Release Immediate: June 8, 1999
Contact: Eric Van Danen, (512) 863-1570
[email protected]
Southwestern University deploys medical service volunteers to Balkans to aid in refugee relief
GEORGETOWN, Texas--Southwestern University recently launched a medical assistance effort to aid refugees in the Balkan nations of Macedonia and Albania by putting out a call for volunteers to alumni and friends of the Texas liberal arts college. The response has been heartening.
Inspired by the calling, two Southwestern alumni already have been deployed to Albania, and a parent of a current student just returned from service in Macedonia. Other alumni, as well as doctors and nurses in Texas and around the nation who have learned about the volunteer effort, have expressed interest in signing up for the effort and are being scheduled for deployment.
A $250,000 gift, made by Southwestern alumni Red and Charline McCombs of San Antonio, has provided funds to deploy physicians and other health-care personnel to Macedonia and Albania to offer medical assistance and other relief to the more than one million Kosovar refugees displaced by Serbian troops. Red McCombs is chair of Southwestern's Board of Trustees and owner of the Minnesota Vikings football team.
In the spirit of its historic mission to provide leadership and service worldwide, Southwestern University is working with International Medical Corps (IMC) based in Los Angeles to develop a comprehensive medical assistance strategy. To learn more about how IMC has been assisting in the Balkan crisis, visit www.imc-la.org.
Over the past two months, Southwestern has been working to identify and recruit medical personnel--among alumni, friends of the university, and other college and university groups--to deploy to Albania and Macedonia. The University's initial efforts have focused upon identifying volunteers who would be willing to be deployed for a two- to three-week assignment. Travel costs for volunteers will be paid by the McCombs's gift, and the housing and food costs will be provided by IMC. In addition, Southwestern has put into place an advisory group to consider ways in which persons without medical training who wish to volunteer can participate.
Southwestern alumnus Dr. Barney Davis, a psychiatrist from Easton, Md., was the first volunteer to be deployed through Southwestern's partnership with the IMC. Davis left May 2, 1999, for Albania.
A 1966 graduate of Southwestern, Davis is executive director with Godspeed Missionary Care, a non-profit organization that provides counseling, medical services and pastoral care to missionaries in such places as the former Soviet Union, Mozambique, Spain and Mexico. His specialization is treating stress and medical disorders encountered in the missionary field.
Davis worked with IMC medical personnel in refugee centers along the Albanian border to provide them with what is called "critical incident stress debriefing." IMC personnel are seeing and treating 500-2,000 people a day in the centers where he worked.
He says, "In an overwhelming care situation like this, no matter how much you give, it's not enough. Care providers can suffer from compassion fatigue." Davis provided psychiatric counseling to and training for personnel to identify and treat compassion fatigue among IMC staff members and volunteers.
"The refugees are coming in with a variety of challenges for the IMC team. From shock, malnutrition, dehydration, and exhaustion to gunshot wounds, broken bones, and rape trauma.
"No one is coming in to these refugee camps who hasn't lost something. If, as a medical team volunteer, you're the least bit empathetic, that will get to you. That's the point where I provide service."
Southwestern University will, also, seek to locate other funding sources to provide longer-term services to Kosovar refugees in line with opportunities which may be identified.
Southwestern University, with an enrollment of 1,200 students, historically has pursued both small- and large-scale humanitarian efforts in areas around the world affected by either natural or human disaster. During World War II, Southwestern welcomed a number of scholars who fled war-torn Europe. In 1992, more than ten percent of Southwestern's student body traveled to south Louisiana to help clean-up and recovery efforts after Hurricane Andrew struck the Gulf Coast. In 1998, the Southwestern community joined international relief efforts aimed at helping Hurricane Mitch victims in the Central American country of Honduras.
For more information on the effort, please visit www.southwestern.edu/balkancrisis
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