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Humanitarian Aid: O&P Brings Healing Work Worldwide
By Tina Eichner 
EDITOR'S NOTE
The generosity of the people who comprise the O&P industry
seems to be without measure or limit. When we set out to cover the
topic of Humanitarian Aid, the well of possible sources to talk
with was very deep. You can't look at O&P humanitarian efforts
without considering the work of the Barr Foundation, Healing Hands
for Haiti (HHH), the Orthotic and Prosthetic Assistance Fund
(OPAF), the Prosthetic Outreach Foundation (POF), Sonrie
Ministries, and the World Rehabilitation Fund (WRF), among
countless others too numerous to list. In the next several pages we
take a closer look at the work of some of the humanitarian aid
groups that you may already know well and a few that might be less
familiar, including Physicians for Peace, the Global Medical Relief
Fund (GMRF), and the Center for International Rehabilitation (CIR).
We also look at The Digital Resource Foundation for the O&P
Community (DRFOP) and its O&P Humanitarian Database, a growing
directory of humanitarian efforts throughout the field.
Unfortunately, "need" in many parts of the world is insatiable, and
there is no shortage of places to contribute if you have a hand to
lend. At deadline we were still receiving suggestions of different
groups to take a look at. We will examine some of these other aid
agencies in future issues. Thank you for letting us share just a
few stories of O&P aid in action this month in this special
section.
Physicians for Peace delivers Mission of Training to Nations in
Need
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©Stephen M. Katz |
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"If you heal someone, you help one
person. If you teach someone to heal, you help
many."
--Dr. Charles Horton, founder and chairman, Physicians
for Peace
Operating on the premise of helping establish
sustainable medical relief in areas of limited resources,
Physicians for Peace, Norfolk, Virginia, is an international,
humanitarian, nonprofit, medical education organization committed
to providing education and training, clinical care, and supplies to
nations in need.
Dr. Charles E. Horton Sr., an internationally
acclaimed humanitarian and renowned plastic surgeon from Norfolk,
established Physicians for Peace in the early 1980s as a private,
volunteer, non-political, non-sectarian organization. The
organization was legally founded in 1989. Over the past 15 years,
Physicians for Peace has implemented many replicable and
sustainable programs in countries throughout Africa, Asia, the
Caribbean, >Central America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle
East. Its volunteer medical and health professional teams have
included healthcare providers from Iran and Iraq, Turkey and
Greece, Palestine and Israel, the Philippines and
Japan.
Physicians for Peace provides healthcare programs in
several disciplines, including burn care, dental, ophthalmology,
pediatrics, women's health, and its Walking Free Program. The
organization designed the Walking Free Program to assist in
establishing sustainable prosthetic and rehabilitation centers in
developing nations. The program includes prosthetic and orthotic
production, clinical and academic education programs, direct
patient care, surgical and medical management, and public
education.
Amputee victims of landmines, natural disasters, accidents,
birth defects, disease, and war often receive little or no
continuing medical treatment in troubled regions of the world.
The Walking Free Program first launched in Diyarbakir, Turkey,
in 2000 and was expanded to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in
2001. The program is in different stages of implementation in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Manila, Philippines; Guatemala; and Basra,
Iraq.
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©Stephen M. Katz |
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Ben Blecha, CPO, who practices in Colorado and
Nebraska, first learned about Physicians for Peace and Walking Free
at an ISPO meeting in 2004 and recently became involved when he
attended an assessment mission to Guatemala early this year. "I
always wanted to do this type of work in other countries and work
in a situation where there was a good follow-up program. Physicians
for Peace fit how I feel about it philosophically."
"The first thing that we do is a fact finding mission to the
country that has expressed interest in the program to assess local
resources," explained Mary Kwasniewski, the organization's
coordinator for international medical programs. She said that
Physicians for Peace only goes into countries that have invited
them and builds on infrastructure and resources that already exist
emphasizing that they are not just supplying short-term care or
creating new infrastructure.
"We are not going in and setting up clinics and building
buildings. We work with clinics and facilities that are already
there, helping make them viable and sustainable over the
long-term," said Kwasniewski. The support the group provides to
reach this goal of long-term sustainability includes education and
training, patient care, business support, and assistance with
access to supplies, including donated components.
"We don't come in and mandate a process but learn from the host
country as much as they learn from us and tailor the host programs
to meet the individual needs in each location," she said, noting
that for example, some countries are familiar with and have access
to more advanced componentry than others and that the program must
be designed around the skill set and resources available at each
particular location.
Walking Free Milestones
- Conducted more than 20 research, education, and training
missions in developing nations.
- Provided two foreign prosthetists with three-month specialized
academic and clinical training and provided clinical and academic
training to more than 1,000 doctors, nurses, therapists, and
practitioners in developing nations.
- Helped more than 10,000 patients with prosthetic and orthotic
needs.
- Provided more than $2 million in prosthetic and orthotic
in-kind contributions, including rehabilitation and surgical
supplies and equipment.
Blecha emphasized that a main focus is on educating the local
practitioners. In May, Blecha and some colleagues also involved
with Physicians for Peace will return to Guatemala to provide
further education with another follow-up training visit planned for
November. Blecha said that when a program is being set up they will
try to go to the location about three times a year to build on
educational efforts. During those visits the volunteers will spend
one to two weeks working with the local practitioners in seminars,
on course work, and side-by-side in the clinics treating patients.
Once a mission is completed, the volunteer practitioners will
maintain contact with the Walking Free host country practitioners,
communicating and consulting over e-mail about how to handle
specific patients and situations."We always go in with an exit
plan. A three-to-five year plan, that at the end of that term a
facility is trained, self-sustained, and operating as planned so
that our resources can then be used elsewhere," said
Kwasniewski.
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©Stephen M. Katz |
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"They are set up so that when we leave, the
community does not miss a beat, the work just keeps going," added
Blecha.
"A lot of what we do is hard to measure. You can say we have
given a certain number of prosthetics but it is not just about
that. It is about changing lives and improving quality of life,"
said Kwasniewski.
"The best stories we have are about the children. Because
children are so adaptable and able to learn so quickly & a
child will come into a clinic in a wheelchair and without being
able to walk, and leave with a new prosthesis being able to run
down the hall," she said.
That says it all.
Through the hard work of staff, selfless
volunteerism of health professionals, invaluable gifts-in-kind
provided by corporations, and charitable contributions of
individuals, Physicians for Peace goes where medical training
assistance is needed, affecting health concerns in those areas and,
ultimately, improving the health and lives of the
population.
For further information visit www.physiciansforpeace.org
Table Of Contents - April 2006
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