Medical Missions

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 […]

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, […]

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 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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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,

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. […]

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 […]

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.

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]