Emilia and her three small children live at the edge of the community but also at the edge of existence. A victim of abuse and abandoned by the father of her children she lives on a less-than-minimal government allowance.
Her access to healthcare is the choice between a ten-mile walk to the local health center, which is minimally staffed and offers no meds. If she doesn’t get in line before the doors open at 8 am, she will not be seen that day. Her other options are to depend on equally poor neighbors to share what meds or home remedies they may have to offer. An extended family is an option, but only if she has one. Many of the underserved are “in transit” looking for jobs or help and when a father (or mother actually) gives up and abandons the family, the options are few and, the best of them are not very good.
Enter the do-gooder gringos! These medical missions offer a free clinic in the community by an outside organization! The only problem is, due to lack of community screenings and triage, hundreds of people flock to the clinic even before the doors open—there are no “lines” just dozens, sometimes hundreds of people pushing and shoving.
Even if Emilia gets there with her children, the chances of “competing” for a spot in the chaos are slim. The outside organization serves as many as they can, then closes their doors and feels good about whatever number of people they “saw” in their clinic, in many cases the men who “got in” go sell the meds they were gifted to buy alcohol or drugs. Guess who didn’t get “seen” by a doctor? Guess who was told “don’t worry” there will be another clinic someday? Emilia. Left behind.
Well Child International (WCI) and their nursing medical missions provide repeat and responsible medical care for women and children ONLY, which includes the left behinds.Their nursing medical missions assure communities are screened and triaged to ensure only those in need are given access to the clinics offered. WCI: serving the “Emilia’s” for 20 years and offering nursing volunteer programs abroad.