Most Social Problems Do Not Have a Quick Fix

When Good Intentions Are Not Enough As I prepare for my first medical missionstrip to Haiti I question my intentions. I fear that this trip may turn out to be less about helping (because who can help anybody in a week) and more aboutfulfilling my desire to experience the "thrill" of international medicine. The question I often ponder is:"why go abroad when we have so many people suffering here in the U.S?" Did you know that the majority of volunteers in the Peace Corps report to feeling useless until year two? I can attest to this given my own work in underserved populations over the last eight years. AsI prepare to leave on my journey to Haiti, I have to ask how about the underserved patients I leave behind? My most recent justification is that life is learning and this trip will make me a more compassionate and caring provider. To see and understand the world is never a bad thing, right? But at times I feel this helps no-one, especially those whom we aim to help with our travel in the first place! Is there such a thing as responsible volunteerism? We send food to eliminate hunger Yet in the US, where grocery stores are filled with fresh, frozen, and canned food, One in six young children live on the brink of hunger in 26 states in the U.S., according to a new report issued today by Feeding America. The rate of food insecurity in young children is 33 percent higher than in U.S. adults, where one in eight live at risk of hunger according to the most recent report byFeeding America. There are a lot of reasons for hunger besides a lack of food. We travel to another country as a volunteer to build houses Yet, with a glut of houses on the market in the US, approximately 3.5 million people, 1.35 million of them children, are likely to experience homelessness in a given year (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 2007) presented as the best estimate to a complicated question in a paper by the National Coalition for the Homeless. Homelessness is not simply a matter of too few houses. We send money to build orphanages in other countries while the US foster care system is struggling Poverty, homelessness and unemployment are some of the main contributing factors to children being placed in foster care. Considering the current economic condition across the country, many experts believe it is possible that the number of children entering foster care will rise in the coming months. According to The National Network for Young People in Foster Care. Would we consider orphanages to be the right solution in the US? If the problem is not easily solved in our own country why would it be easily solved somewhere else? Am I headed out to practice volunteer tourism, or will our trip to Haiti have a positive net effect? You may also like -Make a Difference Train the Next Generation of PAs in Sub-Saharan Africa as a Clinical Associates MentorNote:The Clinical Associates twinning partnerships in South Africa are made possible through the support of the US Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in South []Haiti Medical Mission Trip: Settling In, Resetting my Clock and Resetting my World ViewThis post is the third of a series about working as a physician assistant in Haiti. Growth happens at times when we are the most challenged And yes this almost always involves overcoming fear. There is no better way to travel than []The Reason I became a Physician Assistant in 20 Minutes and 46 Seconds his is the video from our global medical mission trip October 2012. We were proud to serve over 600 people with combined medical and dental care. I have written several posts on the topic. It was an amazing experience and every time []