When someone mentions "Habitat for Humanity," the not-for-profit global home-building movement, you might imagine a flurry of hammers and nails. Suitcases filled with syringes and stethoscopes are likely far from your mind.
When someone mentions “Habitat for Humanity,” the not-for-profit global home-building movement, you might imagine a flurry of hammers and nails. Suitcases filled with syringes and stethoscopes are likely far from your mind.
But medical supplies are exactly what 21 Florida Hospital employees and community members will soon tote to Maharashtar, India—a rural village skirting Mumbai. Maharashtar is the site of this year’s Habitat for Humanity International Jimmy Carter Work Project (JCWP).
Former United States president and social justice advocate, Jimmy Carter, launched his first annual house-building stint in 1984 by helping to renovate a dilapidated New York City apartment complex. The project continues to depend upon the willingness of local and international volunteers who donate their commitment and construction skills to building 100 homes during each weeklong project.
From October 29 to November 3, the JCWP team will support indiaBUILDS, a five-year long campaign organized by Habitat for Humanity in India, where shoddy bricks and bamboo make for meager shelter for thousands of India’s neediest citizens. By 2010, indiaBUILDS project organizers anticipate building 250,000 homes for such people, targeting the coastal areas where the 2004 tsunami exacerbated already abysmal living conditions.
Among the 1 million volunteers estimated to contribute to indiaBUILDS are Florida Hospital employees who will support the construction team by treating any injuries sustained by the volunteers—all 2,500 of them from 30 countries.
The upcoming trip is part of Florida Hospital’s mission to share “the healing ministry of Christ on a global level,” says George ‘Bucky’ Weeks, director of International Medical Mission Service for Florida Hospital. Weeks serves as the administrative director of the medical team.
Longstanding emergency room doctor at Florida Hospital, John ‘Jack’ Geeslin, will serve as medical director for the hospital’s team. During a phone interview with Adventist News Network, Geeslin explained specifically what the team will be doing in India, based on a similar experience during a trip to Veracruz, Mexico in 2004.
“A lot of it’s minor—someone needing a Band-Aid or someone with debris in their eyes—but we documented seeing over 1,000 patients on that trip, and some of the cases we treated were major,” Geeslin says, citing concussions, unconsciousness, and even a severe allergic reaction suffered by one of the agents in Carter’s security detail.
When one volunteer fell through a roof and fractured her skull during construction, hospital staff used Carter’s helicopter to whisk her off to the nearest neurological center, marking the first fly-in in Veracruz’s history, Geeslin adds. To ensure a speedy, skilled team, about half of the Florida Hospital volunteers are Emergency Medical Services specialists.
India’s legal system limits the team’s ability to provide routine medical treatment for locals. However, Geeslin says they “certainly won’t stand idly by if a local was having a heart attack.” Additionally, the team will extend medical treatment to the recipients of the houses, who are considered JCWP volunteers by default.
Florida Hospital’s relationship with JCWP resulted from what Geeslin calls “a fortuitous series of coincidences.” When Florida Hospital employees—many of whom had already served during mission trips and work projects on an individual basis—expressed interest in supporting a volunteer project together, Habitat for Humanity organizers realized they needed just such a team. “Florida Hospital people established great relationships with Habitat volunteers and locals, so Habitat requested us again this year,” says Geeslin.
Kate Pride Brown, a spokeswoman for Habitat for Humanity, agrees with Geeslin on the team-up’s success. “In their role as medical staff for international projects, [the Florida Hospital team] provides services and equipment for free, which is an enormous benefit for Habitat, allowing us, in turn, to support our volunteers at a very reduced cost.”
“Usually, some of our own volunteers—quite often on a local level—will act as medical staff on site,” Pride Brown adds, “but for an event of this size and international scope, the medical staff needs to be much larger.” She notes that Florida Hospital staff allows JCWP volunteers to fully concentrate their efforts on construction.
On what keeps him motivated, Geeslin said, “It’s really a mix. When we went to Mexico, it was a spirit of ‘Can we help?’ and a chance to be involved not only within the Adventist system, but also with the broader system of Habitat, both of which appealed to all our altruistic natures.”
But it’s the opportunity to share the healing ministry of Christ and the strong relationships the team established during the Mexico trip that Geeslin says cinched his decision to go to India. “Many of us still email the local nurses and doctors we met during our time in Mexico. We even sent a huge box of toys at Christmas for the local children. It ended up being a really amazing experience for all involved. I want to go again for the very same reasons.”
