Jejoongwon’s Missionary Spirit Reflected in Volunteer Medical Missions Abroad

-Medical and Dental Service Provided in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe

On July 1, Severance Medical Center held a worship service for the 2015 Summer Medical Mission Teams. Beginning in late May, Severance’s medical teams visited Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe to offer various medical and dental services. Teams also made visits to rural areas in Korea, including Gangwondo and Chungnam.

From May 23 to 29, a team of reconstructive and plastic surgery specialists, led by Professor Kim Yong-wook, visited Uzbekistan. There, they operated on dozens of children suffering from cleft lip and palate and contracture, while performing a number of skin grafts. Members of the team also participated in training local medical workers.

Between June 22 and 29, Gangnam Severance Hospital’s “1% Nanoom Donation” Medical Missionary Team was in Kazakhstan to provide medical services to local residents. With Professor Yoon Young-won at the helm, the team was composed of surgeons, specialists from the internal medicine, ear, nose and throat, and family medicine clinics, pharmacists, nurses, and other staff members. With the support of local missionaries and Al-Farabi University, the team treated almost 1,000 patients at clinics provided by the University and Kabchaguy City Hospital.

At Al-Farabi University’s hospital, team members provided training and public health sessions to staff members and patients; they also delivered a monetary grant to the university and its hospital. At Ulkennarum Hospital in East Kazhastan, the team treated patients with skin disorders and heart disease. In this region, there is an abnormally high number of patients suffering from such conditions, which may be due to the fact that a number of nuclear experiments were conducted here when the country was part of the Soviet Union. The team plans to continue treating and monitoring the condition of these patients in the future. In Ust-Kamenogorsk, team members visited patients at Cahton Hospital, allowing the local medical staff the opportunity to observe examinations and treatments. They also attended a meeting at East Kazakhstan Regional University with the Goryo People Association. Organized by the university’s Department of Korean Studies, the event allowed team members to meet ethnic Koreans from the region as well as other local residents.

A medical team from the College of Dentistry visited Matura, Sri Lanka from August 6 to 12. Led by Professor Pak Hyoung-sun, there were a total of forty Yonsei volunteers on the trip, and they brought with them nearly one ton of modern dentistry equipment. Once the equipment had been installed, the team spent five days treating 954 patients, many of whom needed scaling or suffered from nerve damage. At the same time, team members provided public sessions on dental hygiene and long-term dental health.

In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, another volunteer team from the College of Dentistry, “Haewoo Hoei,” was at Hebron Mission Hospital from August 11 to 18. There, the team members treated many patients who had been without dental care, some of whom were suffering from oral cancer. They also conducted training sessions with local dentists on scaling, treating rotten teeth, and tooth extraction.

Medical Services to Zimbabwe and Viet Nam; Gangwondo and Chungnam

Five additional teams volunteered medical services to foreign countries and domestic rural areas. The medical teams Jim Samo and Yonsei Cleft Team visited Zimbabwe and Vietnam, respectively, to offer services to local residents. The College of Dentistry’s Luke Medical Missionary Service Team visited Wonju, Gangwondo and offered free treatments there. The teams Salt Society and Ecclesia provided services in Chungnam.