285th  文  /  Tomoko Iwamoto

作者為   日本護理師

Even though it was a short time working with the members of Taiwan roots and I cannot speak their language, I had a great experience with them. Before participating in the mission, the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia (AMDA) sent me to join their mission in Leyte and Samar. However, due to communication issues, Taiwan Roots Team was not aware of my participation at first, which made me worry. However, after the first day mission, I was no longer feeling worried. They warmly welcomed me to the mission and involved me in their work.

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First, Taiwan Roots medical mission gave me an opportunity to learn the current situation in Leyte and Samar. On the way to medical mission sites, even though most of debris are already cleared from roads, I could still see a lot of totally damaged houses and tent cities on both sides of roads. At the same time, I could also see some differences comparing to last December. School students are already back in school, and many stores are opened for customers now.

During my work in their mission, I was at the pharmacy section. Five members from Taiwan Roots, one Filipino nurse and I worked cooperatively for the affected from Yolanda Typhoon. The section was divided into three parts. The first part is to write down on the medication bag about their information from prescription and to collect medications. The second part is to crush medications for pediatric patients. The last part is to pass medications to patients from the area. All members were really passionate about their work.

One of the most interesting part of Taiwan Roots medical mission was that they offer acupuncture and Chinese medicine. In the beginning, I wondered whether local people would be willing to accept this kind of unfamiliar treatment. Actually, it turned out to be one of the most popular sections. Many patients came to this section for their back pain, headache and other kinds of complaints. After getting treatment, most of them had less complaints and looked more relaxed.

Through Taiwan Roots medical mission, I learned different teams have different styles of conducting medical missions. It was quite different from what I am used to. However, I realized that all styles of medical missions are helping local people, and all medical missions are working towards the same goal, the improvement of local people’s health. I am really grateful that I could be part of your team to support local people. Lastly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr.Liu and Taiwan Roots team members for all the support.