From the classroom… to the rainforest of Belize, 13 Duluth nursing students recently embarked on a journey to a third world country that would end up changing many lives, including their own.
After a 2- thousand mile flight and a couple hour bus ride it was time to get down to business.
The generosity of Northlanders enabled this group to bring thousands of dollars in medical equipment directly to the people in need.
St. Scholastica nursing professor PZ Nielsen explains how the group started sorting out those supplies shortly after their arrival, "every told me that they just had a little bit, and what we ended up with is something along the lines of 4 completely stuffed hockey bags.”
For a nation where the accessibility is not as resourced to serve the needs of the people, these supplies will help a lacking infrastructure handle a rising demand.
Sara Mathias was one of those students determined to change that, “It’s not a lack of compassion, or a lack of caring, it’s just a lack of funds and a lack of supplies, and a lack of materials, that you know you can only do so much with what you have and they’re definitely making the most of it, but it’s not enough.”
Ellie Engstrom agrees, "They have a healthcare system, they have a free hospital, but their resources are exhausted. They don't have enough supplies, they don't have enough money."
“The accessibility to quality healthcare, just isn’t there," emphasizes another student.
The nation is being plagued by an astonishing incidence of diabetes and hypertension, both of which pose a great health hazard as the country’s leading killer for all age brackets, genders, and races.
Adrian Bartley, one of the outreach coordinators through the organization ProBelize explains, “The need is great. According to some statistics released recently 13 percent of our population is living with diabetes, 30 percent is hypertensive, and over 60 percent of our population is overweight.”
Colleague Jonny Roman says the problem runs deeper, “and then everything that’s involved with poor diet, hypertension, heart attacks, heart disease. All that is major health issues.”
While the supplies help, the knowledge and hands on skills are priceless.
Each day we’d travel about an hour to a new village.
Each new village met another opportunity to increase the accessibility of healthcare to those who can’t get it.
Rose Anderson, health educator for the Western Health Region does everything she can to assist the Belizean people with the conditions that plage them, “We understand that the people are living in poverty out there and if someone don’t help them then eventually what they have will get chronic and they will die.”
The more remote the village, the greater the poverty level seemed to rise.
Nursing student Jason Roberts thought he was ready for just about anything, "but I was still shocked and surprised at how at the poverty there is out in some of the villages that we’ve been out to.”
Mat Johnson, also a student at the college, was in awe, “The absolute poverty that these people living in and how they eek by is, I don’t know how they do it, but they do it.”
"Most of the homes that we've been to on home visits are just one room homes, everythings all in one– their kitchen, their living room, their dining room, their bedrooms, sometimes one or two beds for a family of five, and there's just no sense of privacy, but that doesn't seem to bother them," described student Stephanie Olson.
Engstrom adds, "Some villages they have tvs and they have concrete walls and they're fairly nice, but some of the other villages... these people have dirt floors, holes in the walls, they don't have beds, there was one house where there was a pile of straw in the corner and that's where everyone slept."
Despite how little they had, it was their health that really mattered, "Because that’s the most, that’s the best thing because you can be poor, but if your not healthy then your nothing… health is the most important thing in life for everyone,” explains Noelia Sinturion of St. Matthews Village.
When asked what makes them happy, the villager's responses were simple, "
"Well, having good health makes me happy because then you don’t have to worry about nothing. But, if your not healthy and you keep getting sick then you keep going to the doctor," says Belizean Therese Thompson.
Ethel Laford adds, "When my kids are happy I am happy as well… when they okay, I’m okay as well.”
So, ultimately, through healthcare, the students from St. Scholastica were generating happiness through healthcare.
That was evident for nursing student Audrey Harrison, “I think that seeing these people in this place, seeing how little they have but still seeing how happy they are, seeing how much they love each other, seeing what a huge sense of community they have, seeing how happy they are to see you, you know when you walk in the door, that’s the best feeling ever.”
In a voice of quite confidence, Bartley remains positive,“Although the need is great, the compassion and determination of the people working in the health field is even greater and we will make a difference,"
Join us again on Thursday March 19th, as Julie takes us back into the jungles of Belize and walks us through the clinic doors... right into the middle of the action.
Meanwhile, you can get more information on the trip by visiting the groups blog at: www.tsjitter.blogspot.com
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