RAM Philippines: Mission in Mansalay
Late last month, while the East Ridge TN and Reno NV RAM clinics proceeded over the weekend in the US, a third RAM clinic happened under the radar - halfway round the world and 13 hours ahead of RAM in Tennessee! It was the Remote Area Medical Philippines outreach clinic in Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro (location marked with a red arrow below).
It was an "outreach" clinic because many Philippine destinations are located in remote locations across the archipelago. Both the medical teams and the patients must travel extensively in order to connect. According to Remote Area Medical Philippines, the 18 man team had to travel for two days by boat and road and patients needed longer: 3-5 days. The area they converged in is known as a “2nd class” municipality of Oriental Mindoro, and the home of the indigeous Mangyan community.
The first day of the clinic saw 337 patients treated, the majority being Mangyans. With the help of the local government of Mansalay, RAM Philippines were able to treat 385 Mansaleños on Day 2. The range of treatment was impressively broad - from paediatric care and orthopaedic surgery, to physical therapy and rehab! Goods were also donated. In all, nearly 800 patients were seen across the two day clinic.
This is an extremely well organised RAM affiliate with a keen and creative team, which this month has also been fundraising through art sales! Spearheaded by founder Dr Heidi Sampang-Abiad, who we have gotten to know over the years on our pages (dating back to her missions in Haiti and her residence in Virginia), RAM Philippines next travels to Naga, Camarines Sur, November 12-15th.
Naga is an independent component city in the Bicol Region (Region V) of the Philippines. In case you were wondering about the Spanish names, Naga comes from the Spanish “Ciudad de Nueva Cáceres” (New Cáceres City), named after a Governor-General who was native of Cáceres, Spain, in 1575. Naga became the third Spanish Royal City in the Spanish East Indies after Iloilo and Manila. In 2015, it had a population of 196,003. Fortunately it is a four day clinic!
We thank Remote Area Medical Philippines for use of some of its photography here. To see these at source and many more, visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/RemoteAreaMedicalPhilippines