leader. Don Mario was trained by the clinic’s staff to encourage San Pedro’s residents to get vaccinated. Don Mario, another new-found friend, is very persuasive. While at the clinic, I witnessed one of his community members being vaccinated.

Less than six weeks into the campaign, nearly 80,000 men and women over 50 have been vaccinated throughout Nicaragua. With spirited leaders like Dr. Parrales, the program will succeed and 1 million Nicaraguans will be less likely to develop pneumonia – Latin America’s #1 killer.

Today also brought the renewal of a relationship that is near and dear to my heart, as I sat down with a great leader and friend, Nicaragua’s Vice President Jaime Morales.

I met the Vice President when on my first visit to Nicaragua three years ago. We were standing on the dock at Corinto waiting for a helicopter to take us to the USNS Comfort where we would visit HOPE volunteer physicians and nurses. As we stood looking at the great white hospital ship in the distance, Jaime turned to me and said this was an emotional moment. Forty-one years earlier, he had stood on the same spot waiting to visit the original great white hospital ship, the SS HOPE. Then and there, a bond was formed between us.

Jaime has a warm smile and a countenance that exudes wisdom. It brought me no small amount of joy to share news of another group of HOPE volunteers, now aboard the USS Iwo Jima, treating Nicaraguans in need and, as well, to update him on our vaccination program.

Life is about relationships. Be they new or existing, relationships enrich our lives and give us the ability to do more for others – like make a difference in the lives of millions of Nicaraguans.

John

HOPE in Nicaragua

Throw a stone any direction in Nicaragua, and it will land on a health care challenge. Dr. Jorge Luis Prosperi, who heads the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) here in Managua, used these words to describe the health status of the country.

Dr. Prosperi has a valid point. Suicide among Nicaragua’s young people is a growing concern. Accidents on the roads are increasingly taking more lives. Pneumonia is the #1 killer in Latin American and a leading cause of death in Nicaragua.

Despite these and other alarming trends, I would offer a slight variation on Dr. Prosperi’s observation. Throw a stone any direction in Nicaragua, and it will fall on someone trying to address a major health care problem.

I will now demonstrate what I mean.

Throughout the past 44 years, Project HOPE has been addressing health care challenges in Nicaragua. Recently, HOPE and the Nicaragua Minister of Health launched an aggressive countrywide immunization program to protect adults over age 50 from the pneumococcal organism, a leading cause of pneumonia. The program is made possible by a generous donation of 1 million doses of the vaccine PNEUMOVAX from Merck & Co., Inc.

Today, Eduardo Cortes, Managing Director of Merck’s Central America and Dominican Republic Region, joined me in going to the homes of three special people in Granada, an hour’s drive from Managua, who had received the PNEUMOVAX vaccine – Jose, Isabel and Juanita. Isabel told Eduardo that he and his Merck colleagues have earned “a special place in heaven” because of this donation.

PAHO is another example of an organization marshalling its resources to make a difference in Nicaragua. Its health workers, under the leadership of Dr. Prosperi, can be found in each of the 17 Nicaraguan states, developing and implementing programs to improve the health of women and children.

Finally, Dr. Sonia Castro, Nicaragua’s Minister of Health, is leading a full-court press to address her country’s most pressing health needs. Don’t be fooled by her ever-present smile. Behind Dr. Castro’s smile is a passionate and determined leader who is driving the health care agenda of the country’s President, Daniel Ortega. Top on her list of priorities are:

• Emphasizing “human warmth” in health care
• Making access to health care a right for all Nicaraguans
• Improving health care to women and children

You can see there are a number of health professionals, as well as organizations, standing shoulder to shoulder addressing Nicaragua’s health challenges. And HOPE is one of them, looking forward to continuing its 44-year legacy in the country for years to come.

Check back for more tomorrow,

John