AFTER assisting some 860 patients in Guyana last year, the Canada-Guyana Outreach (CanGO) Mission will be returning in October to provide free medical care to residents in Regions One, Two and Six.

In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, the team’s President Yvonne Triesman said the overall mission is to provide health care to Guyanese people, especially to those in the remote regions of the country.

As such, persons in Warakaba, Karawab, St. Monica, Santa Rosa, Manawarin, Karaburi, Waramuri and at the Special School in New Amsterdam and Kumaka District Hospital will receive medical attention.

The health team will address dental issues; test for cervical cancer and heart problems; address developmental disorders and delays; learning of behavioural problems, hearing problems, speaking or feeding difficulties and cleft lip and palate.

The CanGO Mission is made up of 30 members and the visiting specialists include persons in the professions of family physician, gynaecologist, emergency physician, nurse, dentist; speech pathologist, pharmacist, physiotherapist, audiologist, echocardiographer and dental assistant.

Although the trip will run from October 27 to November 12, in March of this year, CanGO also facilitated surgeries on seven children with cleft lip and palate.

The children were from Regions One and Two while the surgeries were performed at the Georgetown Public Hospital free of cost by members of the Health and Education Relief Organisation (HERO).

“One of our directors flew to Guyana, brought the children and a parent each to Georgetown and stayed with them until they returned to their homes. The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs provided accommodation for the children and their parents… we do plan to visit the children this year while we’re working in the regions,” Triesman stated.
She added: “[In addition] last year we worked at a special school in New Amsterdam for developmentally-challenged children. This year we’re going back to that same school.”
Speaking about its collaborations, Triesman said: “We’re currently partnered with the Guyana Medical Relief of California and with Health and Education Relief Organisation (HERO), the surgical team from New York whose surgeons performed the cleft lip and palate surgery on the children.”

To fund its outreaches, the mission conducts fundraisers in Canada and is supported by the Guyana Medical Relief, other Guyanese organisations in Canada and a number of local and international donors.