The smell of disease, human decay, rotten food, and sometimes even feces is the first thing that I notice when I walk into the Infirmary in Port Maria, Jamaica. I hear the moans from a man that is in extreme pain because of cerebral palsy. He is always in pain because there is no medical help in this place. This is a place for the truly broken. A place for people who have no home, to wait out their days and die. A place for cast-offs. This has been my experience every year, for two weeks at a time, working in Port Maria, Jamaica on mission trips. These people suffer. The only help they get is from mission teams like the ones I have been a part of. We bring food, water, medicine if we can, and most importantly love and a desire to help. We bring our ears to listen to them. Our eyes to see …show more content…
The real Jamaica is extreme poverty and a daily struggle to survive. People die everyday from disease that can be cured easily in America. I want to change that. I can’t stand the thought of that continuing. These experiences have lead me to what I want to do for the rest of my life, and that is to become a doctor in developing countries, like Jamaica. Changing the world is an incredibly hard task, but changing the lives of those who live in extreme poverty is exactly how I want to change the world. I have seen the drastic need for medical care in destitute places and I believe that I will one day be the person to provide that care. My future goals will not be easily obtained, but I have a pretty good plan on how to accomplish them. As of right now, I am about to graduate from high school and begin my journey into the world of mission work. I was selected to be an intern for the mission organization that I have been a part of in Jamaica. This internship is for 75 days, and every single day I will be doing exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life: helping the
The social adversity that plagues millions seems to be a far cry from the hospitality of late summertime Helena and not a day passes by when Edens doesn’t appreciate his blessings. “I don’t have to wake up in the morning and worry about getting food or if my drink of water with breakfast is going to kill me.” Unfortunately, for so many around the world, survival is a daily struggle. To so many, there is no assurance of tomorrow. There is no promise of food, clean water, shelter or basic medical care. Ryan Edens and the Carroll Outreach Team seek to change these problems one human being at a
For the third month, Haiti’s healthcare workers are on strike and not tending to patients at their hospitals. These days at the hospital, the only people who will see the patients, are the kind who are only capable of healing them spiritually – preachers. Patients like motorcycle accident victim, Leonel Windi, wander around the hospital on crutches looking for a medical professional to help when he should be resting his crushed leg. Windi’s fellow patient, Guinel is in an even grimmer situation. He was involved in a traffic accident and now his toes are turning black, a sign that it will need to be amputated soon if he does not receive treatment. Yet, his case isn’t even the worst that could happen. According to Guinel, people have died in
Dr. Farmer understood that their horrid living conditions would have to change in order for his patients to heal. Dr. Farmer knew that Haiti itself would be unable to make this transition, which is why relying on the wealth, generosity and action from others around the world, to provide adequate necessities for the Haitians became such an important task. When his patients were given a better quality of life, they began to maintain health. For most Americans, we would be unable to fathom the undesirable living conditions, but at the same time understand why diseases run rampant in such an awful economic environment. Without the interdependence of the wealthy around the world and humanitarian belief that we are all human and deserve to be treated with equality, compassion and love, Dr. Farmer may not have been able to succeed as well as he did in Haiti. Kidder (2003) states “You want to see where Christ crucified abides today? Go to where the poor are suffering and fighting back, and that’s where he is (pg. 79).”
There are a lot of different countries in the world. Some have many similarities and some have few similarities. English is the international language and everyone should try and learn this language if they want to communicate with the rest of the world. Most people think of the United Kingdom and the United States of America, as the english speaking countries. This is not the only English-speaking countries, with English as the national language. In this text I will take a closer look at a country that has english as the national language. I will look at the differences and similarities that this country has with The United Kingdom. The country is surprisingly small and has a population of approximately 3 million people. It is a small island and the largest English-speaking country in the Caribbean. It was a British colony from 1665 to 1962 and that is probably one of the reasons why most of the people there speak english. The country i am talking about is obviously Jamaica.
According to the Health Development Index, Haiti has the “poorest standards of living” (“Haiti”). Most live in huts and shelters. Many build on trash heaps, and their living environments are often highly unsanitary. Many family members live under the same roof in cramped quarters. They have “the worst health statistics in the
I have been able to see the joy on a child’s face when they finally make a shot, the joy on their face when they learn how and when to cross the street, and the joy on their face when they realize that they have the potential to be anything they want to be in life. Being able to watch this all happen has allowed me to realize that I want to see these kinds of amazing reactions every day for the rest of my life. On top of this, I want to be the one to allow them to have this reaction. To me, it is the best feeling in the world when I know that I have helped someone do something they felt they couldn’t do before. This being said, my volunteer work has persuaded me into the direction of the medical field. I feel this has happened because the medical field gives me an enormous variety of ways to impact lives
The island of Jamaica is very rich in culture and has many historic turnabouts throughout the years. The country has a rich and complex history including being the first country to have Arawak and Taino Indians settle there.
My nursing practice has been affected by the medical mission trips that I have taken to Haiti. This course has further expanded my knowledge of global nursing and helped me to understand and envision new ways to improve health outcomes. I have been face to face with impoverished people who lacked access to clean drinking water, proper sanitation, nourishment and healthcare services. The life expectancy at birth in Haiti for women is 64 and in men is 61 (WHO, 2015). Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and is still recovering from the catastrophic earth quake that occurred in 2010. As result of the earth quake, 220,000 were killed, more than 300,000 were injured and 1.5 million people lost their homes (Breakey, Corless, Meedzan, & Nicholas, 2015). The country experienced a large cholera outbreak following the earth quake because of their poor sanitation practices. The country continues to face many health challenges, so organizations from around the world are poised to help address the health disparities experienced by the Haitian people and others in developing nations around the world. Nurses are an important member of this team as lobby for change, provide much needed financial resources, give of their time and work toward making this world a better place for everyone to live.
Becoming a doctor would not only allow me to educate others, but would allow me to endlessly improve my medicinal knowledge and education. There are many moments in my life which have motivated me to pursue a medical career and help others, but the memory I consider most influential is when I volunteered with Shepherd's Table Soup Kitchen in Raleigh. My goal was to make as many people smile as I could. However, there was one man in line that made me smile instead. He was crippled and defeated by poverty; he was laid off from his job, which, consequently, prohibited him from attending college. He shut down and let poverty win. He said it was the biggest mistake of his life. Choked up with emotion and pain from the past, he then gave me advice, "If you can see your dream now, grab it. Whatever you do, don't let it go." Serving others, like the man in the soup kitchen, has bestowed upon me the motivation to lead and inspire others, just as he inspired
I hope to one day alter the lives of people around the world by pursuing an MD/MPH. However, that path was not always clear. My first exposure started in high school where I was a part of the Littleton Health Science Program which would equip me with
One of the most challenging things that Jamaicans have had to cope with is the physical and psychological isolation. On the island, the country is so small that it is easy to visit extended family members on a daily basis. Here, in the United States, however,
Growing up in an underserved community made me realize the blessing of a quality education and good physicians. Having faced an arduous medical diagnosis has given me the ability to look at things from a special perspective. Rocky beginnings in community college accompanied by time off from school allowed me to work fulltime
The country that I chose to conduct a culture analysis on is Jamaica. Jamaica is a third world country located in North America and the 3rd largest island in the Caribbean Sea. There is a 2.5 million population, which equally divided between urban and rural areas. The country runs approximately 146 miles long and varies between 21- 52 miles wide. The climate is tropical and its main tourist attraction is their beautiful beaches. The capital of Jamaica is Kingston, which has a population of more than 645,000. Kingston is the chief port of Jamaica and is along the southeastern coast of the island. It is covered by the “Blue Mountains”, which is thickly covered which tree ferns. The Blue Mountains experiences an average of 200 inches of rain annually, resulting in topsoil erosion and an abundance of streams. Peasants nurture coffee, usually grown on large plantations, in the valleys of the mountains. It is amongst the most expensive coffees in the world and is exported mainly to Japan.
During my junior year of high school, I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Arthritis walk in Philadelphia. Volunteering at the event allowed me to gain deeper intellectual engagement and also influenced my future career. At the event, I had the opportunity to meet several people who suffered with Arthritis. When observing the many effects that Arthritis had on people it widened my eyes to the lack of healthcare in society. By the end of the day a lightbulb went off in my head and I knew for sure that I wanted a career in medicine. I was certain that a career in health services was for me because each person with arthritis warmed my heart and my mind began wondering about endless ways to better their situation. Since I was a young girl I was sensitive, caring, and always trying to find a way to help someone out of a bad situation. There are
In an article written in the Jamaica Observer, Haughton (2017) describes the state of Jamaica as an under-developed child who continues to depend on its parents for approval. “For many years colonialism milked Jamaica and other Caribbean countries by imposing a false identity on our people, diminishing resources that affected growth and development (Haughton, 2017).