Recap of Mobile Medical Disaster Relief in 2011

    Provided medical care for 8,000 people in the developing world who had no     access to health care.

    Provided clean water for 10,000 people who previously drank only contaminated     water.

    Rescued 6 children from slavery in Africa.

    Took 200 volunteers overseas to participate in missions, comprising 16,000     man hours of work in developing countries.

Utilized    1600 volunteers working 3200 hours at MMDR HQ.

Spread the Gospel to 6,000.

Baptized 32 precious souls.

Built widows’ houses, medical clinics, schools and orphanages.

Thank you to all who made this happen!

Be a part of the solution, join us at MMDR.org

   

Under the Mango Tree

Under the Mango Tree

 We crossed Lake Volta for the second time, coming back to the island of Bakpa where we had previously met the chief under the mango tree.  Meeting under the mango tree means that our meeting was important enough to be accepted by the elders and the chief.  Coming back the second time meant that we honored our promise and would now be accepted as friends of the tribe.  As our underpowered rented boat approached the shore, the island children recognized the "abrunis" and danced and waved. Soon the news of our medical team's arrival spread throughout the island and we were surrounded by men and women who were excited to have the first medical on the island since our last visit 4 months ago.  They quickly directed us to the shady mango tree, produced hand hewn wooden benches and we resumed the friendly conversations that we had suspended months before.   As is polite in Ghanian tradition, they inquired about our mission and we honored the chief with questions about his health and his people. 
Our mission was to provide medical care to these terribly oppressed people in a way that both honored them and their tribal traditions.

As we erected our modern, portable medical clinic under the mango tree, the people of the village crowded around looking in wonder at the pulse oximeters, the immunohistochemical based lab equipment and the latest medications. Since they were without electricity, we set up solar panels to charge the sodium hydride batteries in our equipment. Since they were without clean water, we implemented water purifiers which employed state of the art electromagnetic chlorinators to provide clean water for the clinic.   

As patient after patient came into our clinic to be rid of their various diseases, it occurred to me that we honor them by giving them the best medical care possible and they in turn honor us by allowing us to sit under the mango tree.

Mobile Medical Disaster Relief

Celebrating Christmas

 This year, instead of buying and decorating a Christmas tree to adorn our house for two weeks, instead of spending time putting up holiday lights which last a month, instead of buying thousands of dollars of irrelevant Christmas presents for our friends and family, we decided to do something different.

We enlisted family and friends to sew stockings, collect presents and travel with us to Haiti where we shared these gifts and the gift of time and love with the fifty orphans at the Children of Hope Orphanage in Thomazeau, Haiti.  Since these children had never celebrated Christmas, they had no frame of reference for Santa Claus or the sickening commercialization of this frantically materialistic holiday. 

Instead, they shared the Love of people who desperately care for them. 

They countenanced the Joy of playing with soccer balls, board games and making crafts with their new found friends. 

They found Peace sitting in our laps reading their new books.

A Godly man once said, “...give to those who can’t give back to you without expecting anything in return.  Then your reward will be great.”


Mobile Medical Disaster Relief

Clean Water in Ghana

Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water related disease.

Here in the developed world, we take clean water for granted. When we turn on the faucet in our kitchen we don't even stop to wonder if that water will make us sick. In fact, for us, clean healthly drinking water from our tap isn't enough, we even add filters to alter the taste. Even more astonishing, we won't even drink our clean tap water but resort to buying bottled water on the often mistaken notion that it is purer than our tap. But one in eight people in the world lack access to healthy water. How can we as wealthy Americans help facilitate clean drinking water to the 884 million people who are dying of something we take for granted?

Healthcare in Haiti

This week, we met Israel in our Haitian clinic.  Israel is 9 years old and came in with septic arthritis of his hip.  This condition requires surgery so we took him to 3 hospitals all of which turned him away.  We had a board certified orthopedic surgeon with us but no anesthesia or a hospital to work in.  Now Israel is destined to have a frozen hip which will make walking and working very painful for the rest of his life.  This operation would have taken 15 minutes and cost less than $100.  How can we impact the Health Care system to avoid another Israel?

The Struggle of Micro Finance in Heavily Subsidized Economies

Micro finance loans are a technique to empower poor entrepreneurs in the developing world to create wealth for themselves and their family.  This technique uses small loans to allow them to invest in their businesses enough to overcome inherent gaps in the indigenous infrastructure.  Oftentimes, however, developed countries create cost subsidies for the very products that these entrepreneurs are attempting to sell.  This creates a competitive market system in which the poor are pitted against the developed world.  This decidedly lopsided environ destroys the entrepreneur's business and his hopes for future independent sustainability.
An example of this is our recent attempt to start a chicken farm in Haiti to provide much needed protein and jobs to the people.  After an initial success, we found our model struggling because the developed world was underwriting the cost of eggs sold in the Haitian markets.  In fact, it was cheaper for the Haitians to buy American eggs than it was for them to buy chicken feed.  While the developed world governments certainly have good intentions, the end results curb micro enterprise.
How can we create sustainable growth in developing world markets in the face of such daunting competition?www.mmdr.org

9/11 Tribute

Today is September 11.  For those of us old enough to remember, it will by a date never forgotten.  For the young, it has become an unquestioned way of life. This was the day that we became vulnerable or at least realized our vulnerabilities.  This was the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor and for me it represented a special loss.  Not only did we lose our innocence, but we lost our cousin.  On board American Airlines flight 77 bound for Los Angeles, Bryan Jack, an analyst at the Pentagon, was heading for an assignment for his work in the clandestine world in which he lived.  Middle aged and newly married, I'm sure that he didn't expect to become an early casualty in the war on terror.   But he did.  As the Boeing 757 careened towards the Pentagon, there is no way to know what went through the minds of the 58 passengers, 4 flight attendants and 2 pilots that day.  But certainly, in the minds of the terrorists, they were destroying America.  Thankfully, they did not.  Though many mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, wives and husbands, children and cousins were destroyed, the United States was not, the Pentagon was not, we were not.  As we contemplate our losses today, whether personal or not, let's thank God for the strength He gives us to carry on.

Social Entrepreneurism: World Poverty

Social Entrepreneurism: World Poverty: As social entrepreneurs, we are concerned with using our business skill sets to address inequities in the world. One example of a great pro...

World Poverty

As social entrepreneurs, we are concerned with using our business skill sets to address inequities in the world.  One example of a great problem in the world is poverty related hunger.  Consider the following statistics: 850 million children went to bed hungry last night, a child dies every 5 seconds from hunger related complications and the population of the United States throws away more food in a year than the entire continent of Africa consumes.  How can we impact these numbers?www.mmdr.org

Social Enterprise

We started a for profit business, LAVE MD, in 2003 to provide funding for Mobile Medical Disaster Relief (MMDR), our non profit corporation.  MMDR provides medical care, clean water programs, sustainable agricultural models and micro enterprise initiatives to people in developing countries which have sustained infrastructure damage due to natural or man made disaster.  Since 2005, we have provided 20,000 people with medical care which was otherwise unavailable, sustainable clean water and sustainable micro enterprise initiatives to alleviate suffering in the developing world.