Photo By Senior Master Sgt. Sarah Mattison | U.S. Army Capt. Christopher Winner with the Vermont Army National Guard treats a...... read more read more
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THIES, Senegal - Crowded outside the gate, hundreds of Senegalese men, women and children waited with the hopes of being treated by medical and dental personnel. Thirty-two members of the Vermont Army and Air National Guard traveled to Thies, Senegal to participate in a Humanitarian Civic Assistance project as part of Western Accord 2012. For two weeks they had the opportunity to work alongside counterparts from Senegal, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and The Gambia to treat more than 1,800 local residents for various medical and dental ailments.
Western Accord is a multi-lateral training exercise that was sponsored by U.S. Africa Command and was lead by Marine Forces Africa. Participating in the exercise were the Marines, Guardsmen, and reservists from across the United States. In addition to the HCA, this training exercise also included live-fire and combat marksmanship training, peace keeping operations, disaster response, and intelligence capacity building.
The military clinic consisted of four buildings surrounded by an 8 foot yellow cement wall with one gated entrance. It housed a make-shift pharmacy and lab, but also offered rooms for providers to evaluate and treat patients. Skin infections, rashes, hypertension, diabetes, scabies, and malaria were among some of the medical conditions that were treated. One treatment room was set up primarily to deal with wound care only. Patients seen in this room typically had wounds that needed to be redressed, abscesses that needed lancing, ears that needed flushing, and lacerations that either needed suture placement or removal.
With all rooms in the clinic at capacity, there was not enough space to allow for dental staff and equipment to operate. A joint effort between the Marines, Army and Air resulted in a dental clinic being created out of a large tent powered by a generator. This enabled dental care to be provided to 388 patients with 788 teeth extracted.
Prevention was an important role for the Vermont mission. Senegalese children were instructed in impromptu classes on how to properly wash their hands as well as given demonstrations and instruction on how to brush their teeth. To bolster continuing good health, toothbrushes and multi-vitamins were given to the Senegalese. Over $150,000 of medications and supplies were brought for the treatment of patients. Unused medications were donated to the clinic to be used in the future.
“I was surprised at how grateful people were after standing in line for four days in a row, fourteen hours a day in the hot sun, to finally be seen for twenty minutes by an American provider,” said Senior Airman Gabrielle Stevens, a med-tech with the VTANG medical group. This was her first deployment as a full-time nursing student at Norwich University. Her excitement was evident by her enthusiasm.
Stevens had the opportunity of helping with triage, assisting in the pharmacy, as well as working with both a physician’s assistant and a nurse practitioner. In the course of the week, she had many new opportunities that she would not have normally experienced.
“Not many nursing students or people in general can say that they spent part of their summer treating ill people in Africa. It was a great experience for me as a student and as a medic,” she said.
“I especially remember a mother with four children, twin girls that were about two years old, a seven-year-old son, and a thirteen-year-old son,” she said. “The father of the family had passed away from malaria only four days before the mother brought the children in and the way that she was caring for her children and keeping the family together was remarkable. It was obvious that she had been raised tough and was truly a strong woman.”
Vermont’s collaboration with the Senegalese continues to build. The State of Vermont has had a partnership with Senegal through the State Partnership Program since 2008.
The SPP is a Department of Defense security cooperation program which began in 1992 and is run by the National Guard. There are currently 64 global partnerships of which Vermont has two, Macedonia and Senegal. Building the capacity of partnership nations is one of the strategic goals that Vermont assists Senegal with.
“The SPP is a high profile program that Vermont actively participates in. Activities we have with Senegal build relationships which strengthen the program and ultimately, helps advance the safety and security of our nation,” stated Col. Michael Ricci, commander of the 158th Medical Group, “I think this exercise was an all around success. We gave a real deployment experience to our young soldiers and airmen, asked more of our senior enlisted and officers, and pulled together to make a difference in many lives.”
| Date Taken: | 08.10.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 08.28.2012 13:34 |
| Story ID: | 93920 |
| Location: | THIES, SN |
| Web Views: | 204 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Relief in Senegal: Green Mountain Boys provide humanitarian aid, by SMSgt Sarah Mattison, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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