Doctors Worldwide worked in a mountainous region of Guatemala, to provide medical help to the residents of Chamelco, near the town of Coban, 220 kilometres from Guatemala City. On July 1 st 2003, the Mercedes Duksil clinic was built, complete with several rooms in which doctors could see patients, a nurses room and a dormitory with 8 rooms all furnished with donated beds, linen and basic equipment. In all the clinic is made up of four buildings around a courtyard. The clinic needed volunteer doctors and nurses from any specialty. Accommodation was provided free of charge at the dormitory which is next to the clinic. The clinic was run by a local committee of volunteers independent of Doctors Worldwide, they had committed to assisting any volunteers who arrived with transportation and help with translating etc.
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Over the course of the following eighteen months Doctors Worldwide sent medical volunteers from Europe and the U.S. who provided hands on care to the indigenous population, including many mountain hill tribe patients who accessed the free care at the clinic.
Included here is an excerpt from a message from Dr James White, one of the earliest volunteers and encapsulates the feelings of those volunteers who followed him,
“The most spectacular and unexpected joy of the trip was
the warm reception and unbounded gratitude of the patients and their families. I was invited to dinner in many homes, met patients' families, and was made to feel ever so welcome and so appreciated. Since arriving home 3 days ago, I have received several phone calls from patients in Guatemala thanking me for my service there.
This is not my first medical mission trip (others, to Ecuador, Panama, and several to Mexico), but these people have found their way into my heart, and I look forward to continuing to help from home, and to return soon." |
