WATCH ABOVE: Grace Ke reports on the team’s departure.
VANCOUVER – A second group of volunteers with the Canadian Medical Assistance Teams (CMAT) left Vancouver for Nepal Friday morning.
This team of volunteers is made up of 10 physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners and paramedics.
Nepal is still in desperate need of aid as it tries to recover from two devastating earthquakes. For the next two weeks, this team will be in a remote village in Nepal, called Balua. It is located about an eight-hour drive from Kathmandu and then a hike to the remote community.
The group will then get to work treating patients, mostly children with gastrointestinal complaints.
“I think, coming up with the monsoon and the wet season, we’re going to be dealing with a lot of those kinds of things that are associated,” said team leader Dr. Mark Hyslop. “Because people are out in the open and they don’t have access to clean running water or good toilet facilities. So the spread of infectious disease, particularly diarrhea and pneumonia is going to be a big problem I think.”
All members of the team have been looking forward to going overseas and helping those in need. They will be relieving the first group of CMAT volunteers who arrived in Nepal more than a week ago.
– With files from Grace Ke
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