Medical missions offer health care, hope

The Rainbow Network

Founded in 1995 by hotel owners Keith and Karen Jaspers, The Rainbow Network gives the people of Nicaragua education, housing assistance and economic development. The nondenominational Christian ministry provides health care as well.

“We have 10 full-time, permanent Nicaraguan physicians on staff. They are treating 4,000 to 5,000 patients every month,” said Keith Jaspers.

Mark Struckhoff, U.S. director for Rainbow Network, said that the organization’s 2005 budget is $2 million, up from $1.8 million in 2004. He said that money is used for all of Rainbow Network’s efforts, including health care.

The organization is known as Red Arco Iris in rural Nicaragua, where the average annual income of families is less than $500. Rainbow Network enters by invitation into communities where basic services for the poor are not available from the Nicaraguan government or other religious or social agencies. It operates in six geographic areas called “networks,” which cover about 1,800 square miles and serve about 42,120 people. Each network has six Nicaraguan professionals dedicated to various areas of expertise.

“The scope of most medical mission works typically might be a group of professional doctors that set up a clinic maybe a week at a time and see 200 to 300 people a day,” said Mark Struckhoff, U.S. director for Rainbow Network. “They work really hard for those few days and then come back to the U.S. and go back again six months later. When they leave they take their expertise with them but the need goes on and on. There’s a need for a sustainable medical ministry and that’s what we’ve provided.”

Jaspers said that five or six specialists travel to Nicaragua every March to visit the clinics and the 10 doctors.

“Each will have two to four special-needs patients and our docs consult with the Nicaraguan docs on those patients,” he said. The doctors are able to help with chronic ailments that are not as problematic in America.

Dr. Bob Carolla, an oncologist at Hulston Cancer Center, travels to Nicaragua to consult with doctors and treat patients. He began helping more than seven years ago when his daughter returned from a trip with Rainbow Network and suggested he become involved.

“I went down on a trip with Keith and was overwhelmed at what they’re able to do,” Carolla said. “Each network has its own doctor. We travel within the network to towns and set up a clinic where people have absolutely no access to a doctor.”

Carolla travels there at least once a year and will go twice this year.

“My role is to support the doctors,” he said. “I meet with them and find out their needs and what equipment they need and I try to get donations.”

He says the missions are good for him spiritually.

“They don’t have the machines and equipment down there that we have here. We can provide hope for the people. They are so thankful for any kindness or interest we show them,” said Carolla. “It’s taught me what’s really important in medicine – and that’s dealing with people.”

Jaspers said the tsunami in Asia is a good comparison. “They are short on food, drinking water and under the threat of disease,” Jaspers said. “It’s exactly the same thing that’s in Nicaragua. That’s what we deal with all the time.”

To help remedy that, 11,000 children and pregnant mothers attend the feeding center six days a week for one hot meal. Eight trained public health officials are on staff to assist the doctors. Patients are charged 65 cents to see the doctor and for any medication needed and those who cannot pay are not turned away.

Other aspects of Rainbow Network’s health care program cover optical, dental and medical lab work. There are two full-time dentists who serve the area. Also, water purification treatment, vaccinations, parasite control, sanitary latrines and more are provided.

Lake Atitlan Medical Project

For one Springfield physician, the desire to provide health care relief for an under-served population grew from a vacation visit to Guatemala. Dr. Gil Mobley visited the remote, poverty-stricken and war-torn Santiago Atitlan in Guatemala’s western highlands in 1990. From that visit, Mobley dreamed of helping its inhabitants.

Mobley discovered on one of his return trips that Hospitalito de Santiago Atitlan, a 15-bed hospital that served the area’s 45,000 people for 25 years, had been abandoned during the civil war.

“It’s located literally at the end of a road,” Mobley said. “Cultures have lived there for hundreds of thousands of years and have survived for centuries with the same beliefs. Rarely are there such pockets of cultural purism with very little Christian influence.”

Mobley started Lake Atitlan Medical Project as a Christian ministry but does not represent it as such to the people.

“We’re nonpolitical and nonreligious. Our (program) is first and foremost working on infrastructures and education,” he said. “We train CPR and midwives, bring medical teams, supplies and equipment and empower local providers through training in preventive, routine and emergency health care practices.”

While visiting in 2002, Mobley was approached by K’asleemal, an organization formed to reopen the hospital.

“Our goal is to get an infrastructure to host these people. It’s all based on one thing – money,” Mobley said. “My role is to help raise funds.”

Mobley also opened Mayan Creations, a kiosk at Battlefield Mall that sells jewelry made by the Mayan families. He’s hosting a large conference for American doctors Feb. 6-12 in Guatemala. The conference, titled “Tropical Medicine 101,” will raise funds for the project. Mobley said he sent out more than 30,000 brochures. Conference tuition is $825; lodging is $140 per night, or $70 for double occupancy.

The doctors will learn about tropical health issues, such as malaria and water borne illnesses that aren’t common in the United States. Mobley estimates it will take $250,000 to reopen the hospital.

“We have spent $100,000 on building one so far,” he added.

A project manager who is a registered nurse is on site, seeing patients. “As we show up, there will be patients waiting to see us. Last February, we had a week seminar for Mayan docs on ultrasound. We do mostly intervention to teach, facilitate and equip them and then they assist us once we get a facility up,” Mobley said.

Mobley resigned in 2004 as medical director of Concentra Medical Centers, 20 years after he began his medical practice in Springfield, to focus on rebuilding the hospital in Guatemala.

Volunteers have been key in helping Mobley with the project.

“There are doctors who are more trained, smarter and more socially sensitive than me helping us. That’s important,” he said. “There’s an eclectic group – from friends of my Chiefs fan club to a religious group such as the Christian Campus House (at Southwest Missouri State University) – that are going this month to volunteer. They are executives, business owners and women who are lab techs digging ditches and moving rock. Anybody can go.”

Janet Miller, who works at Jenkins Diesel, heard about the project and wanted to help. She accompanied a group on a trip in November.

“It was just to do grunt labor. I have no medical expertise. I moved rocks and dirt and did painting,” she said. “It was the experience of a lifetime.” She used vacation time and spent about $1,200 for the cost of the ticket, room and board. During the nine-day trip, she worked and met the people. “There is a language barrier there,” she said. “I don’t speak much Spanish but I knew enough to communicate some. We enjoyed gorgeous weather and the countryside is beautiful – gardenias, bananas and avocados everywhere. I envisioned much less luxurious accommodations for us.”

The people of Guatemala, however, live with no indoor plumbing and in poverty.

“It made you realize how much you do have,” Miller said. “To the people there, we are one step below heaven.”

Mobley said the Christian Campus Foundation has funded scholarships to send students to work in Guatemala.

“I’ve dreamed of this since I first set foot in Guatemala 14 years ago,” said Mobley. “It’s a God-inspired idea.”

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