Since 1990, the United States has led the fight to eradicate extreme poverty — those living on less than $1.25 a day. American leadership has helped cut extreme poverty by a historic 50 percent.
We can agree to some extent that we are, as Christians, afforded the opportunity to think outside of the paradigm of nationalism, and transcend the idea of “our own,” as simply an indicator of citizenship within our American borders. But what does it mean for the government of the U.S., as it attempts to operate inside the confines of the Constitution?
Because the majority of reporting around the overall giving to charities and causes has been trending in extremely positive ways, you may not have recognized the gloomy trend showing that conservative Christians are, en masse, turning away from supporting foreign assistance programs that serve the poor, the hungry, the thirsty and the sick living outside of the United States.
I have just wrapped up another exciting and challenging week 2 and 3 at Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH). I have started providing once a week outpatient echocardiographic imaging for the hospital besides providing free heart imaging for several children and adults who are inpatient. The two internal medicine residents who are training in the focused echo imaging are making significant progress. Getting and echocardiogram is difficult and expensive in Ghana. It cost $80 - $100 to get an echo done and sometimes one has to travel to the capital city which is 3 hours away. So far together with the trainees we have provided free cardiac imaging for nearly 80 patients for the past 3 weeks. One pediatrician has also started training for focused echo this week. I am looking forward to the first of 3 evaluations for the trainees in week 4.
I have just completed my first week at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, Ghana and have started week 2. It has been an interesting experience so far. My travel to Ghana was uneventful. My first day was very busy and started with echocardiogram of a Man with pulmonary tuberculosis and heart failure. Given that I have a handheld echo machine it was easy to image him at the emergency unit. I took the opportunity to start teaching the two providers who are participating in the focused echocardiogram training. The hospital has a standard echo machine but have no providers to do echocardiograms, so this training will be extremely beneficial to the hospital and the patient population they serve. The CEO wants me to set aside one day a week to provide echocardiogram service for outpatients. I will continue to perform inpatient echocardiograms with the current two trainees every day throughout my stay.
Frist Global Health Leaders: Taylor Matherly – Weeks 3 & 4 in Quetzaltenango

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve continued my engagement with Primeros Pasos’ Nutrition Recuperation Program. In addition to administering the surveys developed during my first two weeks here, I’ve also begun leading “charlas” (chats) alongside Primeros Pasos’ nutrition outreach coordinator, Monica. These charlas are designed specifically for mothers of school-aged children who have been identified as being either malnourished, underweight, stunted, or overweight. Charlas are held monthly in each target community, of which there are four in total.

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