Behind the starting line

Just one week before I depart for Haiti! For what seemed like a very long time after I applied to volunteer with Physicians for Peace, I waited for more details on how I could be involved.

PFP is an organization that not only sends volunteer healthcare professionals, including physicians, dentists, nurses, physical therapists, physician assistants and others, overseas to provide care, but is dedicated to the ideal that health care in the developing world can best be improved by providing training and education to health care professionals in those countries. The focus is to create long-term and sustainable medical education and training programs to places in need. including to places in need. PFP has made hundreds of trips to Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Shaun Cleaver, a PT based long-term in Haiti. For the past two years, he has been involved in creating the Rehabilitation Tech Training Program at Hopital Albert Schweitzer, a community based hospital north of Port-au-Prince. Just weeks after the earthquake, the hospital opened a Prosthetics and Rehab clinic in partnership with Hanger. Now, Shaun coordinates prosthetists and physical therapist volunteers to meet the overwhelming need for artificial limbs and rehabilitation. Because of the dire need, after our first conversation he asked, "Can you come next week?"

I'm feeling confident in the mission that this organization strives towards and privileged to join this team. I'm also feeling stressed-out, adrenaline pumping and out of breath, like I'm racing just to get to the starting line. I have so much to do in terms of finishing my paperwork at CCS, preparing for the student that I will take on when I return, organizing and packing supplies to bring, getting my travel immunizations and medications, frantically reviewing articles on amputations and prosthetics, cramming basic French into my brain . . . a huge comfort is that I have my Father watching over me, friends and family praying for me and cheering me on. I'm going by myself, but I am definitely not going to Haiti alone. I am so humbled by how God is making everything possible in such a short time, and grateful for the support that I've received!