Latest Projects
| Hits today: 6 Total: 247 | Sep 26 at 1:38a.m. | 0 comments |
| 
The Malampa Province in Vanuatu is home to over 35,000 people living on 16 inhabited islands. Not everyone has access to clean, safe water which is an essential necessity of life and a basic human need. Polluted or contaminated water - whether it be with salt water, rubbish, vegetation, or mud, while not only dirty, it can be deadly - causing often easily preventable disease and death. Clean safe water is a major factor in improving health and well being.
In most cases, villagers have to rely on their water supply coming from wells or a nearby river. With a lot of villages being along the coast, the wells are often dug near the beach and can become contaminated with salt water. For those having to rely on the rivers for their water supply, the water can become very muddy when it rains - which in a tropical climate is frequently!!!
There are several water projects needing urgent sponsorship. For approximately US$200, a water tank, guttering and piping can be obtained and installed, thus giving people access to totally clean safe water. These projects are easily affordable in the Western World and can often be a great project for individuals, service clubs, community groups or businesses......
|
| Hits today: 6 Total: 224 | Sep 26 at 1:36a.m. | 0 comments |
| 
UV (Ultra Violet) light levels are particularly high around the equator and in tropical areas. This leads to an increased incidence of Cataract and Pterygium. "Dry Eye" is also a problem.
TroppoDoc sees many patients with these conditions, as well as patients with Eye Conditions, Conjunctivitis, Eye Injuries, Vitamen A Deficiency (often associated with Measles), Diabetic Retinopathy and people who are having trouble with their vision - reading or seeing in the distance. Cataract patients are identified and referred to the appropriate service where available......
|
| Hits today: 6 Total: 272 | Sep 26 at 1:34a.m. | 0 comments |
|  Public transport within Malekula, Vanuatu, is provided by a number of small single cab utility vehicles. They leave Lamap, at one end of the island at 3.30am Monday - Saturday, then drive through deeply rutted roads, crossing through five rivers onroute, until they get to Norsup, in the north. A return trip is made each day leaving Norsup between 10am -11am. People wanting to take this form of transport simply wait on the side of the road and hop on the back, or if in darkness, shine their torch for the truck to stop. If the truck is too full, it will not stop to pick up people, or if the rivers are too full to cross, they can not complete the journey. Hence often patients requiring medical help...... |
| Hits today: 5 Total: 246 | Sep 26 at 1:31a.m. | 0 comments |
| 
With poverty being a huge problem in the Developing World, there is often not enough money to buy toothbrushes and toothpaste. This leads to severe dental problems including dental decay, gingivitis and loss of teeth - often decayed and broken off at gum level, which lead to massive infections in the gums and jaw. This leads to ongoing health problems, as well as problems with not being able to eat and chew food - helping increase the rates of malnutrition, especially in children and the elderly......
|
| Hits today: 4 Total: 235 | Sep 26 at 1:27a.m. | 0 comments |
| 
When Dr Derek Allen arrived on Tello Island (Pulau Pulau Batu) to set up a medical service, he met Given, who had a small grasp of the english language that he had picked up from visiting surfers to the island. Given's father had died when Given was 7yrs old, leaving Given as the eldest son of 4 children, in charge of the family and having to provide for them. Not being able to afford to finish his education, he worked very hard riding pedicabs for the equivalent of US 20cents a job and taking every opportunity to further his knowledge of the english language......
|
| Hits today: 2 Total: 180 | Sep 26 at 1:19a.m. | 0 comments |
| 
Transport in the Developing World can be a problem due to poverty and isolation. This is especially the case in Tello (Pulau Pulau Batu), Indonesia, as there are only four vehicles on the island, so travel/transport is generally by motorbike, pedicab, bicycle or walking.
TroppoDoc owns one motorbike which Dr Derek Allen uses in Tello to get to clinics and to visit the patients in their own homes, who are too sick to travel. The bike is also used for ferrying the translator, volunteers and medications/medical supplies to the clinics and patient home visits......
|
| Hits today: 2 Total: 151 | Sep 26 at 1:17a.m. | 0 comments |
| 
She jumps for joy and her face bursts into a huge smile of hope when she sees Dr Derek, she knows he has come back for her......
In June 2009, I (Dr Derek) returned to Mahadaga in eastern Burkina Faso to find Bernadette with the severely compromised heart and took her to Ouagadougou for investigations to see if the problem could be fixed by surgery.
It took two days for us to travel the 500kms that starts as a bitumen main road (with army escorts on the bus to deter bandits), to the final 55 kms of dirt track, where there is an irregular once a week bus service - which has no timetable, as no one can predict when the bus will breakdown......
|
| Hits today: 2 Total: 193 | Sep 26 at 1:16a.m. | 0 comments |
| 
There were 8 villages on Tello Island (Pulau Pulau Batu), each with 20-30 children, that had no playground equipment. Village children are now able to play on this wonderful set of swings. The swing seats in this photo were made from aircraft tyres from Gisborne, New Zealand......
|
| Hits today: 3 Total: 160 | Sep 26 at 1:02a.m. | 0 comments |
| 
Often people can not volunteer personally for various reasons, but would still like to help in some way. Sponsoring a patient, whether it is for their transport, treatment or both, is a way of helping others less fortunate than ourselves and can be an incredibly rewarding experience. It can make a huge difference to the quality of someone's life and often that of their families and communities also. Sponsoring a patient can be a great project for a group of people, or a service group to sponsor also.
Read a volunteer's comments on sponsoring Jutra, a 17yr old woman from Tello Island, who had been ill for five and a half months when the local Church of Evangelical Protestants were meeting to "free her from demon possession". Jutra's uncle called Dr Derek Allen to examine her......
|
| Hits today: 3 Total: 513 | Sep 26 at 12:50a.m. | 0 comments |
| 
Clean safedrinking water is essential to life and is a basic human need. Polluted water, while not only dirty, can be deadly - causing often easily preventable disease and death.
An island school in Saeru has no water source, either for drinking or washing hands...... |
| Hits today: 6 Total: 203 | Sep 26 at 12:47a.m. | 0 comments |
| 
Volunteers Kim & Nicola (Naturopathy Students) realized that good nutrition is a big part of good health and despite it's ideal climate, there are few vegetables which are full of vitamins, grown on Tello Island. They suggested raised Garden Box containers would be an easily manageable way to encourage local people to grow vegetables.
If you would like to sponsor Garden Box containers, please mark your donation "Garden Boxes".
Thank you very much to Kim, Nicola and Dave (Surfer) who built Garden Boxes - some are still awaiting planting. |
| Hits today: 2 Total: 654 | Aug 17 at 9:45p.m. | 0 comments |
| 
Malaria is a very debilitating febrile illness caused by an infected female Anopheles mosquito injecting the Plasmodium parasite into the blood stream of a human host. The parasites multiply in the liver of the human host and then infect the red blood cells. Malaria remains the largest contributor to the burden of disease and premature death. It can lead to chronic anaemia, brain damage, kidney damage and even death - especially amongst pregnant women and children.
Many of the commercial insect repellants available often contain 5% - 25% DEET. While DEET can be very effective in repelling mosquitos, there have been concerns that DEET has potential toxic effects - especially when used by children who can absorb high amounts of DEET through repetative applications of insect repellants and some children have been known to develop seizures, slurred speech, hypotension and bradycardia.
Volunteers can help the areas in which TroppoDoc work become naturally mosquito free by planting mosquito repelling plants such as Marigolds, Citronella, Horsemint, Rosemary, Catnip and Ageratum. These plants contain natural ingredients such as Citronella, Pyrethrum, and Coumarin, which are found in most commercial insect repellants...... |
|
|
|