Serving Others: A Medical Mission Trip to El Salvador
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Shanna Dierker and her mother in-law, Donneta, traveled with Helping Hands Medical Missions to El Salvador. They were part of a volunteer medical team and surgical team that helped provide healthcare to others
Shanna Dierker and her mother in-law, Donneta, traveled with Helping Hands Medical Missions to El Salvador at the end of October. They were part of a volunteer medical team and surgical team that helped provide healthcare to those in need.
According to Helping Hands Medical Missions website, hhmm.org, “Since 1996, Helping Hands Medical Missions has served more than 241,000 patients and hosted 153 medical missions in many countries throughout the world, including Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, the Philippines, Brazil, Ghana, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Uganda.”
Shanna and her husband, Jacob, live in Clark County. She is a nurse practitioner and worked at Blessing for 15 years and she now works from home. When Shanna was a little girl, she always wanted to be a nurse and to help others in other countries.
“I always wanted to do it. I love helping people and hearing their stories,” Shanna said.
Shanna decided that she wanted to go on a mission trip, but COVID-19 halted those plans. She had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to El Salvador this year, so she jumped at the chance to go.
On October 25, she and her mother in-law flew to El Salvador. Besides Shanna, the medical team also included a few doctors from Hannibal, MO, Dr. Meidl and Dr. Halpin, who is retired. The teams included nurses, doctors, and volunteers who helped provide free medical care to areas where medical care is not accessible.
The first step when the group arrived in El Salvador was getting everything organized and setting up clinics for people to come and receive the free medical care.
“It was a culture shock. The first clinic was out in a field in a tent at the base of a volcano,” Shanna said.
“People had walked for miles and they had lawn chairs and they waited to be seen.”
People sat around for hours to be seen. One of the things that Shanna noticed was that the villagers never complained about waiting to be seen or having to walk to get to the clinic.
Translators were on site to help the volunteers communicate with the patients. The medical teams set up small tables and treated whoever they could.
“We treated a lot of basic things, high blood pressure, diabetes, parasites because they don’t have access to clean water,” Shanna explained.
“We ended up helping between 1,200 and 1,500 villagers that week. So, each provider saw between 80 to 100 per day.”
The team helped as many people as they could, and they also shared the Gospel.
“We did one day of evangelism and they hosted us in their houses,” Shanna said.
Most of the houses had dirt floors and some homes had walls, while others did not.
“The thing that sticks with me the most is they have absolutely nothing, and they are some of the most happy and grateful people you will ever meet,” Shanna said.
On November 2, Shanna returned from the mission trip to El Salvador and she was changed by what she experienced. Shanna is already planning to go on another mission trip and encourages other people to go.
“I made some lifelong friends through our passion to serve others and our faith. Watching and meeting the people we served, I admired the fact that their faith never wavered despite the hardships they faced,” Shanna said.
Shanna and other volunteers set up clinics for people to come and receive free medical care.
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