Four years ago, 11-year-old Rudy collided with a family

member who was carrying a pot of hot cooking oil. Rudy

suffered traumatic burns on his face, neck and chest. His injuries

twisted his muscles and mangled his skin. At Benjamin Bloom

Children’s Hospital in San Salvador, El Salvador, emergency

interventions saved his life, but by October 2012, Rudy needed

follow-up surgery and rehabilitation to enhance his

range of motion and reduce his terrible scars. Rudy

just wanted to go home and play with his friends.

The nurses and therapists wanted the same thing

for him – a normal life – but they knew Rudy

faced a grueling path. He isn’t alone. Global health

experts estimate 6.6 million people are burned

each year. Many of these victims are women and children. Caring

for burn patients requires specific skills and a range of materials

and equipment – compression garments and face masks that

minimize scars, among many other resources, some as “basic” as

plastic and plaster. These supplies dramatically improve a patient’s

healing, and allow healthcare teams to work more efficiently.

Unfortunately, in impoverished regions, these resources can be

impossible to find. That’s where Physicians for Peace steps in.

“Burn units depend on material support because they quickly run

out of essential rehabilitation materials due to the high volume

of burn patients,” said Kristin Koch, MS, OTRL, a Physicians for

Peace International Medical Educator (IME) who worked with the

Bloom Hospital team to care for Rudy.

Rudy directly benefitted from supplies

from Physicians for Peace, including pliable

material for his splints, compression

garments and age-appropriate therapeutic

toys that make rehabilitation like a game.

“Rudy has had a tough few years but with the Bloom Hospital

team’s skills and donated supplies, he will be playing with his

friends soon,” Koch said.

We’ll highlight recent material donations, and tell you more about

how those supplies help make our world a healthier place.

Equipped to Teach, Train & Heal

NEWSPEACESend One. Train Many. Heal the World.

A Newsletter from Physicians for Peace Fourth Quarter | 2012

Dana Doan, Global Health Programs Coordinator, with Rudy, Vanessa and another patient at Benjamin Bloom Children’s Hospital in El Salvador

STORY CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

Global health experts estimate 6.6 million people are burned each year.

MISSION SCHEDULE

Dear Friends,

As I write this, many of our friends in New York and New Jersey are still without power and

water in the aftermath of Super Storm Sandy. The storm was one of the costliest in U.S.

history, and it took a devastating toll on U.S. communities along the coast. Our thoughts

remain with those who were hit by this terrible disaster.

Sandy also cut a deadly swath through the Caribbean, killing people in Cuba, the Bahamas,

Jamaica, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, where the storm forced the evacuation

of about 30,000 people and damaged 6,500 homes. In Haiti, more than 50 died and dozens

went missing.

Haiti is the western hemisphere’s poorest country, and the country’s poverty makes it

particularly vulnerable to disasters; 350,000 people in Port-au-Prince still live in tents as

refugees displaced by the country’s 2010 earthquake. More than 7,500 people have died

from the country’s recent cholera outbreak.

In both the Dominican Republic and Haiti, Physicians for Peace focuses on education and

training, not disaster relief. The need for trained healthcare professionals and properly

resourced medical settings becomes especially obvious after tragedy strikes. During

a disaster, hospitals need heavy equipment, like generators, but also basic supplies, like

casting materials and sterilized instruments. Patients need trained nurses and surgeons. In

the aftermath of a storm, the injured need rehabilitation and ongoing care. All of these needs

rest on two things: trained healthcare providers in addition to hospitals and clinics that are

stocked with materials, supplies and equipment. Our vision for our partners in Haiti and the

Dominican Republic is much like our vision in other partner countries: We want communities

to have trained healthcare professionals and properly supplied hospitals and clinics, so that

patients get the care they need to live healthy lives, in times of chaos and in times of calm.

In the Dominican Republic and Haiti, we’ve delivered direct patient care and we’re supporting

a distance-learning program for orthotic and prosthetic technicians. We also mobilize supplies

and equipment that our partners can put to immediate use. By connecting our partners with

the training and the material they need to serve patients, we help prepare communities for

disasters like Sandy, but we also help them build a solid foundation for everyday care.

In fact, resources and supplies are critically important to our education and training programs.

We know that a lack of resources is a key barrier to care, and securing these resources (either

by accepting direct material donations as Gifts in Kind or by purchasing specific equipment

when essential) helps healthcare professionals in underserved regions provide better care

for their patients.

Over the years we’ve refined our Gifts in Kind process to ensure that we’re operating as

efficiently as possible when it comes to assessing needs and then sourcing, shipping and

delivering these supplies and equipment to our partner hospitals and clinics. We work

CEO Message

Brig. Gen. Ron Sconyers (USAF, Ret.) President and CEO

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diligently to match donated supplies from Gifts in Kind donors with

the identified needs of our in-country partners to ensure that we

are sending appropriate, fit-for-purpose supplies and equipment

to meet patient care needs. We are also mindful that high-tech

equipment is often not the best solution in regions that lack

replacement parts, maintenance personnel and a consistent power

supply.

In some cases, the materials we supply enable training and education

in advanced techniques that could not have been taught without

these materials. I’m always amazed by the ingenuity I see at our

partner sites. Burn care professionals will find a way to help their

patients even in impoverished settings. Advanced techniques do

not necessarily require advanced materials; something as “simple”

as plastic or plaster can go a long way toward getting a patient on

the road to recovery, especially when a trained professional is there

to put that material to healing work.

Your support allows us to provide a steady pipeline of supplies

and materials to our partners. Because of this equipment, we can

coordinate hands-on workshops, so that healthcare professionals

have the opportunity to learn how to use these supplies while a

Physicians for Peace IME is present and acting as a mentor. The

need is great: In 2012 alone we’ve delivered some of the most

basic supplies (disposable gloves) and some of global health’s most

innovative machines, including an anesthesia machine that can run

uninterrupted in countries where frequent power losses are the

norm. Thanks to these supplies, healthcare teams have a greater

opportunity to heal and a better chance to make a difference.

We are also grateful for the strong partnerships we have established

with manufacturers and suppliers who demonstrate their

commitment to global health through donations of critical supplies

and equipment. That’s exactly what’s happening in Nicaragua,

where we’ve been working collaboratively with The Autonomous

University in León and Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.,

to build the country’s first dental hygiene and dental assistant

tracks. Corporate partners, including Dentsply and Hu-Friedy

Manufacturing Company, have stepped forward to help supply

these young students with the instruments they need to hone their

craft. It’s also happening in the Philippines, where Physicians for

Peace-Philippines has put the gifts of companies like VonZipper and

Visionworks of America to work toward a truly worthy goal: the

elimination of avoidable blindness by the year 2020.

This special issue of NewsPeace is dedicated to exploring some

recent material and supply donations, and how they’ve made a

difference in global health. In this holiday season, I hope you’ll take

the time to visit www.physiciansforpeace.org/get-involved to find

out how you can become involved in our efforts, either as a donor

or by coordinating a supply drive for materials. As always, you can

contact our office for more information: 757.625.7569.

Thank you for all that you do to make the world healthier.

Brig. Gen. Ron Sconyers (USAF, Ret.)

President and CEO

Sincerely,

November 4 - 10, 2012 • San José, Costa Rica

November 28 - December 2, 2012 • Léon, Nicaragua

January 3 - March 27, 2013 • Blantyre, Malawi

January 8 - 12, 2013 • Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

January 11 - 18, 2013 • Nablus, West Bank

January 21 - 25, 2013 • Guayaquil, Ecuador

February 4 - 7, 2013 • Hyderabad, India

February 6 - 10, 2013 • Bicol, Philippines

February 18 - 22, 2013 • Santiago, Dominican Republic

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Enhancing Partners’ Capacity

Since 1989, Physicians for Peace has mobilized millions of dollars in shipments of high-need

equipment and supplies for partners in underserved areas, including countries in Central

America, where burns remain a grave health concern. By combining materials with training

and education, Physicians for Peace empowers local healthcare teams to reach more patients

with tools and techniques that lead to better outcomes, including safer surgeries, more

advanced rehabilitation and fewer emotional and physical scars.

While providing training in El Salvador, Kristin Koch, MS, OTRL, taught therapists at Bloom

Hospital to use donated strapping materials and compression garments to manage scars and

improve range of motion, so that patients could return to their everyday activities, including

work and school. For instance, she used Aquaplast, a pliable material donated by Patterson

Medical, Bolingbrook IL, to splint 10 pediatric burn patients during her training program. IMEs

like Koch, Jonathan Niszczak, OT, and Michael Serghiou, OTR, often use material donated

from U.S. supporters, including plastic and burn garment material, alongside locally sourced

supplies, like bamboo or leather, to craft creative, low-cost solutions that raise the level of care

in ways that are appropriate to the resource limitations of partner sites.

Innovation and creativity are also bedrocks of our work in Haiti, where Hanger Inc., one of

the world’s leading providers of orthopedics and prosthetics, joined with Physicians for Peace

after the January 2010 earthquake to form the Haitian Amputee Coalition. For nearly three

years, coalition partners have collaborated to provide both direct care to Haitians injured in the

disaster and training tracks for healthcare professionals who work with the country’s disabled

population.

Here again, materials and supplies are a pivotal part of our work, and 335 Hanger locations

from 45 states have mobilized donations for our efforts in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In

both countries, Physicians for Peace is leading efforts to provide distance learning to orthotic

and prosthetic technicians to help nurture a new generation of providers in underserved areas

of the Caribbean. Donations from partners like Hanger add a vital and practical component to

students’ hands-on workshops and training.

Equipped to Teach, Train & Heal continued

When it comes to supplying materials and equipment, Physicians for Peace

partners with in-country hospitals and clinics to pinpoint needs and meet specific

objectives. This fall, we joined with Asociación Dominicana de Rehabilitación

(ADR), a longtime partner in Santo Domingo, to purchase a new oven for the

group’s orthotic and prosthetic clinic. The oven replaced a 10-year-old model that

had stopped regulating temperature. As a result, orthotic and prosthetic technician

students couldn’t melt the plastic needed to complete their training.

“The oven continued to give them great difficulty, negatively affecting the training

and forcing them to find another oven to use (outside of ADR),” said Innes Boland,

a Physicians for Peace Global Health Program Director. “As a result, ADR and

Physicians for Peace decided to come together to jointly purchase a new oven,

which will serve to benefit the trainees and the patients served at ADR.”

A Focus on ‘Fit-For-PurPose’ suPPlies

GET INVOLVED TODAY2

While providing training in El Salvador, Kristin Koch, MS, OTRL, taught therapists how to use donated materials to help patients heal and return to everyday activities.

Gilberto Mejia, one of our first prosthetic trainers in the Dominican Republic program, pictured above center left, leading a workshop on lower limb prosthetic training with ADR student technicians – Dominican Republic October 2012

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Practicality is also a critical issue in Africa, where a small, lifelike

doll developed for underserved communities is helping midwives

and traditional birth attendants save newborns during the “Golden

Minute,” the critical 60 seconds after birth when many infants

struggle to breathe. Because many midwives and traditional birth

attendants can’t rely on electricity to help them resuscitate newborns,

Physicians for Peace has focused recent training efforts in Malawi

and Nigeria on “Helping Babies Breathe,” a neonatal resuscitation

curriculum for resource-limited circumstances developed by the

American Academy of Pediatrics and other partners.

“Nigeria is a very family-oriented country, and children hold a

special role,” said Dr. Ogu Emejuru, a Physicians for Peace IME

and pediatrician who splits his time between Chesapeake, Va., and

Rivers State, Nigeria, where he serves as Special Assistant to the

Governor on Environmental Health.“Every death profoundly affects

the community. By focusing our efforts on that first moment of life,

we can give teams the specific training they need to make a real

difference.”

During a recent training program in Rivers State, Physicians for

Peace delivered 16 NeoNatalie dolls made by Laerdal Global Health

to local healthcare professionals. The versatile simulators can be

filled with either air or water, replicating the weight of a newborn, all

without the use of electricity or batteries.

In Nigeria, where 700 babies die each day, the Physicians for Peace

training and material support allowed 150 workshop participants to

practice their hands-on skills under the guidance of our IME team.

The opportunity for healthcare professionals to train with NeoNatalie

could mean the difference between life and death for a baby, said

Stacy Lawton, RN, adding that the real-life quality of the simulators

boosts midwives’ and birth attendants’ confidence in the all-too-

important first seconds of life…and that’s good news for underserved

communities struggling with high infant mortality rates.

“Every healthcare provider deserves the chance to be educated and

to have the tools to provide the best care possible in their given

environment,” Lawton said.Nigerian mother watching over her baby

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INNovAtIvE SolutIoNS For loW-rESourCE ArEAS

For information on our current material and supply needs, or to find out how your community group can organize a supply drive that

fits a specific need, please contact Physicians for Peace at 757.625.7569 or email info@physiciansforpeace.org.

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By leading hands-on workshops with tools such as NeoNatalie, a lifelike newborn simulator, we’re helping midwives and traditional birth at-tendants save lives.USAID estimates 4 million

newborns die in the first four weeks of life, accounting for 40% of all deaths among children under the age of 5.

BASED ON YEARLY AVERAGES PROVIDED BY PARTICIPATING PARTNER SITES.

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DONOR SpotlightHu-FrIEDy HElPS PHySICIANS For PEACE DElIvEr SMIlES

WItH lESS tHAN 1 yArD oF MAtErIAl, A SEAMStrESS CAN CrEAtE CuStoM-FIt CoMPrESSIoN gArMENtS For A burNED CHIlD. (CRISAQ)yArDS oF HEAlINg

This fall, Hu-Friedy Manufacturing Company donated instrument

kits to the aspiring dental hygienists who will enroll in Nicaragua’s

first dental hygiene college track at the Autonomous University of

Nicaragua (UNAN). The kits include all of the examination and treat-

ment instruments for the student’s entire first year – everything

from hand instruments and sharpening kits to instructional DVDs

in Spanish.

“We’re starting from scratch with the dental hygiene program at

UNAN, so this is a huge donation,” said international medical ed-

ucator Gayle McCombs, RDH, MS, a professor at Old Dominion

University in Norfolk, Va., who coordinated with UNAN to launch

the country’s first dental assistant track in 2011. “Every time I go

to Nicaragua, I’m in ‘observation mode,’ both when it comes to

assessing training needs and determining equipment needs, for

where we are now and where we want to be next. The need for

supplies is ongoing.”

Mary Morrison Littleton, Hu-Friedy’s director of Academic Relations

said the donation underscored the 100-year-old company’s dedica-

tion to global health, and the work of Physicians for Peace.

“Hu-Friedy believes that we need to change our lives through oral

health smile after smile,” she said. “This is part of our commitment

to the global community.”

your gift goes 60x further

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Gayle McCombs, RDH, MS, a professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., coordinated with UNAN to launch the country’s first dental assistant track in 2011. The program took a significant step forward in November 2011 with the donation of instrument kits from Hu-Friedy Manufacturing Company.

Gala Highlights

Recent Material & Equipment MilestonesHospital Beds

The donation of mobile hospital beds from Stryker “revolutionized” care at Albert

Schweitzer Hospital, a Physicians for Peace partner site in Deschapelles, Haiti, according

to Paul Hendershot, the hospital’s coordinator of Materials and Surgical Services. The

movable beds made patient transfers easier and safer. The company has also donated

stretchers and mattresses to Physicians for Peace, gifts that we’ve put to use at a

number of partner sites, including a new burn unit at a hospital in Honduras.

Burn Compression Garments

To serve an estimated 200 new burn patients each year, Fundación Cristiana de Asistencia

a Quemados (CRISAQ) in Honduras needs a reliable and consistent supply of compression

garments and splinting material, among other resources, from partners like Physicians for

Peace. “Our main goal is to make sure our patients have the ability to continue their lives

as they had before their burn,” according to Dr. Hilton Trochez and Grazia Bruni, PT, of

CRISAQ. “Part of that goal is met by giving (patients) the special attention they need in

the precise time they need it.”

Optical Frames

Physicians for Peace-Philippines has joined with the World Health Organization to try

and eliminate avoidable blindness by 2020, an effort supported by the life-changing

donations of eyeglass frames valued at $8 million from Visionworks of America, with

570 retail locations and based in San Antonio, TX in 2012. The donation included

children’s lenses which were critical to the launch of a new Seeing Clearly for Children

initiative to train school teachers to catch early warning signs of impaired vision in their

students. Additional support came from Irvine, CA-based VonZipper, whose team

members hand-delivered donated eyeglass frames this year as part of the new initiative.

O & P Equipment

Kevin Carroll, MS, CP, FAAOP, Vice President of Prosthetics for Hanger Inc. (pictured

standing to the right) led a Physicians for Peace team in July 2012 to the Philippines.

Hanger Inc. offices around the nation donate high quality O&P equipment, much of

which is shipped to the Philippines for use in fabricating new prostheses for amputees.

Our Seventh Annual Gala in Norfolk, Va., brought together hundreds to support

medical education in underserved areas. Thank you to the sponsors and donors

who invested in the evening, and to each and every supporter. Visit us online or

on Facebook to see pictures from the event, highlights from our annual awards

program and videos showcasing the work of our Medical Diplomat Award winners.

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Dr. Donald Buckley, Chairman of the Board, Laurie Harrison, Development Director-Special Events and Dr. Edward Karotkin, M.D. Immediate Past Chairman of Physicians for Peace

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Would you like to give online? Visit our website: www.physiciansforpeace.org

500 East Main Street, Suite 900, Norfolk VA 23510

Non-Profit Org.US Postage

PAIDNorfolk, VA

Permit No. 2015

Send One. Train Many. Heal the World.