Health Archives - Page 12 of 42 - Shoulder to Shoulder, Inc.

Whoever said “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, had never met the travelers from Brown, VCU, and Wingate Universities. Two weeks ago, Shoulder to Shoulder did something that we had never done before – we merged travelers from THREE universities in order to create ONE brigade group.

The Supervising MDs from VCU (Tommy Ball and Lauren Gorden) and their 2 Residents (Daniel Mendez and Sumni Yang) needed more travelers.
A Resident, Psychiatrist, and volunteer from Brown (Angelina Palombo, Horacio Hojman, and David Weign) needed a group to join.
A Pharmacist and pharmacy students from Wingate (Lisa Brennan, Kalyn Meosky, and Kelly Mansfield) needed to fill prescriptions for providers.

The group of 10 agreed to spend 3 days at Brown’s clinic site (Guachipilincito) and 3 days at VCU’s clinic site (Pinares).
What was the outcome? A wonderful merging of personalities, abilities, and styles and the provision of medical, psychiatric, educational and pharmaceutical services to hundreds of patients!!

The communities of Guachipilincito, Concepcion, and Pinares all benefited by these 10 strangers coming together to provide services. They saw patients in clinics, in elementary and high schools, and during home visits. In Guachi, they attended 165 people; in Pinares, they attended 160 people. The smiles on the travelers’ faces are proof that the strangers became friends. How beautiful is that!

By Paul Manship – General Director

Smiling Nutrition Children

There is something so right, welcoming, and warming about being met by a child’s smile. It is also seemingly so natural for a child to smile. I suppose it is because life is so fresh and wondrous for a child. Each new moment and new encounter is the opportunity of discovery and joy. It is promising, hopeful, a moment of trust, and a time of engagement. Perhaps as we grow older and experience disappointment and even betrayal, we lose the capacity to be fully engaged. But somehow a child’s smile touches anew upon our hopes and our dreams. But some children simply don’t smile. I’ve found them among those who are malnourished. Their willingness to trust, their openness to engage, has already been lost to life without joy. This is such a tragedy. If anyone should smile, it is a child.I am told by those who first encountered these two children on their first visit to begin the nutrition supplement “Chispuditos,” that they weren’t smiling. In fact they were distant, hidden, fading away from life. But on a future visit, when this photo was taken, they were in the forefront. How easy it is to restore hope, to inspire engagement! All things can be overcome when you can be engaged with your world, and a child knows this innately. How much good we can do for our world simply by investing in the birth of a smile.

We are fortunate this year that our nutritional program is up and running. It is funded until the end of this session. We have managed to bring some costs down and we have wed the nutrition program to our clean water program. We are helping to keep more children healthy and free from retarding, chronic diseases. Unfortunately, it will only last while we are able to fund it. We so greatly appreciate your assistance. If you can find us others, we can continue to make these smiles flourish.

Peace,

Paul and Laura

Category: Health

The "Marriage" between Brown, VCU, and Wingate Universities

Thanks for the Smiles

Change Comes with Relationships