Zhytomyr Medical & Dental Outreach
For the last couple of weeks my Dad has been with a Dental and Medical outreach team working in villages near the city of Zhytomyr. I joined them for the last couple days and it was great to hear about all they were able to accomplish. The team included two nurses, two dental hygienists, one dentist, a dental student, a teacher, a pastor and a lot of other people! One of the really neat things about the team was the diversity of the group… aside from the different professions they represented, there were people from different countries and regions, different economic class, different cultures, different organizations, different denominations, of different ages… and all these differences were put aside.
They worked in three different locations providing free medical and dental help as well as teaching better hygiene and just loving the kids. They also talked one-on-one with a lot of parents about how to take care of their children.
Anyway, I was just with them for the last couple days so I can’t tell you much more but I’m sure my Dad will let you all know more about the trip as soon as he has time. ‘Til then here are some pictures…
For more information about Mercy Trucks Ukraine visit: MercyTrucksUA.org
August 24th, 2006 at 11:46 pm
[…] Zhytomyr is a small city to the west of Kyiv. This is where Dad took the dental van on the dental/medical outreach. During that outreach we met with the director of Mission to Ukraine and she told us about some of the camps they have in the summer. Among them is one for disabled children. This is a special camp because for many of the campers it is the only significant amount of time they get to spend out of their apartment. You see, in Ukraine if you cannot walk normally, speak normally or if it is determined that you can’t learn to read then you are not allowed to attend school. A local board can decide if it is “worth it” to send a teacher to teach the child in the home but most of these children are taught by their mothers or grandmothers. Because nothing in this country is wheelchair accessible it is very difficult for the mothers and grandmothers to take the children anywhere. To make matters worse many fathers just leave. Then the child and mother have no income except what the government provides. […]