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A third World medical supply team will head out in March of 2005 for Guatemala with items supplied by Stratford General Hospital, the Tavistock Medical Group, and kind residents in the surrounding communities.
Nurses Jean Aitcheson and Saralyn Lichty will once again head a team of physicians, nurses and pharmacists to the country the first two weeks in March next year. An orphanage is being built over a five year period for some 370 residents and it will also be used as an outreach medical facility for the community.
The nurses first went to Guate-mala as part of the construction team in 1995 and have since set up a medical supplies recycling depot in the basement of Stratford Hospital.
"It's a huge medical recycling program," Mrs. Aitcheson says, with Stratford Hospital as the biggest contributor. Every department in the hospital gathers items all year for the program. Their team travels twice a year, but they also supply other teams and individuals who might be vacationing in a Third World country.
"They just pack an extra suitcase," she explains if vacationing in a place like Cuba where these items are useful. Still other items may go to China when children and infants are adopted with medical supplies dropped off at the orphanages there.
"It's definitely a labour of love," Mrs. Aitcheson admits while talking of the many volunteers who help sort the items and get them ready for dispersal. Anything from prescription drugs, antibiotics, personal care supplies, baby clothes, diapers, and creams, to syringes, crutches and out-dated equipment can be used in these poor areas of the world.
Recently, the Stratford group supplied three 70 lb. hockey bags full of medications alone to a Canadian Presbyterian Missionary in Nicaragua.
If you would like to assist Mrs. Aitcheson in this cause, you can contact her at 519-393-5394 or drop off your left over medications or medical supplies at the Tavistock Medical Group or Tavistock Pharmacy.