Above photo: February 2018. A container arrives in Ivano-Frankivsk and is unloaded into the Church’s distribution center. This container carried supplies for the Medical Seminar, Humanitarian Aid items, and an eye-surgical
operating microscope that was given to the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Hospital.
In the autumn of 2017 we received word that an operating microscope was being donated for us to ship to the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Hospital. This is the hospital where Dr. Gary Jerkins has taken operating teams over years. The partnership has been phenomenal and the results have been very encouraging as the thousands in western Ukraine have had eye surgery that restored vision.
The cooperative partnership between Dr. Gary Jerkins and the Regional Hospital in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine has spanned many years. He has taken surgical teams from Nashville, TN and worked in the Regional Hospital. He and a number of others have worked to secure deliveries of critically needed humanitarian aid commodities to the hospital and other medical facilities. The first contact I had with Gary was on a request from the WORLD CATARACT FOUNDATION (Memphis, TN) asking me to ship a microscope into Ukraine. This is a report on the most recent surgical microscope that was shipped into Ivano-Frankivsk and was distributed by the Church there.
In March 2018 Dr. Gary Jerkins, Dr. Ron Swang and John Durham spearheaded a hands-on medical seminar. This connected a number of Christian healthcare providers with the medical students enrolled in The Medical Institute in Ivano-Frankivsk. Our good brother Emmanuel from Ghana was the point man in Ukraine working with his fellow medical students to plan and coordinate that wonderful event.
To assist the seminar, we shipped a container that held critically needed medical texts, instruments and expired medical supplies for the seminar.
Also, in that container was a two-piece ophthalmological operating microscope valued in the tens of thousands of dollars! It was an amazing donation that would make seismic waves throughout the national healthcare system.
To be sure there were headaches, ulcer inviting situations, governmental barriers, customs contortions and, not least, traumas from the taxation department. But ultimately all hurdles were successful crossed and the microscope was delivered to the hospital!
Here is a brief summary of the mission and a good report on the first surgical use!
Click Here to read the report: 18 07 Helping Vision
