Mormons Partner with the U.S. Navy
July 3, 2009 by Gale
Filed under Mormons Giving Aid Globally
Atlantic Ocean 1 July 2009
Volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are working alongside the United States Navy and other relief organizations as part of a humanitarian and medical training mission that is blessing the lives of thousands.
Aboard the USNS Comfort , a full-service medical hospital ship, Latter-day Saint volunteers are among those making stops in seven different countries in the Caribbean, South America and Central America on a mission called Continuing Promise 2009. At each stop, medical personnel and volunteers perform much-needed surgeries ranging from cleft palate reconstruction to cataract repair.
Dr. Susan Puls, Latter-day Saint volunteer medical coordinator, was asked to secure the volunteers for the mission in just two short weeks. Miraculously, medical volunteers from among church members appeared very quickly.
The ship is spending between 10 to 12 days at each of seven destinations: Haiti, Dominican Republic, Antigua, Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua and El Salvador.
Patients needing surgery are flown aboard the ship by helicopter where they are treated and remain for a short recovery. Meanwhile, additional volunteers travel to the shore in a 40-passenger boat each day to set up temporary clinics in schools and community centers. There they provide a variety of medical services to those who otherwise cannot afford it. To date, Continuing Promise 2009 personnel and volunteers have treated 56,000 people and have performed nearly 1,000 surgeries. Over 90,000 operations and procedures will be performed before the mission ends 31 July 2009. In all, more than 40 Latter-day Saint volunteers will serve aboard the Comfort.
Full-time Church missionaries serving in the nations visited by the Comfort act as interpreters and help coordinate logistics. In the Dominican Republic alone, 25 full-time missionaries provided translation for doctors and other medical practitioners at on-shore clinics.
In addition to coordinating volunteers, the Church has donated nearly 250 pallets of humanitarian relief supplies, including medical resources, vitamins, hygiene kits, newborn kits, school kits, orphanage supplies, quilts, toys, first aid kits and blankets. These supplies have been donated to various organizations throughout the participating countries.