On social media, new mothers can bake bread in their skinny jeans whilst blissfully nursing their newborns, who also sleep through the night. Volunteers on medical missions can miraculously save lives on shoestring budgets staffed by highly skilled, selfless providers in dangerous environments. As a mother and obstetrician on many missions, I see these boast-posts […]
Medical Missions
Tamesna clinic 2018
Tamesna clinic patient numbers increase every year because of our reputation: A respectful welcoming, caring clinic director and a constant supply of good medicine. Bearing a generous donation of medicine from Direct Relief International we resupplied Tamesna clinic.
We go bearing gifts
We are headed soon to Niger with a full schedule and many suitcases full of materials to make all our programs happen. Right now a program is taking place which is training 20 young nomads how to repair motorcycles–their camels, I guess, are too slow. The motorcycles are very useful–last year one of our students […]
New Mission to Niger–Fall 2018
It is time to prepare for our next mission to Niger in October. Dr. Becky Jones and midwife Pat Manzon will recertify our existing traditional birth attendants at Tamesna and expand the program to Iferouane–a remote community known as the gateway to the dunes. We have worked with them for 20 years, helping with artisanal, […]
Midwife volunteer–Pat Manzon’s thoughts on Mission 2017
As the floral henna design fades from my feet, thoughts of Tamesna and Niger sneak into my consciousness. It is cool here on the east coast which I have been enjoying as a pleasant change. The heat of the desert can at times seems all enveloping, annoyingly, relentlessly, hot. It is difficult for me […]
Dr. Becky’s report of mission 2017
I departed the US on October 3 and up until that date, was repeatedly required to explain the location and importance of Niger to anyone I could engage about my mission. Forty-eight hours later, when I arrived in Agadez, Niger had catapulted into American consciousness with the tragic loss of US special forces agents and […]
Goodbye to Tamesna
Our work at Tamesna was not yet done. We got the community together to create a management committee for the clinic. We have a very good reputation and as a result, are turning a profit beyond the cost of replacement meds and supplies so this money needs to be managed and the decisions as to […]
Eyes on Africa–Thanks again
Eyes on Africa once again comes through with hundreds of pairs of readers and sunglasses which we distributed all through our mission. We left 100 readers and 100 pairs of sunglasses at the clinic for Rabi to distribute as needed. We are working on a mission to do cataract operations next year, but maybe these […]
Our Fabulous Matrones
The traditional birth attendants we have been training since 2012 with Dr. Bob Skankey and now for that last two missions, with Dr. Becky Jones are known in Niger as matrones. The previously trained matrones brought their medical bags and their reports. Fatima again is in the lead with 70 deliveries since May. Tinzere […]
Dr. Becky’s thoughts from mission 2016
Since returning from Niger, I have shared photos and stories from the trip with many people. These encounters have helped me appreciate the importance of the mission while at the same time alerting me to questions in the minds of people unfamiliar with Niger and nomadic peoples. The Project: I have had the good […]
New Mission to Niger 2016
A new team is headed out to Niger to continue our work with the nomads. Dr. Rebecca Jones, with her midwife sister Pat Manzon will continue Dr. Bob Skankey’s midwife training program and medical work at the Tamesna clinic. We are very grateful to Ventura Global Health Project who helped fund Dr. Jones participation in this mission. […]
Eyeglasses from Eyes on Africa
Eyes on Africa, once again generously donated 12 dozen pairs of eyeglasses of various magnifications which we distribute at the clinic. We also take them on our mobile missions. The women at Foudouk are particularly in need of them because they do so much fine embroidery work. Linda Lamb, Rene Briggs and Linda Taylor took […]
Niger Mission Cancelled–but not completely–life in Agadez
It was with terrible sadness that I had to cancel our medical mission scheduled in February. We were to wind up the 2nd phase of midwife training with follow up training in the individual mobile communities of the nine midwives who had received training. Dr. Bob Skankey, his wife Louine, and Linda Lamb were to […]
Sheri Hanna–a volunteer’s experience
At the end of each trip, I ask the volunteers to let me post something they have written about their experience. Here is Sheri Hanna’s contribution… I’ve been searching for words to describe my recent trip volunteering with the Nomad Foundation. However, it seemed that mere words couldn’t convey the experience well enough, as it […]
Mobile outreach
The matrones all went home to their mobile communities–wherever they are–and we started the second half of our mission: to visit each community to have a follow up session with actual patients and to inform the community of the capabilities of the matrons in order to get them to support the program. We visited the […]
Meet the Matrones–the first day of training
While the cars and motorcycles went out in all directions to pick up the new midwife trainees, called “matrones” in Niger, we prepared their bags and Louine packaged their medicine. The new trainees arrived… The matrones who were previously trained are: Bye for now,
Arrival Nov. 2012
The strays finally got here after their cancelled flight and we spent only a lunch time at the beautifully prepared house in Agadez—so much for all THAT work. But that is not what the mission is about. We arrived late at the clinic since our military escort was late and wanted to shop in Agadez. […]
Agadez–getting ready for the mission
I have been in Niger almost a week and not doing anything picturesque…repairing plumbing and electricity so the house will function when the volunteers arrive. The toilets were repaired and function pretty well, but now the pipes that feed them leak. Everytime I come the electric fixtures need replacing or wiring done. The plumbing and […]
Shearwater Foundation awards $10,000 grant for medical care and training
The Shearwater Foundation has just announced the award of a $10,000 grant to the Nomad Foundation to develop better medical care for the nomads. The grant funds the salary of our clinic staff, helps us compile much needed statistics, develop a new moringa garden to improve nutrition, and provide medicines for the clinic. Thank you […]
Foudouk
After the long drive from Tedbouk, we passed Tamesna to close up and drove on to Foudouk. This is a very dynamic group of Wodaabe who have settled part of their population in a fixed location and been relatively successful in attracting government and NGO help. Here we recently built a women’s co-op house and […]
Mobile mission
We finished up the medical clinic and loaded up the cars to go on a mobile mission. Dolee is a community with whom we have worked for years. We built a school, cereal bank and well. One of the matrones from here was sick and could not attend the recent training so we wanted […]
Tedbouk
We next went to Tedbouk, our most remote Wodaabe community, but with one of our most dynamic matrones, Miriam. A desolate place with high winds. Linda donned her Wodaabe skirt… Achicha helped Hannah don a turban. And we were ready to see patients. Again we said pregnant women first. We had a […]
Training of Matrones winds up
The training session at Tamesna is completed and we are saying goodbye to the “matrones” Linda Lamb gives Mariam a hug and thanks her for her hard work. The crew poses for a final photo–proud of our hard work and the success of the program.
Achicha
One of our most valuable assets at the clinic is Achicha, who also acts as our office manager in Agadez. She is a trained nurse and speaks all the local languages. She has worked with Dr. Skankey on every mission and we sent her to a short English course to help her communicate directly with […]
The Medical Mission
The treating of patients has taken a back stage to the training program–I have not been too present to take photos as I am always involved in the training program. We have also noticed that our patient load is lighter than past missions. We were puzzling over this until we started getting reports from the […]
Blood Pressure
The next problem is the most complicated to teach. It is important to understand if high blood pressure is present in a patient it indicates pre-eclampsia. This can lead to eclampsia which means seizures and possible death. But how does a woman who cannot read numbers learn to take blood pressure? When Dr. Skankey met […]
Reporting
We decided it was important for the women to keep records of the pregnancies, births and problems in their communities. Without statistical evidence it is impossible to know what the most prevalent problems are and to know if our solutions are having any success. So we borrowed from the program of HDI (Health and Development […]
Temperatures
Bob brought a really great gadget which measures temperature by holding it on your forehead. If there is a fever a red line lights up next to the reading , if it is normal it lights green and if it is below normal a blue line. Fevers can certainly be dangerous for pregnant women and […]
Dealing with problems at birth
After being reassured that they retained the initial training for a normal birth and the use of medicine for post-partem hemorrhage, Dr. Skankey decided to tackle other problems that could arise from different positions of the baby. Breech birth was the first. Two of the women had experienced this and so Bob had them go […]
Lost
Complications pile up and get resolved…or not. The bags that were too heavy to carry on the twice cancelled UN flight were to be sent by bus to Agadez. Unfortunately since the volunteers got stuck in Paris and had to get to Niamey via Air Maroc (which we try to avoid at all cost because […]
Cancelled
Our first volunteer, Hannah Armstrong was set to arrive on a flight today from Niamey. Just got word that the flight was cancelled because of technical problems with the plane. Very typical scenario in Africa. Hope it doesn’t happen to the three who arrive on Wed. I wonder when she will finally get here? Stay […]
New mission to Niger
I am in Paris on the way to prepare for another medical mission in Niger at the Tamesna Clinic. We will also conduct a follow up training for the midwives and then conduct a mobile mission to visit the nomadic camps where we work. I will be joined in early Feb. by Dr. Bob Skankey, […]
Comments from our team: Dr. Bob Skankey
I have been involved with the responsibility for the health and well being of thousands in different parts of the world, have done complex surgery that has relieved suffering and saved lives, but I think that what we did this trip to train midwives who will themselves then save many mothers and babies lives for […]
Comments from our team: Sol de la Torre Bueno
I would like to thank Leslie for giving me the opportunity to work with the Nomads of Niger. Working with the Tuareg and Wodaabe have allowed me the realization that service in and of itself is the ultimate reward. Flying into Agadez from Niamey on a United Nations flight was the equivalent of going first […]
Mission accomplished, in spite of…
To summarize and amazingly productive trip–in spite of all the frustrations we got it done. To start out with, because of fears for our security we were forced to pay for a 20 man security detail. But-inspite-of taking a big chunk out of our budget, they turned out to be very competent, we had NO […]
Medical Mission continues
Every day the midwife training continues in the morning with Dr. Bob, Aicha, and either me or Rachel and the clinic continues treating patients with Dr. Agak, Ali, Ramatu, with Louine and either Rachel or me at the pharmacy. Every day the patients increase. Word spreads fast in the nomadic territory. The Soldiers guarding us […]
Medical Mission
The medical mission got underway today, now that the fete of Tabaski is over I guess people are free to be sick. There was a line on the first day that increased every day for five days. Here Louine and Rachel organize […]
Stocking meds and supplies
Bob and Louine had three very full bags each stuffed with vitamins and medical equipment for the training program and medical clinic. Bob demonstrates new born resuscitation.
Tabaski
Dr. Bob Skankey, his wife Louine and Rachel Diana Charles Phillips arrived on the humanitarian plane from Niamey on Friday and solar Rich left on the same plane. We stayed one night in Agadez and headed out the next morning to see the new finished education and visitors center. I will wait until I get […]
New Secretary–Aicha
For the last three medical missions we have worked with Aghaichita Harouna as a nurse at the medical clinic. She is recently graduated and has not found work in her chosen field so we have offered her a position to run our office and to set up a reporting system for the medical clinic. We […]
