The Three Objectives of Mission to Heal : Objective One
Mission to Heal has three objectives.
So in our next three blog posts, we’ll focus on highlighting each of those objectives, the objectives that give purpose and meaning to our work.
Our three objectives:
- Provide surgical operations and medical care to those who need it, who have limited or no access to it, and who cannot afford it.
- Equip medical professionals with the heart and hands to function in needy and poorly-resourced conditions.
- Equip locals to provide the medical care so that the community attains a greater degree of self-sufficiency.
First up?
Objective #1: Provide surgical operations and medical care to those who need it, who have limited or no access to it, and who cannot afford it.
Why surgical care?
Because surgical care is needed.
Desperately.
According to the World Health Organization, 11 percent of the global disease burden can be treated with surgery. And more people die from surgical need each year than AIDS and malaria and other ailments combined.
Among the many examples of acute and chronic health burdens that can be cured by surgery are traumatic joint dislocations, open fractures to prevent osteomyelitis, hernia repairs, thyroidectomies, hysterectomies, and draining of abscesses. Surgery is also an essential component of maternal and child health care. Congenital anomalies and maternal mortality alone add up to over 600,000 deaths per year.
Sick, injured people are not only personally unproductive, they absorb the community’s often meager resources. Governments, policymakers, and aid agencies have shied away from attempting to make surgical care a priority in their programs because they deem surgery not cost-effective, not scalable, and not sustainable. Breaking this cycle of poverty-disease-poverty, in a context of indifference, is a primary goal for Mission to Heal.
Which brings us to – why these groups of people?
Because these people need it.
Desperately.
Consider these two graphics showing healthcare need vs. healthcare access:
Areas of Greatest Need: Dark Green
Areas of Least Access: Dark Red
Obviously, Africa – which is only the most dramatic example – suffers from both the greatest need and the least access. Today, in Africa, 56,000,000 people are in need of surgery.
And worldwide, approximately 2 billion people still have no access to basic surgical care.
These are the people Mission to Heal serves.
Objective #1: Provide surgical operations and medical care to those who need it, who have limited or no access to it, and who cannot afford it.
Objective #1 is to bring healing to those most in need of being healed.
Objective #1 is “bringing hope to the bottom billion of the world.”
