I was able to join my first international vasectomy mission in January of 2012. The location of the mission was Cebu, Philippines where there was an eager group of social worker working hard to educate local men about the benefits of vasectomy.
The mission was sponsored by No-Scalpel Vasectomy International. No-Scalpel Vasectomy International is a non-profit medical organization headquarters in southern Florida. The goal of the organization is to train competent vasectomy providers in countries with large, growing populations that have very little access to high quality vasectomy services.
Although the Philippines is considered a developing country, they have a decent medical system. Despite being a Catholic country many of the citizens have relatively good access to birth control. In many ways, being a Catholic country makes them an ideal place to use vasectomy as birth control because many couples are practicing Catholics, family oriented, and married. The desire for vasectomy is there but there are not many doctors who offer the service because of limited training.
Qualifications For Joining The Philippine Vasectomy Mission
Vasectomy doctors trained by Dr. Douglas Stein in Florida were invited to join the 2012 NSVI Team. Participation required that these doctors pay their travel expenses to Cebu and each doctor was required to donate $1000 each to offset the organization’s expenses: equipment, supplies, assistants, and patient compensation for transportation and loss of wages on their day of vasectomy.
The mission was jointly hosted by Sacred Heart Hospital and South Western University in Cebu City, Philippines. Eight vasectomy providers participated: five from the US, one Canadian, one Kenyan, and one Filipino doctor.
Providing No Scalpel Vasectomy In Kenya
Dr. Charles Ochieng was sponsored by NSVI to come to the Philippines from his home in Kenya. He is a highly motivated general practitioner with an interest in control of reproduction. Dr Ochieng has witnessed first hand in Kenya the burden of an ever growing population in a developing country with limited resources. He has also personally witnessed the tremendous impact of maternal mortality (death) and morbidity (sickness) from pregnancy in an area with limited health care resources.
Dr. Ochieng has an interesting story. After having two children, he was determined to have a vasectomy. The only problem was he had great difficulty finding a physician in the entire country of Kenya who was qualified to perform a vasectomy.
After experiencing the great difficulty in trying to obtain vasectomy in his country, Dr Ochieng decided to reach out to Dr Stein in Tampa, Florida for vasectomy training. In Florida, Dr. Ochieng was able to learn how to perform a vasectomy and agree to be a leader in performing vasectomy in his home country of Kenya. By observing a successful mission firsthand in the Philippines, he would learned what will be required to develop a vasectomy program in his home country of Kenya.
The 2012 NSVI Mission Team was one of the largest missions since the inception of the international vasectomy missions. Given the tremendous success and patient turnout in Cebu City, the vasectomy team decided eliminate the time and expense of travel within the Philippines to perform vasectomy at other hospitals. The thought was more vasectomies and could done by staying in Cebu city and concentrating resources there rather than waste time and effort to travel to other places during such a short stay.
Southwestern University and Sacred Heart Hospital is a wonderful hospital with a very warm and welcoming staff. The team always feels appreciated by the staff and students of the university.
Sacred Heart Hospital (SHH) and Southwestern University have graciously hosted NSVI for 10 years. The minor surgery room at SHH is so large that 4 teams could perform vasectomies simultaneously.
The mission, just like in years past, was a huge success. This success was only possible because of a group of highly motivated social workers, community activist, and Filipino doctors who recruited men interested in vasectomy from the city and nearby villages.
General medical mission to the Philippines
The first part of the Cebu mission was the vasectomy mission. During the end of our stay, we were invited to join a combined medical surgical mission and the purpose of that mission was to provide general health care to the citizens of Cebu. Participating in this mission was fulfilling because many of the participants did not have regular access to the health care and they were very appreciative for the free care they received.
The Philippines is a beautiful country and the people we met were accommodating and generous. The Philippines is not without its problems. The country has a rapid population growth and is over-crowded in many areas. The population of the Philippines is over 100,000 million people who live in an area about the same size as the state of Arizona!
In comparison, the population of the United States is approximately 300,000 million but spread out across 50 states! If you asked every person living east of the Mississippi to move to Arizona then you would have a population density similar to the Philippines.
Many of the citizens of the Philippines don’t have access to basic health care. It was a privilege to travel to the Philippines and provide both vasectomy and general medical care to a population of people who were so accommodating and appreciative.
I am a much better person and physician for having spent time with other like minded physicians caring for people who were very deserving of the skills we had to offer.
