Since 2007 I've been involved in using my skills as a pharmacist to help those who have difficult obtaining medical care and medications in Central America. From our first trip to Honduras, I've had the pleasure of working with a variety of people to help bring a bit of pharmaceutical care to those in need of both medicine and a listening ear.
Our typical day involves an advance team heading out with a set of totes carrying our supply of medications. Since we've switched to running the clinics in schools (more headroom), whenever possible, one of the classrooms is transformed into our dispensary for the day. The rest of the team arrives with the medics and has a few minutes to get everything set before the patients start arriving. As the patients start trickling in with their prescriptions, the Canadians get to work preparing the ordered drugs along side the local staff. Once each patient's medications are ready, our local translators are put into action. Usually from a local high school, our translators are the last link as we pass along all the required information to take each medication properly. To assist the translators we've also developed a simple instruction sheet for each drug which reinforces how to take each drug correctly.
For those of us that have had a few chances over the years to practice our Spanish, there's also the opportunity to try our hand at providing the instructions ourselves. With seven trips under my belt, I'm glad to say that I can get through all but the most complicated prescriptions without assistance. Of course when I'm asked a non-medication related question, I'm still occasionally at a loss and need to ask for some help.
Our next trip is scheduled for November 2014 to El Salvador, and my wife and I (who has joined me on six trips so far) are in the process of raising funds to offset our travel costs and the cost of the medications that we purchase locally. If you would like to support us, you can donate to Speroway (our sponsoring organization) through the PayPal link below or you can contact us directly to make a donation. All donations are tax-deductible.
If you would like some more info about our trips, feel free to contact us or check out the "Medical Teams" category on the Speroway Blog. I also hope to use my blog to keep friends and family up to date.
Thanks for your support,
Chris
