Nationwide Ambulances
In 2002 HHI president, Randy Steger, traveled to Cuba to meet with the Minister of Health concerning needs that could be met for the people of Cuba. At that time, the nation of Cuba did not have any functioning ambulances, so HHI set out to fulfill this need. An ambulance was purchased in Texas and brought back to Nashville by HHI staff members, Joseph Smith and Cindy Herring. After having the ambulance overhauled, Joseph and Cindy stocked it with all of the needed supplies like stretchers and first aid supplies. Since then, three more ambulances have been sent to Cuba.
Mobile Clinic in India
In 2004 the world watched as hundreds of thousands lost life, home and health in a devastating tsunami. Following this disaster, HHI received an amazing outpouring of support. This support enabled us to partner with Faith Hospital and Dr. Paul Renganathan in Chennai, India and purchase and stock a mobile medical clinic to travel along the coast of India treating the victims.
The people who live in the villages along the coast of India had very few healthcare resources to begin with. After the devastating effects of the tsunami, the people were really suffering. The mobile clinic was an effort to meet at least part of this need. Because of a lack of heathcare facilities in their villages and the fact that most cannot afford transportations to the city, the plan was to take the healthcare out to them. The mobile unit has been a tremendous tool to positively impact the lives of thousands of individuals. The stories coming back to us about the physical ailments that have been cured are amazing. What is most touching is how effective this tool has been for opening hearts to the gospel. Almost 60 new congregations have been established in the affected areas!
Medical Relief Continues in Haiti
Many times when a disaster strikes, the effects are felt for months or even years to come. That was the case with the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010. Because of the poor sanitary conditions, the rainy season caused an outbreak of Cholera to spread causing even more disease and death. Healing Hands was prepared for this situation and partnered with a sister organization in Honduras (Mission Lazarus) to purchase hydration salts to treat 60,000 Cholera patients.
Since that time our relief efforts in Haiti still continue. In April of this year, Dr. Matt Tincher and his team of 25 doctors, nurses and dentists traveled to Haiti for the sole purpose of treating the children of seven special children's homes. Most of the children had never received dental care before and basic medical care had been limited. The team was able to treat more than 500 people, mostly orphans, in the Port au Prince region of Haiti. With the use of Healing Hands' medical database program, Matt's team will be able to track the care of these children through the years as they make return trips.
Medical Database Transforming Missions
HHI staff member, Brandon Post traveled with a medical mission team headed to Zambia in 2010. The mission team consisted of 90 Americans and 130 Zambians organized by Zambia Medical Mission. Among the team members were medical doctors, dentists, eye doctors, lab technicians, pharmacists, and nurses, as well as preachers and other spiritual workers. During the campaign 19,560 people received medical treatment, and 96 souls were baptized into Christ.
As part of this effort, HHI partnered with the College of Pharmacy at Lipscomb University, who sent two pharmacy students, Brittany Latimer and John Deason, to Zambia for a six-week internship. One of the objecives of their internship was to test a piece of software that HHI's Brandon Post has been developing to help medical mission teams keep track of patient records. The software 
stores such information as patient identification, vital signs, health complaints, diagnoses and prescriptions. This data is valuable to medical mission teams for a number of reasons, including reporting back to trip sponsors and donors, as well as planning for future missions. HHI would like to compile the data from many trips in an effort to secure donations of medicines and medical supplies from pharmaceutical and supply companies. The compiled data is also a rich resource for a number of research purposes.
Since that initial launch, mission teams traveling to areas such as Honduras, El Salvador, Guyana and Haiti have put the medical database to use. Being able to keep accurate digital medical records for their patients helps the missionaries as they report back on their missions and as they go back to the areas to do follow up with their patients. If you work on a medical mission team and would like to speak with someone about using the medical database on your next trip, please contact Brandon Post at bpost@hhi.org.
