South Africa: 24-Hour Medical Surveillance at Airports
For six missionaries to fly to Zambia for an annual medical mission trip, they need the Crossroads to run.
The 2014 Zambia Medical Mission Team is hosting the Zambia Obstacle 5K Fun Run and Walk on Saturday in Riverside Park in Victoria.
Registration for the race begins at 8 a.m., followed by the start at 9 a.m. and awards and festivities at 10:30 a.m.
The fee includes T-shirts for race participants.
Registration fees, which can be paid for singles and groups of four or more people, will support travel expenses for the team.
Darren Tom, a returning member of the Zambia team, said it costs about $5,000 per person to travel to Africa for two weeks.
The annual trip to Zambia, scheduled for July, will assist a larger team of national physicians, dentists and eye doctors as they serve adults and children living in some of the poorest villages.
Read more: South Africa: 24-Hour Medical Surveillance at Airports
5K run raises funds for Zambia medical mission
For six missionaries to fly to Zambia for an annual medical mission trip, they need the Crossroads to run.
The 2014 Zambia Medical Mission Team is hosting the Zambia Obstacle 5K Fun Run and Walk on Saturday in Riverside Park in Victoria.
Registration for the race begins at 8 a.m., followed by the start at 9 a.m. and awards and festivities at 10:30 a.m.
The fee includes T-shirts for race participants.
Registration fees, which can be paid for singles and groups of four or more people, will support travel expenses for the team.
Darren Tom, a returning member of the Zambia team, said it costs about $5,000 per person to travel to Africa for two weeks.
The annual trip to Zambia, scheduled for July, will assist a larger team of national physicians, dentists and eye doctors as they serve adults and children living in some of the poorest villages.
Last year, the group assisted about 14,000 men, women and children with medical needs.
Medical Aid Group Launches Fundraiser for Central Africa Republic
The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders -- known by its French acronym MSF -- has launched an appeal in South Africa to raise $50,000 for its operations in the Central African Republic (CAR).  The campaign -- called #ActForCAR -- says the funds are urgently needed to help some of the 1 million Central Africans displaced over the past 15 months.
Speaking at the launch of the MSF fundraising drive in Johannesburg on Wednesday, South African psychologist Gail Wormersley said thousands of displaced people in the CAR are living in human misery and terror.
She appealed to South Africans to urgently donate at least $50,000 for water purification, malaria treatment, food supplements for children and general medical care.
Wormersley, who spent six weeks in the CAR providing psychological counseling to patients and MSF staff, described the mood of the victims as dominated by hopelessness.
Read more: Medical Aid Group Launches Fundraiser for Central Africa Republic
Africa's growing need for medical expertise
Africa is on the rise. The evidence is everywhere. In a 2011 report, the World Bank declared that “Africa could be on the brink of an economic take-off.” The World Health Organization (WHO) 2011 African Regional Health Report revealed that Africa has made significant progress in the battle against many communicable diseases, including river blindness, malaria, leprosy and measles, among others.
And yet just beneath the surface of this happy story is a troubling trend. Even as Africa’s future has brightened in recent years, the continent has seen a dramatic increase in noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. In its 2010 Global Status Report on Noncommunicable Diseases, the World Health Organization noted that NCDs in Africa “are rising rapidly and are projected to exceed communicable, maternal, perinatal, and nutritional diseases as the most common causes of death by 2030.”
