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Feature of the Month
International and Appalachian Outreach
VCOM News - Feature Story
VCOM Students Give Thanks by
Giving Back
ovember 1-7, 2009, a group of 6 VCOM students, 2 staff and 3 volunteers traveled to El Salvador for a mission trip to provide medical care to the most poor and needy in the city of San Salvador and surrounding rural villages. Although the team was small, their hearts were full of compassion for the people of El Salvador and the service they performed was greatly needed.
During the mission trip, the students worked with local VCOM doctors in El Salvador to examine and treat children from four different children’s homes. On Tuesday, the students visited the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a Catholic children’s home in the very poor region of Izalco, Sonsonate. After the students worked with El Salvadorian doctors who provided medical care to the children of the home, they took some time just to get to know the children, to play with them and to give them one of the greatest gifts – love. On Wednesday, the students provided medical care to children from the two houses of the Peace Messengers home. At one house, students saw approximately 20 children with special needs, including both physical and mental challenges; at the second house, the students saw an equal number of children who 
are HIV positive. The children at both of these homes require special care and attention, and VCOM students met these needs.
On Thursday, the team partnered with AMILAT, a humanitarian organization in El Salvador, the children’s home Hogar Shalom, and the medical school of the Universidad Evangelica de El Salvador to provide a village clinic in the very poor area of Santiago Texacuangos on the outskirts of San Salvador. The VCOM students worked closely together with faculty doctors and professional graduates from the medical school to provide exams and treatment to over 300 patients, and were joined for the day by a respiratory specialist, a pediatrician and a pharmacist.
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Student Reflections: find out what VCOM students experienced in their medical missions. 
