As political leadership changes hands in
strife-ridden Liberia, Northwest Medical Teams is preparing to send its
second team of volunteers to continue life-saving work in makeshift camps
near the capital city of Monrovia.
Three medical providers from the Pacific
Northwest depart this week to care for thousands of families displaced
by the recent fighting in the country. The team will work in four camps,
including one in a small high school building where 2,000 people are housed,
and at another outdoor camp with 12,000 people.
Two team members-Dr. Barbra Villona, an emergency room physician from Cave Junction, Ore., and Becky Daley, an E.R.nurse from Vancouver, Wash.-are making their first trip with Northwest Medical Teams.
Nurse Jack Schwarte of Salem, Ore., has previously volunteered with the organization in Honduras during the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in 1999.
"Our first team just returned, having treated many cases of malnutrition, dysentery and malaria," says Bas Vanderzalm, president of Northwest Medical Teams.
"Many people in Liberia are in great need-they have little food, medicine or clean water. Until they can return to their homes, they are increasingly vulnerable to severe malnutrition and infectious diseases."
Last month, Northwest Medical Teams sent three medical workers who carried in $20,000 of medical supplies to Liberia. This team will also carry in medicines, including critically needed antibiotics to combat infectious diseases and malaria as well as the devastating effects of amoebic dysentery. The teams are working in partnership with a local hospital.
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