Rotarian delivers more than good will

Mark Goddard, the former president and current International Service Director of the Rotary Club of Sisters, returned to Sisters last week from his seventh trip to the Talamaca Valley in the tropical forests of mountainous southeastern Costa Rica.

Goddard has been working to establish the Rotary Medical Clinic in the remote village of Shiroles. The clinic is dedicated to providing better and more accessible health care to the people of southeastern Costa Rica.

The program has introduced medical care, dental care and optometry to the impoverished and remote area.

Goddard said doctors were virtually nonexistent in the region before the new clinic, a joint project of the Rotary Club of Sisters, Rotary Club of Paradise, California, and the Club Rotario of Limon, Costa Rica.

The clinic is funded by $40,000 in grants from Rotary International.

Goddard said patients who were previously going to the closest medical facility were often being referred to Limon, three hours away, because it lacked a simple blood pressure cuff for diagnosis.

"So on this last trip I presented a blood pressure cuff to Bri-Bri," he said.

The clinic has treated over 2,000 people since it was built in 1994. Some walk a half a day to get there. But in cases where sick people cannot come to the clinic, the clinic goes to them.

Goddard has traveled by packhorse and canoe to provide health care to some of the more remote villages in the region.

The Shiroles clinic itself is the heartbeat of the operation. Up to 150 people a day line up outside the clinic in need of medical attention for a variety of ailments. Doctors treat intestinal problems, sexually transmitted diseases, parasitic tropical diseases and infected wounds inflicted by machetes.

"We see a lot of machete wounds," Goddard said.

The clinic also does minor surgery and delivers babies. In addition, the project has introduced full dental and optometry facilities to the area.

Goddard said the goal of the Rotary's medical intervention in Shiroles is to jump-start the health care system and provide supplies. The Rotary plans to pull out its own personnel by 1999 and allow the Costa Ricans to integrate the facility into self-sufficiency.

"What we're trying to do is supply the tools and bolster the system," said Goddard. And it seems to be working. The Costa Rican Minister of Health has taken notice and there are now six full-time doctors at the clinic in Bri-Bri, which only had two in 1994 to treat virtually all of southeastern Costa Rica.

The Rotary recruits all of its medical personnel, technicians, and interpreters on a volunteer basis. For two weeks every six months, from eight to 18 humanitarians from all walks of life are thrown together in the jungle to help bring a healthier life to Costa Rica.

"Almost everyone who has volunteered felt like it was the most significant thing they've done in their life," Goddard said. "It is the most rewarding thing that I've ever done, and one that I'm most proud of."