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Rotary Club of Parkersburg Medical Mission
The Rotary Club of Parkersburg is again sponsoring a medical mission trip to Nicaragua on July 22nd. This will be the fourth year that the club has sent doctors, nurses and other volunteers to provide medical care to the some of the most economically disadvantaged people in our hemisphere. The people who travel on these trips truly witness children and families who struggle to find food for a daily existence. The group will provide clinics in Managua for people who live at the city garbage dump. The people who live there try to find food shelter or anything else of value from the dump trucks who make deposits. The sights of the dump are shocking, but the smell of rotting and burning refuse makes a lasting impression on anyone who visits.
The medical team will also provide clinics in Rancho Grande. The area around Rancho Grande is a mountainous coffee growing region of the county. Several years ago many of the local plantations were devastated by low wholesale prices of coffee and went bankrupt. The people who lived and worked on the plantations were force to move anywhere they could literally find a wide spot in the road. Sanitation and starvation followed and several children died under extremely harsh conditions. The missionary we work with, Noemi Caiazzo, established two feeding centers for the children in the area. After four years of minimal nutritional support the children are showing progress from the devastating conditions which they live.
The World Bank has established a measure of poverty as less than $2.00 per day per person, 80% of the people in this region fall below this level. Many of the symptoms which are treated relate to intestinal parasites, poor diet, contaminated water and hard work. A civil engineer will be traveling in the group to help evaluate and improve the water supply in the village of Rancho Grande.
The club is looking for donations for vitamins and medicines to be distributed during the trip along with supplies to improve the water system. We will also distribute beans and rice which is their primary food source if funds permit. The missionary who travels these mountain roads is also in need of a truck to take food to the remote areas of the mountains.
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