Troy McFarland

Kateri Medical Clinic

A Faithcare Medical Mission to Nigeria

(Audio-visual technical support provided by Moe Lavallee)

Rollie Sterrett introduced Troy McFarland who he knows from Trinity Episcopal Church of Tariffville. Between 7/22/2016 - 8/7/2016 Troy and his daughter Courtney visited Nigeria on a Faithcare Medical Mission trip (http://www.faithcare.net/) to Kateri Medical Clinic in Nigeria (http://www.katericlinic.org/).

Troy began by thanking our Club for its Spring, 2016 donation of $2000.00 to the Kateri Medical Clinic. All of the funds were expended on the project itself, as participants self funded their travel. He pointed out that it was his daughter Courtney that provided the initial motivation to pursue the trip, and she continued to press him to undertake it for over a year. He was initially very concerned because that area in northern Nigeria is not considered safe. Religious strife breaks out often in the area and some Muslims are known to burn Christian churches. By participating with a larger group ( which included 13 Americans in this case) the risk is reduced to some extent. On arrival he discovered that the Americans were a small minority, as the vast majority of volunteers were Nigerians themselves. These included doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians and medical students.

Troy's next revelation was the sheer number of people in need of medical care. He showed a video of what must have been 700 - 800 people lined up to be treated at the medical clinic. Most arrived as early as 4:00 AM to line up and await their turn. Morning operations each day started with a prayer service, intended to demonstrate the love of Christ, as expressed by the provision of charitable medical care to the people. Care was open to all  however, without discrimination. Indeed the land for one clinic was donated by a local Muslim man who lost his daughter because the nearest previously established medical care was too far away to access in time.

People were brought into the clinic proper from the line outside in groups of 100 and sorted by their needs and service availability. It was here that Troy's background in manufacturing was of great value, as he understands "flow" and thus he managed their Administrative Team to best effect. (In agriculture we call this efficient "throughput.") Courtney enjoyed a truly extraordinary experience, finding herself assisting with surgeries, taking vital signs, doing health surveys, and training people in basic hygiene practices such as effective hand-washing and use of running water. She was truly "in control" and has set her mind towards becoming a teacher. Today she is a student in education at Central Connecticut State University.

(Courtney McFarland is in 3rd image from top, left column, with young boy)

Of the donated funds collected in support of this mission, most of it is expended in obtaining medications. There are many cases of malaria and other chronic diseases in advanced states due to lack of timely care, for example a lemon-sized mass seen on one man's face. There are also many babies that have never had medical care that were treated. During the two weeks, 9529 people were treated at three different sites, with 229 surgeries performed, 578 dental procedures performed and 2762 eye examinations performed with 912 pairs of glasses distributed. Additionally there were 5024 pharmacy orders and 6810 people were counseled. Although proselytizing for Christianity is not a goal of the mission, it happens naturally and during this period 493 people accepted Christ as their savior.