User:Edgetty
Somos Amigos Medical Missions
| Founded | 1997 |
|---|---|
| Location |
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| Website | somosamigos.org |
Somos Amigos Medical Missions is a service trip that travels to the El Naranjito,Dominican Republic multiple times per year to provide medical and dental care for the local communities. The program was established in 1997 by a group of volunteers, dentists, and physicians looking to bring care for under-served areas in developing countries. The program welcomes physicians, dentists, hygienists, medical and dental students, nurses, and translators of all backgrounds and ages. The group brings together volunteers from all around the United States and the world.[1]
Establishment and Philosophy
The Somos Amigos Medical Mission formed as a result of Georgetown Prepatory School's Somos Amigos service trips. This program, formed about 20 years ago, took juniors at Georgetown Prep to various parts of the Dominican Republic every summer for about 5 weeks to work directly with a community. These trips often built water supplies, schools, churches, and anything else a community needed. Around 1997, one of the founders of this trip, Frank Brightwell, consulted his doctor, Dr Mike Keegan, and a dentist and Prep Alum Dr Mike Conahan, to bring a few people down to conduct medical and dental care. This first trip included 6 volunteers, one doctor and one dentist. They could only serve basic needs for the community, but layed the foundation and experience to help the trip grow.
Background
The town of El Naranjito is located in the mountains of the Santiago province, about two and a half hours west of Santiago, Dominican Republic. The volunteers spend about a week in the village, staying in the homes of the campesinos. Over the course of the week, the program sees about 800 people, and has medical and dental records for over 2000 people. The doctors will typically see around 650 people, and the dentists around 250 people. All of the services provided: medical, dental, medicines, etc, are free of charge to the campesinos.
The Clinic
In the early years, the clinic was conducted in the community church and school. As the program grew, there was a need for more space. Eventually the first clinic building was erected in 2004 to give the doctors and the pharmacy a larger and more permanent place to work. With the backing of various donors and funding, the clinic area continued to grow as the program began seeing more patients from the surrounding areas. A second clinic building was added to the back of the first so that the dentists had their own building to work. A new school for the community was built so that the children would not have to miss school while the clinic was open. The old school became a lab and women's clinic as the program looked to expand the services they could provide for the people.
Volunteers
The program has grown so much from its humble beginnings. The number of volunteers has expanded from about 15 in the early years to reaching over 40. The clinic now runs three trips throughout the year, typically in January, June and October. This allows for many volunteers to choose when they can serve based on their work and personal schedules, and also allows for a greater number of people to become involved without overwhelming the Naranjito community.
References
- ^ somosamigos.org