(Jan. 31, 2014 - by Harold Goerzen) When a nine-member short-term medical team visited the West African country of Burkina Faso late last year, participants knew they’d face some difficult situations, but they weren’t prepared for the condition of the critically ill patients they encountered.

A boy from the Fulani tribe arrived at with his bladder partially formed outside his body. Another 3-year-old boy had an abnormally oversized head because of fluid build-up. A woman showed up with a cancerous growth on her throat, strangulating her airways and making eating nearly impossible. Others were crippled due to untreated or improperly treated set leg fractures.

More typical problems included malaria, high blood pressure, anemia, ulcers, diarrhea, neurological disorders, parasites, ulcers, heart disease, osteoarthritis, goiter problems related to a lack of iodine, and complications from brutal female genital mutilations.

“Obviously this was a very under-served region for medical care, especially in Dossi,” said team leader Nate Dell, a missionary with HCJB Global (now Reach Beyond) based in Colorado. “We saw a lot of injuries that showed neglect, leading to complications. It was hard to see that stuff.”

Why hadn’t these patients seen a doctor sooner? “Often people just think they can’t afford it. They can’t even pay to take a bus,” explained Dell, adding that some resort to witch doctors or home remedies. “Many villages often don’t have electricity except for maybe one solar panel.”

Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, ranking 161^st out of 169 countries in the 2010 UNDP Human Development Index, has a dearth of accessible healthcare. When people in Dossi and Kari/Loncuy heard that the team was coming, offering free medical screenings and doctor visits, lines formed early and often as patients jockeyed for position.

“One of the most difficult things was to ensure the sickest patients had their chance to get cared for as the pushiest people tended to make their way to the front of the line,” Dell related. “I spent plenty of time walking through the ranks, looking for feverish babies and the neediest patients and making sure they saw a doctor.”

Dell and Sheila Leech, Reach Beyond’s vice president of international healthcare, are working with partner Etienne Kiemdé of Radio Evangile Développement (RED) to do follow-up with the most serious patients, perhaps taking them to a city hospital or to neighboring Ghana to undergo much-needed surgeries. “In future trips we’d like to strengthen tie-ins with Burkina Faso’s medical system,” Dell said. “We’d also like to incorporate a children’s ministry. The kids would always crowd around us.”

RED, which operates a network of eight community radio stations across Burkina Faso, all installed with Reach Beyond’s help, invited the team to hold the medical outreach Nov. 12-22. The event took place in collaboration with the Health District of Houndé.

Overall, the international team saw more than 1,200 patients during the trip. In addition to Dell, team members included Drs. Karla Flores, José Vivanco and Paola Vélez Vargas and nurse Ruth Telenchana from Ecuador; Dr. Mark Nelson and Adeline McCartney, both based in Ghana; nurse Jessica Olson from Idaho; and Dell’s uncle, Wally McClure, from Nevada.

“The trip seemed like a great time of growth for Karla, the young Ecuadorian doctor,” Dell said. “She had some really tough cases that brought her to tears. There wasn’t much we could do for some of the patients, but working through them together with Dr. Nelson helped encourage Karla.”

Dell added that the location of the outreach was strategically chosen to open opportunities for the mission’s partners to share Christ in an area with little Christian influence. “Praying with a Fulani family was great,” Dell related. “We heard about one guy who said he was giving up his fetishes and was going to try and give Jesus a chance.”

Another highlight of the trip was dedicating a clean-water well in the community of Tuy about 15 miles south of the capital, Ouagadougou. The well was financed by Dell’s uncle, Wally McClure, of Nevada.

“He was a huge help in the pharmacy counting pills and doing things like teaching the kids multiplication tables in his few moments of spare time,” Dell said. “I was grateful to stand beside him during the dedication of the new water well that he and my aunt provided. He was very emotional during the celebration.”

Dell said  his uncle was impressed by both the quality of the well water which he described as “good and pure” and the installation “They had erected a stone wall around the well to keep out animals,” he explained. “They’d also built a drain so the ground wouldn’t get muddy, and the runoff settled into gravel fills deep enough so it wouldn’t be affected by mosquitoes that could spread malaria.”

Adding to the success of the trip was the availability of translation. Local translators spoke the Jula and Mooré tribal languages, and several of the team members spoke French, the country’s official language.

“The need for water, healthcare and sanitation in Burkina Faso is overwhelming,” Dell said. “We are working with partners that don’t have the resources to provide that. We are helping people, and they are benefited in amazing ways.”

Regarding the radio work, Dell said the RED network is doing well, presenting a clear gospel message and being a valuable service to the communities. While in Burkina Faso he presented a certificate to Kiemdé, recognizing 20 years of partnership with Reach Beyond.

“It’s comforting to know that RED and the message of Christ are still there after we’re gone,” Dell continued. “That’s the blessing of that partnership. Without that, there’s no way we could follow up with the patients we saw. Adeline, who recently took a course on how to train trainers, is already planning to return to do some sanitation and hygiene training.”

Source: Reach Beyond