MAP
International Report
The MAP International Report is our quarterly newsletter
provided to all active supporters of our work to bring
health and hope to hurting people around the globe.
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RECENT ISSUES
October 1997
MAP Delivers Polio Vaccines to
immunize Guatemalan Children
In
Cuba, Team Shares Life-saving Medicines with Suffering
People
North Korea: Slow starvation
threatens a generation
July 1997
Saving Lives Among Children of
Chernobyl
Report from a MAP Medical
Intern
Reaching Latin America by
Radio
MAP
Delivers Polio Vaccines to immunize Guatemalan
Children
More than 325,000 youngsters will benefit from
this life-saving donation.
After three decades of brutal civil
war, Guatemala is one of the poorest nations in the
world. Seventy-five percent of its rural population
lives in poverty. Even in the cities, where economic
conditions are better, poverty affects two-thirds of
the people.
In 1996, a peace accord signed
between the government and guerrillas brought new
hope that the shattered country can be restored. But
Guatemala faces serious health problems including
malnutrition, a lack of clean water in many areas,
and disease. Medical resources are concentrated in
urban areas, although a national system is structured
to provide health posts to outlying areas. Care is
generally free or costs only a small fee, but
medicines must be purchased and many clinics are not
properly supplied.
Now, thanks to the gifts of friends
like you, MAP has worked through the Office of the
First Lady of Guatemala to ship over a million doses
of oral polio vaccine which will be distributed to
clinics throughout the country.
John Garvin, MAP’s Director of
Agency Services went to Guatemala in June and met
with the Minister of Health to assure proper delivery
and storage of the vaccines.
With the much needed polio vaccines,
Guatemala launched a national campaign to immunize
children against this crippling and deadly disease.
Beginning July 3, babies under a year old were
immunized and five-year-old children were receiving
free booster vaccines. More than a million youngsters
will benefit from this life-saving donation.
In addition to the shipment to
Guatemala, MAP also sent 500,000 doses of the polio
vaccine to the Romanian Ministry of Health and the
World Vision Romanian Program Office. Another 150,000
doses were distributed in partnership with World
Vision to the Ministry of Health in Bulgaria.
We praise God for this wonderful
donation of vaccines. Valued at over $30 million, it
is already being used to protect innocent children
from the dreaded disease of polio. Thank you for your
partnership in helping MAP cover the costs of
shipping and distributing the vaccine to some of the
neediest nations in the world.
While many of us remember the scourge
of polio in the United States which affected tens of
thousands of children and adults, the immunizations
now in effect have virtually eliminated the danger
for our children.
But worldwide polio outbreaks still
claim countless lives each year. Without widespread
immunization, children in impoverished nations like
Romania, Guatemala, and Bulgaria are especially
vulnerable. Thanks to the gifts of caring friends
like you, MAP’s shipment of valuable polio
vaccines to these nations will protect more than half
a million infants and children!
In
Cuba, Evangelistic Team Shares Gospel, Life-saving
Medicines with Suffering People
"The trip to Cuba was terribly
revealing. Conditions in mainland Cuba are worse than
we had seen anywhere in Russia, Romania, or even
Albania," reports Timothy Dahlin, Executive
Director of the John Guest Evangelistic Team.
"The majority of Havana is
dismally disintegrating with once-beautiful villas
and mansions now looking like slum dwellings. Most
village homes lack plumbing, windows, or adequate
lighting; they are mere shanty-like shacks with palm
branches for roofing and weeds for landscaping."
During the ministry trip last August,
the JGET Team visited six churches in Havana and five
other Cuban cities. "In spite of dire economic
straits, Cuban Christians are optimistic and joyful
in the Lord," says Dahlin. "Thousands of
people worship on any given day across Cuba, but only
in small, crowded, and often dilapidated
structures."
In addition to preaching the Word,
the JGET Team distributed urgently needed MAP
medications to three hospitals and two individual
churches.
Among the hospitals receiving the MAP
medicines was the Children’s Hospital in
Matanzas. Dahlin described it as a "busy, tragic
place . . . 200 emergency cases each day, with 300
other regular patients."
The Team also brought vital medicines
to an AIDS sanitarium, where the supervising
physician was thrilled to receive them. AIDS
facilities are low on the priority list for the
limited pharmaceuticals available in the country.
Another ministry trip by the JGET
Team is slated for January. With the help of friends
like you, MAP will once again provide medicines and
supplies for distribution to churches and hospitals
within Cuba.
Pray for this troubled land and its
people. As Dahlin says, "After almost four
decades of communism, they not only need Jesus
Christ, but also need just about every form of
medical product they can possibly receive."
North
Korea: Slow starvation threatens a generation
In the orphanages of North Korea, the
little ones sit listlessly, their bodies stunted,
their eyes dimmed with the pain of hunger, their
malnourished bodies mere skin and bones. Many are
there, abandoned by parents who are no longer able to
feed and care for them. The scene is one of
desperation.
With barely enough food to sustain
life, the children are dangerously vulnerable to
diarrhea, pneumonia, and even measles. Many are
dying.
After hearing reports and
participating first-hand in key famine-response
summit meetings involving other NGO leaders, US
Government officials, and leaders from the DPRK
(Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), MAP
president Paul Thompson said, "this is not a
famine in the classic sense of Ethiopia. It is a slow
motion starvation in a country where the government
is loathe to admit the failure of economic policies
and resistant to letting the world know the shame of
the starvation which is sweeping the land."
It is estimated that
malnutrition--from moderate to severe--is already
affecting 60 percent of the children in the orphanage
centers. Many of the babies under two are the most
severely malnourished; their tiny bodies are
succumbing daily to the ravages of hunger.
The health care system has virtually
collapsed. A limited supply of medicines is available
to save the children who are ill.
As Christians, we cannot look away
from the agony of the children and their families. In
partnership with World Vision Canada, MAP has already
distributed oral rehydration salts, vitamins,
antibiotics, surgical gloves, and other medical
supplies, valued at over $48,000.
But as the crisis deepens, especially
with the harsh winter in North Korea, we must be
prepared to meet the need. Paul Thompson has been
approached personally by representatives of the DPRK
to help supply medicinal aid to meet the need. We are
also partnering with World Vision to reach out with
Christian compassion to aid the suffering people.
What MAP will be able to do will
depend on the help of friends like you, and with the
cooperation of the North Korean government in
assuring that the aid reaches those in need. MAP is
offering it services to the American Council for
Voluntary International Action (InterAction) to
supply all medicines for their Associates. Please
pray with us that God’s people will stand
together to help bring Christ’s love in a united
effort to save the lives of these innocent children
and their families.
Travel
Packs Save Lives among Children of Chernobyl
by Craig Corey, M.D.
MINSK, Belarus—In April, I went
with two family practice doctors, a
gastroenterologist, five nurses, and a dozen other
people on a two-week medical mission to what were
referred to as the "invalids of Chernobyl."
These are the folks who actually were
in the damaged nuclear plant and fought the fires,
pumped water, and buried dirt and contaminated
equipment. They took the brunt of Chernobyl, the
highest radiation levels. So we saw what was left of
them.
We carried with us 16 MAP Travel
Packs and smaller antibiotic packs, as well as other
equipment like stethoscopes and otoscopes.
We held three clinics.
The first was in Minsk at Hospital
Number One. We set up our clinic and pharmacy and
opened up shop. Everybody who came in the door was
examined and treated. And everybody got vitamins,
because they were unable to get fresh fruits and
vegetables on a regular basis.
We also had what we called a
"caring room," where people shared the
gospel. Only patients who wanted to went in; it
wasn’t the price of admission.
An interesting story came out of our
visit to the intensive care unit. We saw a very sick
child. One had received multiple antibiotics for
infections and, of course, developed a massive fungal
infection and was septic (a putrid or poisoned state
caused by the absorption of pathogenic microorganisms
and their products into the bloodstream). The
hospital staff asked if we had antifungal
medications.
One of the not so often requested
drugs that had been included in the antibiotic box
just happened to be two big bottles of an antifungal
medicine called Ancobon (flucytosine). I didn’t
see any use for it at the time because we
weren’t going to treat any oral fungal
infections. But God knew. And we were able to help
the child survive.
One of the things that blessed me
most was assuring them that every one of them was a
hero and that we really did appreciate what they did
for the world by stopping the process at Chernobyl. I
think that really helped many of the victims just to
realize that people outside Belarus understood what
they did and considered them to be heroes and that we
were honored to be caring for them.
In addition to the hospital clinics,
we made house calls to people who were so hobbled by
their diseases that they couldn’t be cared for
in a hospital. One man had cancer and had received a
severe dose of radiation in an attempt to treat this
cancer and had spinal cord paralysis as a result. It
was very emotional in private settings like these.
There were lots of tears and lots of thanks.
When we left Minsk, we had 10 Travel
Packs left. The next clinic was at the orphanage in
Osipovichi, where we administered five more Travel
Packs. And we distributed the last five at the third
clinic in Mogilev.
Even before I left Belarus, I knew I
would be back. The prescriptions will run out, and
we’ll need to send more medicines to replace
them. There are many people who we didn’t get to
see. And there are many more who are right now being
affected by the ongoing nuclear leakage from
Chernobyl.
Words
of Wisdom from the Field . . . A MAP Medical Intern
Reports
Over the past 25 years,
MAP/Readers Digest International Fellowship (RDIF)
has provided externships (two-month internships in
overseas hospitals) to 1,700 medical students. This
unique program is coordinated by MAP International,
which also provides medicines and medical supplies to
many of the participating hospitals. In January and
February, Marshall Robert served an RDIF externship
at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Haiti. We share
some of his observations with you in this issue of MAP
International Report because they are excellent
reminders, not only to those who serve in the field
but also to those of us who send desperately needed
medicines and friends like you who provide the
financial support that makes it all possible.
"I suppose that many
missionaries have this problem, but I find it
difficult to bring together all of what has happened
to me over my two months in Haiti. It was so
unbelievably different from anything I had ever
experienced, and it was clearly one of the happiest,
most mind-expanding, and most spiritually fulfilling
times in my life.
"I noted the following
‘bizarre’ diagnoses in my journal: severe
abscesses, anthrax, kwashiorkor, malaria, typhoid
fever, tuberculosis, vitamin A deficiency, neonatal
tetanus, and rheumatic fever. I probably got more
experience with these diseases that first day than I
would have in a lifetime of practice in the States.
Other things I saw included filariasis, amoebiasis,
ascariasis, hookworm, severe impetigo,
strongyloidiasis, Weil’s Syndrome,
leptospirosis, and others I probably don’t
remember.
"That same day, Dr. Steve James
(who has served in Haiti for about 11 years) said
some wise things to me. Many people from the U.N. or
America have come and tried to improve things, he
said, but they give up in a couple of years because
of all the roadblocks to progress there are in Haiti.
What Dr. James said was to do what God tells you, and
don’t worry about the results. It takes years to
see progress. The success of this hospital is not
that Haiti is richer (it isn’t) or that health
is improving (it isn’t). The gospel is going
out, and there is no greater accomplishment on earth.
"What I gleaned was that you
have to totally divest yourself from the worldly view
of things. There is hardly any worldly success to be
found here. The real challenge is to keep your mind
on things above. Since God has called us, He is the
one we serve. As another person explained it to me,
medicine is just public relations for the gospel. My
part is to serve, trust, and obey. God has promised
to do the rest.
"With about 10 days left in
Haiti, I wrote in my journal: ‘When you have
finally given up any illusion that you are making a
difference and any notions that you are accomplishing
something, you are left simply with service for the
sake of serving and glorifying God. It really hurts
to give this much day after day. It rends my heart to
see endless needs and only have very limited skill to
help. This, however, is true service. This is the
heart of the missionary spirit. God does not call us
just to be effective; He calls us to be
faithful.’ "
In
Latin America, MAP Radio Supports Church Involvement
in Health
ECUADOR—Last December, MAP Latin
America (MAPLA) launched a one-week pilot project to
broadcast powerful new radio programs throughout
Latin America in over 60 HCJB radio network stations.
And the response rapidly demonstrated the need for
more.
MAPLA began this summer by producing
21 public service announcements on a wide variety of
health topics, including AIDS, disaster relief,
hygiene, water management, alcoholism, and nutrition
for Christians.
The next stage, as soon as funding is
available, will be a weekly, hour-long program that,
in addition to presenting a comprehensive message on
each topic, will encourage personal interaction with
MAPLA.
Latin America "has been one of
the great evangelical missionary successes of the 20th
century," says Patrick Johnstone, author of Operation
World. "The impact of the Scriptures on
[Latin America] has opened the hearts of millions to
a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus," says
Johnstone.
Media have accounted for a great part
of this phenomenal growth.
It is because of the support of
friends like you that MAP can reach out to the people
of Latin America with practical teaching on critical
health, community, and national issues and provide
programs developed to strengthen and equip the
church.
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