On a medical mission Rotarians bring help, education to farmers in Nigeria
From lancing boils and extracting infected teeth to making fuel discs from garbage and eyeglasses from bicycle spokes, Libertyville Rotarians have made an impact in Nigeria.
Nurse Teri Dreher, Dr. Anthony Collins and his 11-year-old daughter, Shea, and Bob Zamor recently returned from Umuagwo, Nigeria, where they spent an intense two weeks providing care and instruction for hundreds of rural subsistance farmers and their families. They were part of a mission sponsored by Hands and Hearts International, an organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of disadvantaged people worldwide.
They were part of a contingent of 13 missioners from Illinois, Wisconsin and California who went to Africa with $250,000 worth of donated medicines and an equal amount of medical supplies. Libertyville Rotary donated a suction pump and those going packed their carry-on luggage with Tylenol and other over-the-counter medical supplies.
The need was dramatic, but it was “a phenomenally successful trip,” said Dreher, who has been there six times in the last five years. The Libertyville resident is a nurse at Cancer Treatment Centers of America at Midwestern Regional Medical Center, Zion.
Dreher was nicknamed the “Puss Queen” because of the number of boils she lanced. “They would scream bloody murder when it was done, but we hugged afterward,” she said. The crowds were drawn to the small hospital because people knew the drugs were real. (A nearby state has the largest fake drug-maker in the world.)
“They know the meds are real,” she said. “We had 875 patients register on the first day,” she said. Women and children were treated first while some patients waited three days to be seen. A total of 3,200 people were treated, including 250 dental patients and 60 surgical cases.
A team headed by Tom Rodriguez of Waukegan bought mahogany, which is abundant and inexpensive there, to make an operating table and two dental chairs that were covered in Naugahyde, a vinyl-coated fabric.
At Wednesday’s Sunrise Rotary meeting Collins, a dentist with offices in Mundelein, showed off a tooth that had been extracted which had a tumor nearly the size of a golf ball attached to it. He said the trip was nerve-wracking, but fulfilling all the same because so many people needed care.
“You got used to the arguments and the fights just outside the door because they were fighting for care,” said Collins. Former Libertyville Fire Chief Bob Zamor said trying to do triage, deciding who gets care first — or at all — was heart-breaking.
“One day we got all the men in a circle. I had 30 tickets (for an appointment) and 150 men there. I’ve never done anything that hard in my life. The guy who didn’t get a ticket had to wait until next year,” said Zamor. Some won’t make it until then.
Another part of the mission was to help residents who grew just enough food for themselves to live better. They were taught how to make fuel discs by mixing grass, paper garbage and water, and then compressing them.
The Rotarians also brought kits to make bicycle-spoke eyeglasses. In 15 minutes, with lenses from China that were sawed in half, a pair that could be sold for $2 could be made for 25 cents.
“We wanted to give local youth skills to start their own businesses,” said Dreher. In Nigeria there are both very rich and very poor people, but no middle class.
Shea helped the adults, but also made friends with local children, climbing trees and holding races with them. That was fun, but “it was hard to get used to all the bugs,” she said.