After stepping off the plane in Malawi we were quickly reminded of the disparity between the living conditions in United States and those in Malawi. With such limited resources and very few health care providers, the tremendous need for medical volunteers in Malawi became apparent.
Drs. Amber Newell, Jennifer Mullarkey and Baker Henson are traveling to Lilongwe Malawi, East Africa, for the first official outreach trip as Access Health Africa. For the next 2 weeks we look forward to getting the new World Camp, now called Access Health Africa off the ground.
Dr. Amber Newell will dedicate her efforts to providing much needed medical care in the emergency room/casualty area. In addition to volunteering in the clinical setting, she will also provide trauma education and focused hands on training to medical residents, interns, nursing staff and students of Kamuzu Central Hospital. She will also be assisting Dr. Baker Henson in operative procedures performed in a rural village with our surgical team.
Dr. Jennifer Mullarkey will also provide a multifaceted approach in her involvement with AHA. Not only will she care for patients in desperate need of emergent dental care, she will also focus her efforts on the establishment of a dental outreach program which will provide ongoing treatment of Malawi residents. Dr. Mullarkey will mentor dental students from UNC-Chapel Hill to serve patients at KCH. Lastly, she will visit a rural refugee camp to provide much needed oral health education and preventative measures.
Dr. Baker Henson will be providing surgical care at both a rural village hospital as well as the operating room at KCH. He plans to perform much needed operative interventions on patients whose surgeries have been postponed due to lack of available local recourses and staff. He will also provide training focusing on minimally invasive operative techniques to the surgical residents and staff of KCH.
We look forward to providing you with periodic updates regarding our progress for the duration of our medical outreach trip. Thank you in advance as we understand that it is your continued support and generous contributions which make projects like these possible.