MediShare International

A chance on the air conversation leads to the creation of a powerful humanitarian organization.

The Medical Amateur Radio Council (MARCO) was founded in 1965 to promote goodwill, felllowship and public service worldwide. The organization is composed of hams (radio amateurs) who are also health professionals. If you've spent much time on the HF bands, you've probably heard one of the MARCO nets.

In all likelihood, however, you're probably unaware of MediShare International, a MARCO program that provides medical equipment, instruments, supplies, technical information and trained professionals who volunteer to work in hospitals and clinics in third-world countries and disaster areas.

A Chance Meeting...

May 12, 1989, as it turned out, was not to be an ordinary Sunday morning. Dr "Smitty" Smithwick, W6CS, was idly listening to a 20-meter conversation between GJOKKB, Ken, on the Isle of Jersey, and Kirby, 9X5KP, in Rwanda. Kirby was telling Ken of his urgent need for a new gasket to repair the only sterilizer in the operating room of his little Mugenero Hospital. Dr Smithwick's association with MARCO led him to believe that a replacement sterilizer or gasket might be found among the membership. He broke into the conversation and offered this suggestion. What followed would eventually touch many people throughout the world!

The three amateurs established regular 15-meter schedules to coordinate efforts to help solve the hospital's equipment problem. Within a few days, Bill, W9DDP, in Hinsdale,Illinois, volunteered to make a new gasket from the dimensions supplied The surgery unit was back in full service in three weeks, and subsequently a replace sterilizer,donated by a MARCO ham, was added to the hospital's inventory.

Continuing conversations among the three new friends revealed that this hospital had not had a serviceable X-ray machine for over three years! An inquiry was immediately launched by Ken in Europe and Smitty on the MARCO nets. Within 10 days, three surplus X-ray machines were offered by MARCO members, and one was made available in Europe through Ken. The unit in Europe was found to be in good condition and was much closer to Rwanda than those in the US. It was shipped to the Mugenero Hospital right away.

MediShare is Born:

On Jersey, Ken became an instant celebrity when the media aired a local TV feature of his involvement in the incident. Ken is not a medical professional. He was, until retirement,a ship traffic controller for the English Channel!

Dr Robert "Smitty" Smithwick, W6CS, at his station.

Ken Kirk-Bayley, GJ0KKB (left) and friend at Mugenero Hospital,Rwanda.

Many viewers sent money, totally unsolicited, to assist him. To deal with these funds responsibly, Ken created a public Board of Trustees and founded the Bush Hospital Foundation Foundation. Meanwhile, in the US, on recommendation of Smitty, and with the enthusiastic support of the President, Dr. Ed Ludin, K2UK (now a "Silent Key", deceased), the MARCO board created a new program known as MediShare. It becameMediShare International when the Bush Hospital Foundation joined the group (in Europe, it is known as BHF-MediShare International). A small committee was established to develop the program. The committee consisted of Dr Bud Clarke, KE2DT; Bud Talbott. KC2ZA (now a Silent Key); Dr Eldon Snow, WA7RPR; and Ken Kirk-Bayley, GJOKKB. Smitty, W6CS, was the chairman.

MARCO had no warehouse or storage facilities. It also lacked the ability to repair, test.or convert equipment for use in other countries. Some means had to be found to perform these functions and to ultimately place donated equipment into qualified institutions.

To accomplish all of this, the MediShare Committee sought out a number of "partners" in the United States who have extensive experience in procuring,converting and placing equipment into medical institutions in the third world. These partners are all nonprofit organizations, operated by volunteer boards of trustees and managed by professionals. Of particular interest is one of MediShare's original partners, the Radiological Equipment Assistance Program (REAP, now a part of International Aid, in Michigan). This organization was founded by a ham, Jim Sharpe, W6LNF, an X-ray technologist.

To finance the new program, the MARCO treasurer, Dr. Al Greenwald, WA2CBA, and secretary, Dr. Bill Sprague, WA6CRN, created a special fund supported solely by volunteer contributions from members. Funds go exclusively for refurbishing and shipping of medical equipment and related costs. There is no paid staff.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the BHF continued to raise funds. An early project, funded entirely by the new BHF, consisted of flying a young teenage boy named Samson and his parents from Rwanda to a hospital in France for life-saving cardiac surgery. On his return to Rwanda,Samson discovered that his activities were necessarily limited because of his heart condition. He could not participate in the normal heavy work activities in support of his ommunity. To provide him a useful vocation, the BHF secured a treadmill operated sewing machine. Samson is now the village tailor!

A Postcard from Chernobyl

Early in the program, and before the breakup of the Soviet Union, a plaintive postcard was received from Dr Larry Pristavko, UCIAWG (now EW1AAA). Larry lived in Minsk, Byelorussia, the nearest large city to the Chernobyl disaster. He explained that besides his professional responsibility as a physicist, he and his wife had custody of a number of orphaned children. all of whom had severe radiation sickness. His postcard read in part: "May I ask you for 500 tablets of aspirin, the same quantity of Aspirin-free pain relievs (sic) for children and for a few bottles of polyvitamins?".

When this simple request was brought to the MARCO evening net, many members around the US contributed the needed items. MediShare also supplied a Geiger counter so Larry could check the children's food for radiation contamination. Subsequently, after the break-up of the Soviet Union, Larry and his wife visited the Eastern US and met many MARCO members. He is now an active MARCO member (and a well known DXer).

Dr. Valery Pristavko, EW1AAA (right), conducts tests with two technicians in the radioactive "hot zone" near Chernobyl. They lack radiation suits, so they must wait until after a rain shower before they can safely enter the area. "The moisture keeps radioactive dust on the ground." he says.

Service to Africa

In recent years, the country of Rwanda has been torn apart by civil war, during which millions of people were brutally slain. It has been reported that Mugenero Hospital was vandalized and closed, and many membets of the hospital staff were killed. MediShare International aided in the effort to rebuild Rwanda by sponsoring a mobile health clinic that could provide essential, but limited, health services throughout the country and in adjacent refugee camps. As of today, not only one, but five Land Rovers have been purchased and converted to become mobile medical clinics and ambulances. Staffed by volunteer doctors and nurses supplied by AMREF (African Medical Relief Foundation), they are in the countryside in Rwanda, Uganda, Zaire, Kenya, wherever the current need is greatest.

After a brief study, BHF-MediShare International began work to establish a clinic in Kajire Village.

A fresh water supply system was brought in for the first time to serve the village and the soon-to-be clinic. Supplies were trucked in. which, along with native materials, were stockpiled. The Kajire Clinic now consists of a cluster of three clinic buildings and a small house for the resident nurse, who is supported by the Government of Kenya. This part of Kenya is on the edge of the great Tsavo Desert and borders Somalia. The entire area was affected severely by the great drought of 1993. So, along with serving the medical needs of the village, the little Kajire Clinic staff and volunteers provided one meal per day for nearly 8000 people for several months.

Dr. Mike Marks, co-founder of the Bush Hospital Foundation, with a group of children at the Mugenero Hospital in Rwanda

Ms Jane Barham (center) assists in the construction of the Kajire Clinic in Kenya.

Donations and Service Worldwide

In the recent past, Part A of MediShare (dealing with equipment placement) has donated several infant incubators to a hospital in northern India to replace the "incubators" they were using at the time cardboard boxes heated with 40-W light bulbs! Over $40,000 worth of new medical and dental equipment and instruments were distributed to floating medical and dental clinics serving villages along the Amazon River in Brazil, as well as among many islands in the South Pacific.

Amateur Radio equipment has been distributed to hospitals in Liberia and Haiti for use by ham staff members. MediShare helped support a one year term of service by an Ohio State University third year medical student to the Kikuyu Hospital in Kenya. The helping hands of MARCO also reach to villages in Mexico with medical equipment donated by MARCO hams.

A turbocharged diesel Land Rover, prior to its conversion to a mobile clinic by BHF-MediShare International. It is now in use in Rwanda, Kenya and Zaire.

MediShare - BHF International is now embarking on its most ambitious project, St Luke's Hospital, outside Mombasa, Kenya, was established in 1934 by the Anglican mission. A new pediatric wing has been built, but all funds and resources to furnish it have been exhausted. Therefore, no obstetric or pediatric care can be provided.MediShare is working with the AMREF (African Medical Relief Foundation), and three of its US partners (Direct Relief International in Santa Barbara, California; International Aid in Michigan; and CHOSEN Mission Project of Erie, Pennsylvania) in a cooperative effort to equip this new addition.

New MediShare Programs

Part B of MediShare, a popular new program, provides opportunities for medical personnel in the form of short term assignments in third world hospitals and clinics. Again, several partnerships have been created to implement this program.

A new MediShare project in the planning stage will provide scholarships and materials to train indigenous people in medical equipment repair at facilities here in the US. The students will then return to their native countries and will be further trained and equipped (tools, test instruments, manuals) to repair equipment in their own and adjacent countries. With their assistance, it will no longer be necessary to take equipment out of service for long periods of time to have it repaired at the factory in the US or in Europe.

MARCO hams have also been very active as members of Medical Support Teams, specially created to support recent and upcoming scientific and DXpeditions. MSTs were organized in support of the Peter I expedition to the Antarctic two years ago, and for the operation on Easter Island and Salas y Gomez operation last year. Members are now making plans to assist the upcoming expedition to Heard Island, scheduled for early this year. MARCO member Dr Mike McGirr, K9AJ, will head the three doctor medical team on that expedition.

MARCO is expanding into cyberspace, with a site on the World Wide Web, thanks to the efforts of Dr Bruce Small, KM2L.

MediShare only recently filled a request via Amateur Radio and the Internet to help equip a new dental clinic now in operation in a remote Honduran village. This little clinic was organized by Rev. Rod Smith, KA5YEE/HR 1.

Hams Helping the World

Although MediShare is not a ham organization as such, hams are at its heart. More than 216 amateurs have actively volunteered. They've donated equipment, money, expertise or simply the gift of their time. Their support has allowed MediShare to act as a force for good in many third-world nations.