I am taking a team of 16 people, half students, half medical and other professionals, to work with a local group called Pioneers. We set up temporary clinics in very rural areas where health care services are nearly non-existent. We provide free dental and dermatology surgery, medicines for infection, 300 other drugs and supplies all at no charge. Special patients are networked with local missionaries to get follow up care for biopsies, cancers, Buruli ulcers, leprosy, etc.
I have done this since 1997 and the impact on communities is astonishing.
Rural populations in thatch-roof villages in central to north Togo: all ages, no discrimination of any kind, all are welcome. Word gets out quickly when people start seeing their friends' tumors removed, face and hand deformities corrected, and infections cured.
We go there, because nobody else goes there. There are churches and schools but no adequate medical and surgical services.
We work with local physicians and teach them surgical skills and leave them supplies that can be sterilized and re-used. For example, many Africans suffer from disfiguring keloids on the ears, face, neck, and chest. These are a source of severe social stigma. Local services will not touch them, as improper removal can cause them to grow back worse than before. I have taught many African medics proper surgical and post-operative methods to properly cure this bane of their population.
Surprisingly, some of the Togolese doctors themselves are astonished to see the level of poverty in their own country, as they have grown up in the south, in the city, and never been to the rural villages.
We return to the same areas at least twice a year (until Covid-19) to recheck people with chronic disease, refill long term medications, and reinforce medical education.
1200 RESIDENTS OF KPOVE, TOGO (OUTSIDE OF NOTSE) LIVE IN AN EXTREMELY RURAL PART OF TOGO, WITH LITTLE TO NO ACCESS TO DECENT MEDICAL CARE. THEY SEE TRADITIONAL HEALERS FOR EVERYTHING, AND ARE TREATED WITH "CUTTING", REMOVAL OF "BAD BLOOD" WITH MULTIPLE CUTS ACROSS THE BODY TO DRAIN BLOOD IN THE AREAS OF PAIN. THIS COMMUNITY IS NOW UNDER THE ONGOING CARE OF PIONEERS TOGO, A NON-PROFIT CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATION IN TOGO.
