Generous donations of sheets, ointment, and time from Woods Chapel Congregation, Lee’s Summit, Missouri, USA, helped create 4,954 bandages and provide 356 tubes of ointment for the HealthEd Connect team to share with volunteers in Zambia, Malawi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo during the team’s visit in June.
These basic supplies, unavailable in many remote villages, allowed people to finally begin healing. They included a boy in Malawi with a leg wound, as well as a 51-year-old pastor in Zambia with a persistent leg wound from a traffic accident.
In Zambia, Kasompe HealthEd Connect volunteers recently reported:
Despite seeking treatment at several hospitals with no significant improvement, the pastor’s condition remained unchanged. Upon referral by a Kafwa Community Health volunteer, Mr. Mwape was advised to wash the wound with a guava-leaf solution and was provided with a tube of medicated ointment from HealthEd Connect. He reports a remarkable improvement…since beginning the treatment. In his own words, “I am very happy and grateful because my wound is healing. I just want to say thank you to HealthEd Connect.”
HealthEd Connect uses three ointments, depending on the response of the wound. Vaseline is the first step, then a single-antibiotic ointment if the wound doesn’t improve, and finally a triple-antibiotic ointment if the other two fail. The organization tries to prevent antibiotic resistance by using it sparingly. Fortunately, the guava-leaf solution is antiseptic and effective against staphylococcus, E. coli, and other microbes in all three cases.
Many thanks to those for sharing the resources to bring healing and hope to people with potentially life-threatening wounds in nearly fifty communities. Together, we make a difference!