HOPE for Myanmar
Commentary From the Editor

The utter devastation is mind-boggling—again. The Myanmar cyclone and the China earthquake left in their wakes death, destruction, mass casualties and enormous human suffering. As the global outpouring of news coverage, sorrow and promised aid came to a crescendo, the unbelievable happened. Myanmar said, “No thank you.” Well, sort of. The Myanmar military government all but stopped relief from getting to its people.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government, amid widespread disdain for its human rights policies, responds to its current disaster with non-stop rescue efforts, attending to the devastated region, the injured and the displaced.

While history is rife with heroes as well as with villains, today’s modern technology and global community often give the edge to the good-hearted. Project HOPE and many other organizations, along with so many caring health care professionals, challenge the best of them. Currently, Myanmar is at the top of their list.

"Project HOPE is contingency planning for a possible Myanmar (Burma) deployment to provide Humanitarian Assistance-Disaster Relief (HA-DR) support. This operation would be similar to our tsunami support in 2005 i.e. deploying HOPE volunteers in multiple iterations of 30-day rotations in the areas of Primary Care, Surgical, Ancillary, Nursing and Nursing Education services." (Visit http://www.projectHOPE.org/pages/view.asp?id=10547053.)

Emergency nurses, you can make a difference for others and for yourselves.

"Some of our volunteers come from major cities, some from small towns in rural America but they all share something in common: they all want to deliver care, and when they come home they say they've experienced something they'd never be able to do here in the United States," said Rand Walton of Project HOPE.

ENA Member Diane Speranza, RN, CEN, who has been involved with numerous Project HOPE missions, explains why she continues to volunteer: “The saying there are some things that money can't buy....this is one of those, the fulfillment, satisfaction and humbleness I receive from people less fortunate than we our in the U.S. is enormous. Plus I see and learn so much about getting back to the basics of medicine and learning to do with limited supplies, medical equipment etc. and how grateful people are to just know that we care about them and are trying to help them. We are so used to getting what we want almost immediately that when you see hundreds or thousands of people stand in long lines in the heat and rain to get maybe just a bottle of vitamins and some TLC, it puts a different prospective on what is important and what is not. These people give me so much more back than I could ever give them. It also shows them that the U.S. cares about them, which in the long run may help to foster a better relationship with these countries.

Since 1958, Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) has worked to make health care available for people around the globe—especially children. Its hospital ship travels the world. Project HOPE today educates health professionals and volunteers, provides medicines and supplies, strengthens health facilities, trains community health workers and fights communicable diseases such as TB and AIDS.

Link to Message From Project HOPE CEO
Responding to Need in Myanmar and China: http://www.projectHOPE.org/ceomessage/view.asp?id=1

Find out about other hospital ships at:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/tah-19.htm