Physicians For Peace was founded in 1989 and is dedicated to the ideal that health care in the developing world can be improved by providing training and education to health care professionals in those countries. Each volunteer sent overseas might train 10 physicians in that country who will then treat thousands or tens of thousands of patients in the world's most underserved populations. Their focus is to provide long term, consistent, dependable medical facilities, allowing them to send teams of medical volunteers to places where their teaching and healing will help the most.
There are a number of specific, sustainable programs, each in response to a particular need. Each program is tailored to be sustainable in any country in which it is needed. These programs include:
Walking free: prosthetics and facilities for prosthetics and rehabilitation.
Burn Care: reconstructive burn surgery, burn clinics and burn compression garments for burn treatment.
Dental Care: dental treatment, clinics, student training, and preventive dental-care techniques.
Seeing Clearly: vision exams for needy patients, and eye banks which provide free or inexpensive eyeglasses to tens of thousands of patients.
Midwifery: basic neonatal life support.
Resource Mothers: program for local mothers to mentor pregnant teenage girls in prenatal and newborn care.
VVF: treatment for women in Nigeria who suffer from the devastating effects of Obstetric Fistula--severe bodily trauma caused during life threatening delivery.
PALS/NALS Training: pediatric care techniques from basic hygiene to infection control.
Specialized Surgery: specialized surgery outside the standing programs, including cleft palate reconstruction, open heart surgery, and more.
As you can see, many of these programs focus on women's and children's issues. I heard a college professor say once that if she were to move to any country in the world, she would choose first based on the country's Infant Mortality Rate. The ability of a country to safely bring their next generation into the world is perhaps the most important thing. The second most important issue could be to keep those children alive up to and beyond the age of 5 years. These programs can help this be a reality. The highest Infant Mortality Rate in the world is over 19%. The world average is 5%. The United States is > 1%. We and many other nations have a great deal to share with the rest of the world. Physicians For Peace is a great organization to start!
To learn more about Physicians For Peace and their individual programs, go to:
www.physiciansforpeace.org
There are a number of specific, sustainable programs, each in response to a particular need. Each program is tailored to be sustainable in any country in which it is needed. These programs include:
Walking free: prosthetics and facilities for prosthetics and rehabilitation.
Burn Care: reconstructive burn surgery, burn clinics and burn compression garments for burn treatment.
Dental Care: dental treatment, clinics, student training, and preventive dental-care techniques.
Seeing Clearly: vision exams for needy patients, and eye banks which provide free or inexpensive eyeglasses to tens of thousands of patients.
Midwifery: basic neonatal life support.
Resource Mothers: program for local mothers to mentor pregnant teenage girls in prenatal and newborn care.
VVF: treatment for women in Nigeria who suffer from the devastating effects of Obstetric Fistula--severe bodily trauma caused during life threatening delivery.
PALS/NALS Training: pediatric care techniques from basic hygiene to infection control.
Specialized Surgery: specialized surgery outside the standing programs, including cleft palate reconstruction, open heart surgery, and more.
As you can see, many of these programs focus on women's and children's issues. I heard a college professor say once that if she were to move to any country in the world, she would choose first based on the country's Infant Mortality Rate. The ability of a country to safely bring their next generation into the world is perhaps the most important thing. The second most important issue could be to keep those children alive up to and beyond the age of 5 years. These programs can help this be a reality. The highest Infant Mortality Rate in the world is over 19%. The world average is 5%. The United States is > 1%. We and many other nations have a great deal to share with the rest of the world. Physicians For Peace is a great organization to start!
To learn more about Physicians For Peace and their individual programs, go to:
www.physiciansforpeace.org
