By Carla Burgess |
March 2004
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Wyo Clinic and Its Offshoots
- 3: Beyond Wyo
- 4: Brighten & Build Program
- 5: Members of the N.C. Association of Free Clinics
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the FULL article as a
Beyond Wyo
The Wyo volunteers work with speed and precision—a pace at odds with the frenetic atmosphere of the foundation’s Third World sister clinics. While the Wyo clinic has treated about 500 patients total, that many people are seen in a single week in Jamaica or Paraguay.
With the exception of an ample supply of anesthesia, there are other vast differences. In the sweltering heat of summer, volunteers trek miles through deeply rutted, muddy roads to toil in a cramped room without air conditioning. And though strict licensing requirements limit who can work in U.S. clinics, the foreign clinics make use of anyone willing to learn and work hard. Phillips’ wife Kim, a registered nurse and epidemiologist, is not allowed to administer anesthesia at the Wyo clinic. But she is a key worker on the “numbing assembly line” beyond the border.
Kim Phillips recalls with particular affection the shy teenage girl from Paraguay who had been filling the holes in her front teeth with white nail polish. In exchange for their work, the volunteers got to see a smile they’d not soon forget.
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