GREAT WORK BY NEW VOLUNTEERS

Lifestart Foundation has been very fortunate to have had the expertise of some wonderful additional volunteers:

DR. JOSH SOLOMON, is a board certified internist, pulmonologist and critical care physician from Denver, Colorado. In January he completed the initial assessment on forty members from our disabled group.

An added bonus for me is that his notes are in English and for the most part his writing is readable!

All of the patients were taken to hospital for rounds of tests and xrays and then had their appointment with Josh.

Josh was assisted with translations by volunteer, NANCY NGUYEN who is also from Denver. Nancy is a Chinese Medicine Practitioner and a Massage Therapist. TRAN THI THANH and LE QUANG GHI, two of Lifestart Foundation Jobstart recipients also helped Josh with translations.

Dr. LE VAN QUY, from Hue also came down to Hoi An and volunteered assisting Josh. Dr. Quy comes to Hoi An every time I am there to help with Lifestart children and families.

Josh and Nancy were fantastic with the disabled group, they were compassionate, thorough and took lots of time with everyone.

For many this was the first time that they had visited a doctor despite having very severe disabilities. It was extremely important that all of the patients did not feel pressured to rush through all of their health concerns with Josh.

There was a wide variety of problems presented which we will now prioritize and address in order of seriousness.

For the time being Josh is based in Hoi An and is happy to work on the health issues facing our group. I am crossing my fingers that Josh will stay in Hoi An for a long time..............we need more people like him.

Dr. JOHN SHERMAN, a G.P from Melbourne, Australia is coming over in March, 2008 to further help Josh and Lifestart Foundation with these patients. John will volunteer with us for two weeks.
There are far too many cases to tell you about, however I will attempt to get their individual stories out gradually via my blogs.

OGANA JOASH is another volunteer. He came to us from Kenya.

Ogana is currently working with the Vietnamese Government Department of Health in Danang. He is a Behaviour Change Communication and Advocacy Advisor in the areas of HIV and AIDS.

Ogana very kindly offered to take a sex education class and mens group for me, or as Ogana preferred to call it “ a life skills class”. The students had for some time expressed an interest in being able to get accurate information, so Ogana was the perfect person to help us.

Knowledge and open discussion in this area is quite limited, the students were well informed during Oganas class and left the session armed with facts rather than myths.

ALANNA EDWARDS & GEORGIA DODD came to us from Sydney, Australia.

Both girls are enthusiastic, vibrant University students who are studying Nutrition and Education.
The girls volunteered taking nutrition classes for our disabled group and also did English tutoring with our Jobstart students.
The women in our disabled group had lots of questions and were most interested to learn about what not to eat too much of, nutrition and a balanced diet.

Lots of Love from Karen.
www.lifestartfoundation.org.au


More stories and photos can be found here: Lifestart Volunteers


VOLUNTEER MEETING

The next Lifestart Foundation volunteer meeting will be held on Saturday, March 1st. 9.00am - 1.00pm
At 182 Buckley Street, Essendon. Victoria. Australia. Please email Karen if you are able to attend karenleonard@mail.com

DAIRY DATE: JULY 26th.

The LIFSTART FOUNDATION BLACK TIE DINNER DANCE & CHARITY AUCTION.

-Can you help organize a table of friends and family?
-Can you help with donations for the Charity Auction?

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