Volunteers Provide Care in Remote Reaches of Vanuatu

While in Vanuatu, several sets of Project HOPE volunteers traveled to far off regions to provide health care and health education.

Dr. Alan Jamison and Nurse William Aiken took a three-day voyage aboard a LCH (Landing Craft Heavy) to care for people of Tangua.

As Pacific Partnership 2011 medical team arrived at the remote medical clinic set up at the Tar Tar School, 50 people were already waiting in line. Some had walked miles to have the opportunity to have a doctor examine their aches, pains and illnesses.

Aiken spent the day helping sign patients in and recording their vital signs before moving them on to the appropriate physician.  “We are providing quality care, and getting an opportunity to work with our local partners,” Aiken says.

Dr. Jamison provided pediatric care and focused on seeing as many children as possible. “It was fantastic,” he says. “My interpreter was a retired school teacher, and she is very efficient when communicating with the locals. Things went very smoothly.”

As Aiken and Jamison worked in Tangua, HOPE volunteer Aislinn Mangan provided care, deep in the heart of the island, at a medical site set up in Fanafo.

At the remote jungle site, heavy with heat, people lined the path to the clinic, dressed in traditional attire. The Pacific Partnership 2011 band played rag-time beats, as a crowd of nearly 100 people grooved to the music of the brass band.

“The people at Fanafo were very kind, and very traditional,” Mangan says.

While caring for children at the site, Mangan learned about Yaws, a disease impacting children in the area. The disease attacks children’s legs and creates ulcers. Treatment requires Penicillin injections and washing the area out thoroughly for about two weeks.

Mangan enjoyed her time in Fanafo, a site where the culture and history of the island came together. “It was an amazing experience and I was reminded of the power of simplicity,” she says.