Graduation Day!

Health Promoter Students and teachers
pose for a final picture


Celestina, assisted by Nicanor
demonstrates newborn care at the
graduation festivities

More Pictures

Debbie takes a temp









Rich and Charles load drinking water

Cal and Tracey see a Patient
















Children enjoy the Limbo Game

Panama Picture Diary

Prayer and preparation before Monday´s first day of work for the full team. We met with hosts and local Methodist helpers before begining the day.

The pharmacy team

prepared for the first

clinic day.

More pictures to follow that show our work throughout the week.

We Have Arrived!

Our team of 16 arrived safely in Panama City on Friday evening 2 hours late. We finally checked into our hotel by 1:30 am Saturday. We were all tired but glad to have made it safely. Early on Saturday, Linda, Janet and Jane rose at 5 am to travel to the local airport to fly to David in order to begin the last segment of the health promoter class while the rest of the team traveled by bus.

When we arrived in Cienaguita, the health promoter students were waiting and greeted us with a welcoming song and hugs. We taught the students in a new house that had been constructed by VIM volunteers for the local manager of the community center. It was nice to be in a new building with our old friends from the Ngobe reservation. We began class by asking how the students had used their new health knowledge since our last visit. There were many stories of how they were teaching their neighbors about sanitation, ways to disinfect drinking water in the sunlight and treating wounds using the medical kits they had each been given.

Tomorrow (Monday) the whole team will set up clinic and begin all of the programs; a new children´s program, a health clinic and continue with the health teaching. As we move through the next few days, we will try to update this blog with more news of our adventures.

Fourth Annual Visit for Panama Health Team

Welcome to Our Story: Health Delivery and Health Education

Sixteen health volunteers from Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois will return to Panama on February 27th, 2009 to continue growing their service activities among the Ngobe people there. The team's goals are to express love in action by providing outpatient clinic services, completing phase three of a class for selected village health promoter students and initiating a new children's program that will combine health teaching with VBS activities. Members of the local Methodist congregation in Panama will serve as hosts and will also volunteer in the project. A partnership has been established with the Panama Ministry of Health who also support these activities.

As the team progresses, updates will be made to the blog. Please check it out between 2/27 and 3/8.