Paraguay is a nation located at the heart of the South American continent; and its territory is divided by the Paraguay River into two regions: Eastern Paraguay and Western Paraguay or known too as “The Chaco”. Bolivia and Paraguay share something in common:  territory with no exit to the ocean. Its official name is “Republic of Paraguay”; and the capital city is Asuncion.  Its boundaries are shared at South with Argentina, at East with Brazil, and with Bolivia at the northwest. The Paraguayan flag is a bet different than others; since its backward-design is slightly different compared to the front.     
Ethnically, culturally and socially has one of the most homogeny populations in Latin America. Certain legacy the Guarani tribe left out as the original settlers of the region. The Guarani language is understood by a 90% of the population. The majority of the population is descendent of the Guarani tribe mixed with some white expeditors who once came from Europe. The mixture of natives with Europeans created the “Mestizo” ethnical group. The Indigenous population certainly struggles to keep its identity. They are now isolated and margined. This tribe is not organized yet to a point of sending a legal representative of theirs to fight for their rights before the federal government. In this respect; Paraguayans do as much as the Argentineans or Uruguayans do too to discriminate minorities.
But not all is sad in Paraguay. They all share an interesting costume at drinking Hot Mate; but at the Guarany zones Tereré is another popular choice to drink consisting in this case in Cold Mate though. Nowadays, Tereré is turned into the popular nation wide drink meant to re-hydrate those who live and work hard at the Paraguayan Chaco. “Nobody lives their place having first some Mate-herb on its water container, ice cubes, and some of those well known “Yuyo-remedies” (Guampa-herb). The Paraguayan Eastern area has on its own another four sub-regions; one of these sub regions is the Asuncion’s area with its metropolitan area composed of the actual capital’s area added to its districts. One of those districts is Villa Hayes; the actual place where our medical mission took place at. To be more precise; the name of the community that hosted us was “Cerrito” (which means Little Hill) that belonged to the Asuncion-district of Villa Haynes. The climate there was tropical with an average temperature of 38 degrees Celsius. Cerrito’s population there in Villa Haynes lives on extreme poverty. It is sad to recognize some of the Paraguayan luxuries we saw were not that far from “Cerrito”; only a short drive of 45 min. separate the capital Asuncion from “Cerrito”. We left Quito by 6:30 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon. That day was September the 20th, 2007. After a very long and tiring trip our medical team finally arrived in Asuncion on a Saturday, September 21st, 2007 past noon. Immediately our team went to Cerrito at the Villa Hayes district; where we prepared the place for our attention. The place was a chapel regularly used by the “San Francisco de Asis”-agricultural school.    This school also served as our hotel for our volunteers and practitioners. For this particular expedition we counted with the presence of the Charity Anywhere Foundation’s President and Vice-president respectively: Mr. Gordon Lyle Carter and Dr. Washington Zambrano DDS. Charity Anywhere Foundation once again put together another wonderful team of volunteers and practitioners to go forward with this medical mission to Paraguay, 2007. A Plastic Surgeon on Dr. Ivan Ramirez; a Paediatrician on Dr. Faust Ortega; a Gynaecologist on Dr. Marina Montalvo; an Esthetical Medicine Doctor on Dr. Jenny Naranjo; an Epidemiologist on Dr. Alberto Vargas (Charity Anywhere Medical -Coordinator); an Internal Practitioner on Dr. Gloria Polo; a Traditional Medicine Practitioner on Dr. Olga Farinango; a Ophthalmologist originally from Paraguay on Dr. Ana María Barrios.  On the Dental Consult we counted with two Maxilla Facial Oral Surgeons who were: Dr. Said Mangui and Dr. Jorge Montalvo MFS-DDS. Our Dental Specialists were: Dr. Maria Isabel Zambrano DDS & Dental Paediatrician; another DDS & Dental Paediatrician on Dr. Lily Valverde; an Orthodontist on Dr. Monica Zambrano DDS; and three General Dentists on Dr. Ximena Tapia Dr. Salome Arias and Dr. Carla Arias. Our Dental Consult was also made of two Dental Lab Technicians on Carlos Tipanluisa PDDT and his nephew Xavier Fonte PDDT.  At this occasion, two engineers also joined our team. They were Julio C. Zambrano (Civil Engineer); and B. Patricio Guzman (Chemical Engineer). They helped start two projects that for sure will help improve the living conditions of those inhabitants of small villages near by the Paraguayan-agricultural school there in “Cerrito”. The first project consisted on setting up a purifying-water machine. That was successfully done in one of the communitarian-house’s walls. Obtaining chloride that comes from regular salt is the main target for this machine. It truly was a simple process to learn. Some of the community leaders there earned a brief understanding of how to use this machine. Additionally; our Engineers also built the foundations of a new communitarian house. This construction project was done at the same village where the Water Chloride machine was sat up too. To get there we had to walk five minutes from the agricultural school; and obtaining construction supplies was truly a nightmare since they all were far in Asuncion. With those who helped at the Pharmacy Economist Maria Eugenia Guzman and Juan
F. Zambrano; added to those who also helped at the Operating Room in Anita Zambrano and David Lucero (Quito-Medical school students) we completed our full team of thirty professionals and volunteers who arrived to serve the Paraguayans with the only motto on mind to Serve Anyone Anywhere. We also invited Mr. David Romero and Mr. Luis Morales; who are co-workers as a reporter and a camera man from the documental-TV. Show “Day to Day”. This show belongs to “Teleamazonas TV-channel”.

The attention was done this way:

MEDICAL REPORT
In General Medicine we did 821 consults. Of which 259 (a 31, 5%) were people from the masculine gender; and 562 (a 68, 5%) were women. Proper pathologies of this region were found easily. Since there is not much medical assistance for this area; diseases are now part of the every day life for those individuals who deal with them daily. Our medical team was forced to make a difference between our Indigenous Patients and Mestizos Patients too. Social and economical reasons mainly relegate indigenous groups-or/and their relatives- into poverty. Surviving from day to day has become a real task for those who really aren’t Mestizos in Paraguay. That only showed us a rejecting society there; where co-existing has received a minimum of importance. “Treating yourself decently hasn’t really become an important matter for us as Paraguayan Indigenous”. It’s not a big deal for us anymore. The true important matter for them is obtaining whatever is left from well organized and consuming Mestizo societies there in Paraguay. The outside world can and should assist the Guaraní people better; just like we did within a few days by giving them truly and transforming changes to their life-style conditions. We want to see the Paraguayan-government providing relief to isolated groups like the Paraguayan indigenous tribes.  Housing and education are also so needed there too. Somehow Paraguayan-health authorities will have to find a way to re-invert these sad social realities that almost every Paraguayan faces daily. The Guarany tribe clearly suffers of isolation. This condition provokes diseases such as Tuberculosis, Mal Nutrition, and the “Women-Early Mature ness disease”. On top of all of these; Guarany Women have to live under “Macho” societies. A common way Guaraní “Machismo” is shown is when you see the father eating a lot and at first, then his children and finally the   mother who can only eat whatever is left-although she was the one who actually prepared the whole meal. Fairly often is to find too Skin-Parasitoids disease also known as “The Pique”; and produced by an acarus that sticks itself in the skin; and where it lays its eggs for incubation, reproduction, which ultimately causes a terrible etching joined with anaemia.  At the following chart it will be shown age groups from our medical patients:

This chart mainly showed us how isolated and less protected are mostly the women or members from Guarany tribes. Ssevere cases of Parasitism joined of Anaemia; or colds joined of either fiver or coughing were literately hardly affecting these people. The larger number of patients we had in Paraguay was women from 16 up to 45 year olds. Discrimination here happens on several ways. “Macho” societies treat on a very unkind manner their women; or certain ethnical issues around here allow “Mestizos” to eat the abundance of Paraguay. Anyone should access to a descent bowl of meal as a Human Right. This fact should be well understood by anyone. In Paraguay your ethnical origin tells you whether you eat well or bad. Definitely, those who live out in the jungles are less fortunate next to those who live in cities or relevant districts where rich Mestizos are “under the control”.  Families of medium income also have their own “Calvary” on this history. Although; medium-wage families are somehow related to “Mestizos” too; they still cannot access to a descent bowl of meal. These families can only use grease pieces of meat to obtain out of it a grease but popular sup known as “Puchero”. For consequence our Practitioners found cases of Gall Bladder-stones, High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol Diseases, Peptic Acid Reflect, and Diabetes. The climatic situation was also affected by forestall fires that caused to our patients Pharynx allergic inflammations or High Respiratory diseases. Our practitioners noticed that all of our patients from any age-group lacked of descent sanitarian conditions in their communities; they also lacked of descent personal hygiene which was the worse. Intestinal Parasitism was the main reason for Paraguayans to obtain a medical          consult. The working conditions for the local force on this region forced them to cause Low Back problems; and eventually the mostly seen reason for Morbidity in this region of Paraguay. On the Medical Specialty of Gynecology; the behavior our consulters had is shown as the following chart:               

Gynecology used to be a much demanded medical specialty in previous medical missions; it was catching to us realized that in Paraguay Gynecology was not really demanded as it was expected. Our Gynecologist instead did General Medicine. The major medical concern our Doctors had last year was the extremely fertility found within poor indigenous tribes or low-wage mestizo-families. These family groups totally struggled then to pay for the cost of a surgical procedure known as the Copper “T”; where a metallic piece is placed on the Female Reproductive System not allowing any further fertilization. This year we were only able to put two Copper “T” ´s.  That shows the little interest Paraguayan women put this time on getting this particular anti conceptive method. For some reason; Paraguayan women would rather prefer the anti conceptive method known as the “Fallopian Tubes tightening” or simply as “Tightening”. The need last year for the anti conceptive method of “Tightening” was the same as for this time or even more. The determine point was not having a descent O.R. where to operate more women interest to get Copper “T” ´s (D.I.U). It was often to see Anexitis, Cervixitis, Vulvae Vaginitis and Infections of the Urinary System. It was catching to see that eleven women consulted our practitioners hoping to find a way to get ride of their Copper “T”´s; and the majority of them not even asking about anti conceptive methods. To some Paraguayan indigenous; speaking or even planning about a particular anti conceptive method still is a myth. But other indigenous women didn’t hesitate at the time to share with us their personal experiences of using local herbs during treatments that significantly stopped their chances to get pregnant. On the medical specialty of Pediatrics; the behavior of our consulters will be exposed with the following:                                                             Boys              Girls

High Respiratory Track diseases were the main cause of consult. Specially those that were of an allergic origin; such as Rhinitis, Pharinxitis; followed by Intestinal or/and Skin Parasitoids of Fungus origin. Same as we noticed in other medical mission; children under a year of age did not have Mal-Nutrition problems because of the well taught culture of breastfeeding their babies as soon as they are born. Unfortunately; Paraguayan mothers quickly stop breastfeeding their babies owed to social or economical reasons; directly causing Mal Nutrition on babies that originally were well feed as nearly borns. There are not much solutions offered by the federal government to help improve the relationship between mother and child during the Neonatal stage. Vaccination’s season and coverage are not precisely the best in Paraguay either; consequently morbidity on the neonatal stage still is high. Consequently; if we were to add morbidity of neonatal babies with their mothers the situation turns absolutely alarming. The best example is within some indigenous mothers of Paraguay; where morbidity is high as well as within their babies too. That reflects the lack of work the Paraguayan government has in relationship to their children. It was registered a Hermaphrodite case; which is interesting from the medical point of view. Unfortunately; we didn’t bring with us enough founding to help pay the costs of a correcting surgery for that case. Maybe on a near future though. A Paraguayan doctor in Ophthalmologist was in charge of that medical specialty. The amounts of those who consult on this medical area are the followings:                                                                             Men           Women

Ophthalmology is one of the medical specialty with the most demand in every of our medical missions; and Paraguay wasn’t the exception. Our Ophthalmologist was able to check and prescribe eye-medicine to some patients who really needed it. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do ophthalmic surgery-procedures this time. Once again; maybe on a near future we will. We will have to fundraise with enough time in advance; and make sure the appropriate infrastructure will be ready for our surgeons to work in. At the end, at less it was neat to see how many Paraguayans wondered if we were offering this procedure. Ophthalmic pathologies were wide varied; but the two most often were “Presbicia” or known too as Long-Sightedness disease; along with “Cataratas” or NEI disease. To bad the only solution for these two diseases is exclusively Ophthalmic Surgery. For those who suffered of the Accommodations-disease or either Conjunctivitis we were able to donate 68 pair of lenses as well as some eye medicine. Overall we believe this mission to Paraguay was quite successful. Once again we had a good acceptance from Paraguayans; and a good feeling of accomplishment on our volunteers after this trip. Helping our brothers and sisters from Paraguay was an up growing lesson for all of us.  The final amount of consults was obtained out of adding every single Medical specialty; and it is shown in the following chart:                                                                      Men           Women

DENTAL REPORT

It was given 58 Prosthetic Dentures; some of those were Partial or Total Dentures. We donated 160 hygiene kits, 127 dental brushes. Our surgeons did Wisdom teeth- exodontias; Gum-wedging regulation; Surgical Sutures; Supernumerary teeth-Exodontias; medial groove teeth Exodontias; Gingivoplatias, etc. A total of forty hair cuts were offered to several people. Our Equipment-Technician let us know about his hair cutting skills; and he immediately had Paraguayan clients. Each mission leaves us new questions or concerns about those in need. This time we were able to know and share with people of a different culture than ours; people who opened their hearts to trusted us their most profound inquietudes or personal disillusions. Dramatic cases of mothers that preside on their families made of 6 small children to teach, feed, and take care of. These mothers can make it from month to month with 150 us. Dollars; or another cases of Indigenous that only ate when they could. Hunger is a custom to them; and dealing with it is surviving skill. In a lot of our patients we should have diagnosed the problem as extreme POVERTY or MISERY. To bad that neither one of us could truly really revert this social issue this time. Certainly the commitment of helping on a higher scale with more results and better criteria is our desire and duty for the upcoming mission next year.

CONSTRUCTION REPORT
Mission:  Paraguay 2007     Community: Tuba-com
Village: Benjamín Aceval               Town: “Cerrito”
District: “Villa Haynes”
Project: To install the Sodium-Hypochlorite Production-Plant; and finishing the construction of an office used as Library as well as a Public Health-Care dispensary. 
The date September 21st,, 2007 our group arrived to Paraguay. During the afternoon we moved into the community Tuba-com; which is located right nest to the physical area owed by the Paraguayan-agricultural school “San Francisco de Asis”.  The President of Charity Anywhere: Gordon Lyle Carter joined the “Charity Anywhere” Construction-Department which was made of Civil Engineer Julio Zambrano and Chemical Engineer Patricio Guzman. They all worked too in association to “MARCELO” (a Community Leader) who was supported to by a catholic priest known as Father Leopold Esteban. We all defined the activities ahead of us; and the resolutions were the followings:

THE INSTALATION PROCESS:
The Sodium-Hypochlorite Production-Plant was successfully installed at the medical Dispensary. Using a Donation-act; the President and Vice-president of Charity Anywhere (Gordon Carter and Washington Zambrano) made public the donation of this Plant to the Tuba-com community.  It was also signed a letter of agreement and covenant where personal from the Paraguayan-Agricultural School “San Francisco de Asis” will always teach the appropriate usage  of this Production Plant that will always should produce PURIFIED WATER IN OPTIMUS CONDITIONS FOR THE HUMAN USE.

ACCOMPLISHED ACTIVITIES:

 Initialising date: Friday 21st of September, 2007.  
Concluding date: Thursday 27th of September, 2007        
Place:  Tuba-com community.             
CONSTRUCTION OF THE LIBRARY AND MEDICAL OFFICE

Used materials during our work:

CHARITY ANYWHERE FOUNDATION & THE PARAGUAYAN FOUNDATION

SEPTEMBER 2007 MISSION.  DAY: SEPTEMBER 22nd  
A TOTAL OF 22 SURGICAL PROCEDURES.

CHARITY ANYWHERE FOUNDATION & THE PARAGUAYAN FOUNDATION

SEPTEMBER 2007 MISSION.  DAY: SEPTEMBER 23TH  
A TOTAL OF 8 SURGICAL PROCEDURES AND FOURTEEN CURATIONS.  

CHARITY ANYWHERE FOUNDATION & THE PARAGUAYAN FOUNDATION

SEPTEMBER 2007 MISSION.  DAY: SEPTEMBER 24TH
A TOTAL OF 20 SURGICAL PROCEDURES AND TEN CURATIONS.

CHARITY ANYWHERE FOUNDATION & THE PARAGUAYAN FOUNDATION
SEPTEMBER 2007 MISSION.  DAY: SEPTEMBER 25TH
A TOTAL OF 384 SURGICAL PROCEDURES AND 15 CURATIONS

CHARITY ANYWHERE FOUNDATION & THE PARAGUAYAN FOUNDATION
SEPTEMBER 2007 MISSION.  DAY: SEPTEMBER 26TH
A TOTAL OF 32 SURGICAL PROCEDURES AND 15 CURATIONS

CHARITY ANYWHERE FOUNDATION & THE PARAGUAYAN FOUNDATION
SEPTEMBER 2007 MISSION.  DAY: SEPTEMBER 27TH
A TOTAL OF 25 PROCEDURES AND 13 CURATIONs