Photos by Bonnie Hudlet, HOPE's Volunteer Public Affairs Officer
Dr. Victoria McEvoy, a pediatrician from Cambridge, Massachusetts, is serving on her first volunteer mission with Project HOPE.
Working on the one-month long mission in Nicaragua and Panama did have its rough and tough moments. The weather was excruciatingly hot or soaking wet with rain. Time and resources did not permit everyone that needed care to receive it. Still, it was always a pleasure to watch Dr. McEvoy smile at a new patient and to see the joy on her face, along with the seriousness in her eyes when she was caring for each person.
She also treated a baby with pneumonia. "The mother brought he baby to the clinic and we were able to get the child admitted tot he local hospital," she says. "If the mom had not brought the baby to the clinic, she probably would have not have sought out the help the baby really needed."Photos and story by Bonnie Hudlet, HOPE's Volunteer Public Affairs Officer
“We all have different experiences even at the same place and at the same time,” says Dr. Mary Burry when speaking about participating in humanitarian missions around the world with her husband Dr. Tom Hoggard. The couple is now volunteering on their first mission with Project HOPE serving in Nicaragua and Panama as part of Continuing Promise 2010.
Mary, along with the other providers, have found that working with the military and people from so many different countries has been a great experience in seeing how things operate and the exchange of knowledge.
As with all the international work Mary has done, the patients always make a personal impact on her life. Sunday she saw a young patient, about 4-years-old, with an immune skin disease that covered his entire body. He has been suffering with it for about a year now.Photos and story by Bonnie Hudlet, HOPE's Volunteer Public Affairs Officer
Dr. Earl Wellington, a retired physician from Harlingen, Texas had been interested in volunteer medical work for years. He was also familiar with Project HOPE. This year, his intersections of interests came together when he accepted a volunteer position in internal medicine aboard the USS Iwo Jima and ashore in Nicaragua and Panama.
“I am enjoying the military interaction," says Dr. Wellington. "I retired from the Veterans Administration and I was in the military myself. Relating to the younger soldiers and their work in the Persian Gulf has helped me understand their military experience and unique circumstances.”
Dr. Wellington is also busy giving lots of time and attention to the patients he treats. "I am surprised at the number of people who don’t have basic medical care. They have to walk long distances to receive it," he says. "I am gaining a real appreciation for what these people have to live with. The best thing I can do while here is give the people that come to me my full attention and concern."Photos and story by Bonnie Hudlet, HOPE's Volunteer Public Affairs Officer
Having a major in Spanish and an emphasis in culture has helped Project HOPE volunteer nurse Jill Blashka adapt to ship life and communicate and relate to the people she has cared for at the medical sites in Nicaragua and Panama. “Speaking the language is great, though it is not always perfect,” she says. “Here we hear a mixture of English and Spanish and the local language.”
“I am enjoying teaching and connecting with people, even it if it is just one person every day," she says. “I remember one lady I met on the first day in Nicaragua. I was doing some health education and talking to her about dental hygiene, hand washing, breast exams. The conversation sparked a concern for her and we then had an in depth conversation about a lump that she felt.”
She has also witnessed the impact of civilian volunteers participating in the Continuing Promise mission. Project HOPE has rotated a new group of volunteers into the four-month long mission each month. Jill says the monthly rotations of new volunteers “brings relief and new life for the people on the ship who have been here since the beginning.”Photos and story by Bonnie Hudlet, HOPE's Volunteer Public Affairs Officer
When the president walked into the hospital ward, he was greeted by Project HOPE volunteer nurse Anne Borden. He shook her hand, and offered her his thanks.
The guard came back and asked if we could walk down to the visitors, a short way down the hall. Anne and I walked with the woman, and the guard even offered her his arm, but she could not see his arm.Photos and story by Bonnie Hudlet, HOPE's Volunteer Public Affairs Officer
Patiently, Project HOPE volunteer nurse, Anne Borden, listens as an elderly lady with diabetes talks about her life. She then talks with her, giving her advice on how to better control her disease within her environment in rural Central America.
Anne will repeat this scene, over and over again, listening to and teaching each individual patient to ensure all their questions are answered and that they understand their chronic diseases. “It is very gratifying. There is a lot of individual counseling and teaching and people are very appreciative of anything you do. We get the opportunity to teach people the basic fundamentals of how to manage their chronic diseases that they are going to have all their lives,” Anne says.
Anne first worked with Project HOPE when her employer, Massachusetts General Hospital, sent a team of volunteers to work with HOPE in Haiti following the devastating earthquake. She says that volunteering after the earthquake really made her understand how connected every one really is. Her second volunteer mission with HOPE in Nicaragua and Panama is cementing that belief.
In addition to working with patients, Anne is also serving as HOPE's Operations Officer and Chief Nursing Officer during this portion of the Continuing Promise 2010 eight-country mission. Her leadership role makes her appreciate even more the complexity and scale of this annual humanitarian assistance and health education mission. "The Navy really has the infrastructure to pull off such a large mission that helps so many people," she says. "It is [also] nice to work with the Navy people, and get the opportunity to work with all the diverse people on the boat. At lunch we had every branch of the military at the table, but the Coast Guard, plus a dentist from Canada. How often can you say that you participated in something on such a large scale and worked with people from Germany, Canada, Paraguay, and the Netherlands?”Photos and story by Bonnie Hudlet, HOPE's Volunteer Public Affairs Officer
One of first days in Panama and Project HOPE volunteers got to expereince another lesson in the extremes of mother nature.
Most people were only concerned about their electronics i.e. my camera and computer, because it was too much of a downpour to even think about staying dry! As the commander says, “It is a chance to show character!”Photos and story by Bonnie Hudlet, HOPE's Volunteer Public Affairs Officer
I found out that one of the reasons the annual Continuing Promise mission takes place this time of year is that the ship, crew and volunteers are expected to be on hurricane readiness and prepared to help if a storm should hit a nearby country.
We headed north and waited it out for about a day before we got word that help would not be needed and again turned south to continue the health education and humanitarian assistance mission to Panama. We moved “full steam ahead” and are planning on being back on schedule by sending helicopters ahead with equipment and supplies to help get the medical sights ready to open as soon as we arrive.
So what did we do in route to a possible international assist, then to Panama? Anything we could. Some took another look at the ship and went to places they had not been, some read, some slept, doctors and nurses gave classes, and one meal the Project HOPE volunteers and military personnel worked in the kitchen. They had a lot of fun and learned a few new things.Photos and story by Bonnie Hudlet, HOPE's Volunteer Public Affairs Officer
Jillian Blashka, a pediatric nurse from Alexandria, Virginia, is serving on her first volunteer mission for Project HOPE.
Anne Borden, a nurse from Kittery Point, Maine, brings 26 years of experience in surgical trauma and cardiology to her second volunteer mission with Project HOPE. Earlier this year, she volunteered in Haiti. She is serving as HOPE’s Operations Officer and Chief Nursing Officer onboard the USS Iwo Jima and ashore in Nicaragua and Panama.
Dr. Mary Burry, a physician from Portland, Oregon, is on her first volunteer mission with Project HOPE, but she brings extensive international health experience to her volunteer position. Dr. Burry has worked with disaster relief teams in Somalia, Albania, Turkey, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, Honduras, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Iraq.
Carma Erickson-Hurt, a nurse from Island Park, Idaho, retired from the United States Navy in 2007. She specializes in palliative care. Carma first worked with Project HOPE when stationed on board the USNS Comfort in response to the tsunami in 2005. Most recently Carma volunteered with Project HOPE as the Chief Nursing Officer for disaster relief medical care aboard the USNS Comfort hospital ship in response to the earthquake in Haiti. She is serving as the HOPE Medical Director onboard the USS Iwo Jima and ashore in Nicaragua and Panama.
Dr. John Hoggard, a family medicine physician from Portland, Oregon, is on his first volunteer assignment with Project HOPE. His international health experience includes many missions caring for refugees of drought, war, floods, tsunami and earthquakes.Bonnie Hudlet, a photographer from Hayden, Idaho, is a first-time volunteer for Project HOPE. She brings a wealth of photojournalism experience from South America and Argentina to her position as HOPE's Public Affairs Officer onboard the USS Iwo Jima and ashore in Nicaragua and Panama.
Dr. Robert Alan Jamison, a retired pediatrician from Morristown, Tennessee, just recently returned from a HOPE volunteer mission in Indonesia. He's again using his pediatric expertise onboard the USS Iwo Jima and ashore in Nicaragua and Panama.
Dr. Victoria McEvoy, a pediatrician from Cambridge, Massachusetts, is serving on her first volunteer mission with HOPE onboard the USS Iwo Jima and ashore in Nicaragua and Panama.
Dr. Earl Wellington, a retired physician from Harlingen, Texas is serving on his first mission for Project HOPE. Onboard the USS Iwo Jima and ashore in Nicaragua and Panama, Dr. Wellington is volunteering as an Internal Medicine physician.
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