Project MARC

Type of Work

• Medical Tasks
• Educational Support Tasks

Medical Tasks

 

~ Phase I Tasks ~

Phase I tasks concentrate on exploratory evaluation of potential new target areas in direct consultation with the Vanuatu Ministry of Health. Project MARC medical volunteers working in a phase I area typically will provide urgently needed primary care (as the communities in this area tend to have little or no local health facilities and healt workers). Usually, the phase I medical tasks do not yet include training of new local village health workers (VHWs), which takes center stage in phase II. However, most exploratory teams are accompanied by one or more "ambassador VHWs" from phase III areas, who were trained by us in previous years and now serve as guides, translators and advisors in making contact with the new communities. The following 8-minute MARC@WORK movie provides an excellent impression of the kind of primary care our medical team members may be asked to give after first coming ashore in such communities:

Project MARC
comes to a remote village
for the first time

A crucial part of our phase I medical task is to carry out thorough community health assessments using Project MARC CHEQ (community health evaluation questionaire) forms which are usually filled out in close collaboration with the local village elders or chiefs as well as the accompanying ambassaor VHWs. CHEQ forms not only check on the unmet needs of the communities but also on their resources, particularly with regard to potentially trainable VHWs, community organization and attitude and - last but not least - whether Project MARC's own logistic, medical, educational and technical resources are sufficient to carry out a successful phase II campaign in that particular environment.

Copies of the currently used phase I CHEQ forms, developed over the past 3 years, can be examined by clicking on the following links:

CHEQ-form # I (11 KB)

CHEQ-form # II (13 KB)

CHEQ-form # III (11 KB)

 

~ Phase II Tasks ~

Phase II tasks center around the rapid start-up (or re-start) of basic primary care in areas selected in consultation with the Vanuatu Ministry of Health after a Phase I evaluation has been completed in a previous season and the CHEQ form data have been processed and digested. If the area already has an abandoned and/or dilapidated aid post or dispensary facility, a Project MARC technical volunteer team will be asked to try and rebuild or upgrade that facility before the medical team arrives. If there is no facility at all, a prefabricated "Mobi-Doc" clinic of the type developed by University of Utah Mechanical Engineering students may be deployed or an existing village building may be modified to become a temporary clinic in order to help "jumpstart" primary care.

The core task for all Phase II efforts is to train local adults with at least 6 year of primary school education to become certified village health workers,using the Vanuatu Ministru of Health training manual (see download page for details)

The following MARC@WORK movie illustrates a phase II primary care & VHW training program being carried out by Dr. Deirdre Duffy and her team at "Jungle Mountain Clinic" (Sauriki canyon area, West Santo) in September 2005, right after a Mobi-Doc style clinic had been erected in this remote mountainous region by the August team:

Project MARC
returns to a village
to open a clinic

 

 

~ Phase III Tasks ~

Phase III tasks involve a broad range of possible programs designed to address the specific medical needs of a particular community or region. Examples of major Phase III tasks addressed by Project MARC teams thus far are: school & hygiene education (subpage 1); rural  blindness prevention (subpage 2); and community health selfsufficiency (subpage 3).  In addition, our volunteer teams have carried out special medical programs aimed at providing dental care plus hygiene, reducing skin parasite infestation, alleviating rheumatoid arthritis, educating traditional birth assistants, and improving women's health plus perinatal care.  Some examples of phase iii programs are being shown in the videoclip below whereas a detailed discussion of several major phase III programs can be found on subpages 1-3. 

 

Project MARC
supports villages with a
government-run aid post