It is evident Timmy Global Health has a certain tangible impact upon its patients, yet what about the volunteers? The volunteers not only make the brigades possible, but also benefit from the bond they form with the communities they visit.
We experienced this. We appreciate the time we spent in Tena, Ecuador. We did not just learn about the communities we visited, but we learned about ourselves.
Timmy Global Health's programming seeks to expand access to healthcare through the combination of short-term medical brigades and long-term commitment to both partner organizations and individual communities. Timmy has a unique model that allows them to offer primary care in underprivileged areas in a responsible, culturally sensitive and effective manner.
Through DePauw University's Winter Term In Service, we were fortunate enough to be volunteers on a ten-day brigade to Tena, Ecuador. In addition to the 17 students and two faculty advisers from DePauw, a Timmy brigade leader, 11 medical professionals, 8 translators and multiple Ecuadorian government representatives accompanied us.
A typical day implied clinic work from 8 in the morning until at least 5 in the afternoon. We concluded each workday with preparations for the next clinic day such as medicine packing and group reflections. Additionally, there were days when we traveled as far as two hours from our home base of Misahualli to set up clinic in communities scattered throughout the Amazon basin.
Traveling to these communities ranged from bus and trucks to canoes down the Napo River. Clinic stations included medical history, vitals, doctor visit, and a fully stocked pharmacy. During the ten-day brigade we saw over 1,000 patients in 12 different communities.
Timmy Global Health is unique in that its humanitarian work is characterized by direct volunteer and patient interaction. Timmy volunteers are responsible for raising money and collecting medical supplies. Timmy volunteers are also not just students. They are medical professionals who dedicated their own time and knowledge to bring health care to an area, which can be severely deprived of such necessities.
But what are the benefits of sending volunteers to these remote areas rather than just sending money or supplies to local aid agencies? For example, the cost of an airline ticket to Quito from Indianapolis was $1000 a round trip. That same $1000 could potentially be used to purchase medical supplies from local pharmacies or pay for a patient's medical bill.
Humanitarian work depends on these types of relationships that do not just provide material goods, but also the irreplaceable feeling of hope, optimism and faith that someone cares enough to help.
Our brigade to Tena was able to identify and provide further health care to a man with a dangerous heart murmur, a premature infant with a tumor and diagnose a whole family suffering from tuberculosis. These are just the extreme cases.
Timmy, along with its doctors and volunteers, are able to utilize a whole stocked pharmacy of donated medicine brought with us. This means providing pain medications, antibiotics and de-parasite medications in the hope of eradicating certain infections haunting these communities.
We also provided both sunglasses and reading glasses to patients. Although these gestures may seem quite simple to us, they were not only solutions to patients' ailments, but more than anything they meant a contagious feeling of pure hopefulness and confidence in a better future. Among these communities, it is simply normal to suffer from such everyday body pain, insufferable headaches and infections such as lice, parasites or worms. Timmy's brigades mean the possibility of end to such a lifestyle that sometimes can seem so unfortunately hopeless.
In addition to offering primary medical care, which is otherwise unattainable for patients, Timmy's individual chapters are working to create more sustainable projects such as how to offer communities solutions in attaining clean water. Timmy Global Health offers the opportunity for volunteers to join in efforts for fundraising, advocating and serving. Humanitarian service through Timmy has the ability to promote understanding of the global health issues affecting the world's impoverished, while providing motivation for volunteers to both personally increase global awareness and actively work to solve global health problems.
— Piedmonte is a junior from Carmel, Ind. majoring in philosophy and biochemistry. Schuman is a sophomore from Indianapolis majoring in English writing. opinion@thedepauw.com