INTERNATIONAL HEALTH ACTIVITIES
Report - September 19, 1967 Meeting
Bush Surreal Kit
At the April, 1967 meeting our Auxiliary authorized the purchase of
a bush surgical kit as a contribution to the people of Bolivia under the
auspices of the Alliance For Progress Person to Person Project, so per-
suavesively presented to our community by Skipper Bowles. We were able
to purchase this kit at cost from Winchester Hitch Surgical Company,* It
was equipped with instruments and supplies to enable a doctor to set up a
small field hospital in backward areas where little or no medical help is
otherwise available.
Our kit was taken to Bolivia by Br. W. Collins Mahaffee, a Greensboro
physician, who, with Br. Charles Sims, a veterinarian from here, underwrote
the expense of their trip and also gave of their time add knowledge. They
spent a month ministering to Indian tribes in remote mountain areas. The
Bolivian govet@«ment assigned two of their interns to accompany the doctors
as interpreters and guides and to receive the benefit of working with experienced medical men,
Br. Maha#ffee was appalled to find how little modern medicine reaches
these people. Tuberculosis, tetanus, typhus, plus many other diseases never
seen in the United States are part of daily life, often in epidemic proportions
afflicting entire tribes. In 1966 a village of 150 people lost 35 children
in a measles epidemic. The kit was put to immediate use and the interns were
trained to make the most of the instruments. When the Greensboro doctors
left, Br. Mahaffeee turned the kit over to Br. Avelino Rodriquez Robles,
one of the interns who is ministering to the people of Tablas Monte as their
provincial doctor. Br. Robles has sent a letter of appreciation to the
auxiliary which has been translated for us. I'd like to shire it with you
now...
* $295.15
INTERNATIONAL HEALTH ACTIVITIES
Report - September 19, 1967 Meeting
Bush Surreal Kit
At the April, 1967 meeting our Auxiliary authorized the purchase of
a bush surgical kit as a contribution to the people of Bolivia under the
auspices of the Alliance For Progress Person to Person Project, so per-
suavesively presented to our community by Skipper Bowles. We were able
to purchase this kit at cost from Winchester Hitch Surgical Company,* It
was equipped with instruments and supplies to enable a doctor to set up a
small field hospital in backward areas where little or no medical help is
otherwise available.
Our kit was taken to Bolivia by Br. W. Collins Mahaffee, a Greensboro
physician, who, with Br. Charles Sims, a veterinarian from here, underwrote
the expense of their trip and also gave of their time add knowledge. They
spent a month ministering to Indian tribes in remote mountain areas. The
Bolivian govet@«ment assigned two of their interns to accompany the doctors
as interpreters and guides and to receive the benefit of working with experienced medical men,
Br. Maha#ffee was appalled to find how little modern medicine reaches
these people. Tuberculosis, tetanus, typhus, plus many other diseases never
seen in the United States are part of daily life, often in epidemic proportions
afflicting entire tribes. In 1966 a village of 150 people lost 35 children
in a measles epidemic. The kit was put to immediate use and the interns were
trained to make the most of the instruments. When the Greensboro doctors
left, Br. Mahaffeee turned the kit over to Br. Avelino Rodriquez Robles,
one of the interns who is ministering to the people of Tablas Monte as their
provincial doctor. Br. Robles has sent a letter of appreciation to the
auxiliary which has been translated for us. I'd like to shire it with you
now...
* $295.15
