Group resumes
Philippine medical
missions
The first Aloha Medical Mission to the Philippines since the 9/11 terrorist attacks will leave Monday for San Carlos, Pangasinan, with 58 volunteers.
It will be one of the largest missions in the Honolulu-based organization's 20-year history, including 34 doctors, 11 nurses and 13 lay persons, said Dr. Ramon Sy, president of the nonprofit charitable organization.
"We were expecting just a small group to go but have been overwhelmed by the number of volunteers," he said.
All pay their own way, including transportation, lodging and expenses, to provide free treatment for thousands of patients with little or no access to health care. They also take their own supplies and equipment, donated or bought by the mission with donations.
Medical missions to the Philippines were canceled after Sept. 11, 2001, a series of kidnappings by extremist terrorists and a SARS epidemic in a Pangasinan town, Sy said.
Now the "sister province" to the state of Hawaii will receive two missions. More than 70 people left here yesterday on a trade mission to Pangasinan through Nov. 27.
The medical mission volunteers will travel to San Carlos, where they will provide care through Nov. 26.
Hundreds of patients will be waiting for surgery by ophthalmologists, plastic surgeons, ear-nose-throat and general surgeons. Common conditions are blindness from cataracts, birth defects and tumors.
Family practitioners, internal medicine and infectious disease specialists will treat patients who need nonsurgical medical care.
Five of seven ophthalmology volunteers are based in the Philippines. They were trained in Hawaii in a program taught by Dr. Jorge Camara, Aloha Medical Mission vice president and spokesman.
"It is truly gratifying that aside from giving medical care that we are able to also intensively train other specialists so that they can continue giving medical care for the rest of their professional lives," Camara said.
The Philippine Medical Association of Hawaii, celebrating its silver anniversary with a dinner tonight at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom, donates proceeds for humanitarian work through the Aloha Medical Mission and Bayanihan Clinic Without Walls.
The Aloha Medical Mission has sent 60 missions to Southeast Asia to provide needy populations with medical and surgical care. Volunteers have gone to China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Vanuatu, Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines.
They have treated more than 200,000 patients, and more than 7,000 have received surgery at no cost. They have also brought several patients to Hawaii for treatment who could not receive needed care in their own country.
Tax-deductible donations can be sent to the Aloha Medical Mission, 1314 S. King St., Honolulu 96814.
