|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
“Every day, the equivalent of twenty 747’s fall out of the sky,” says LaRelle Catherman with solemn conviction. She’s talking about how many children die each day in the world due to water-related illnesses. Quoting statistics from the World Health Organization, she explains that 6,000 children are killed daily by diseases related to water contamination. “That’s tragic,” she says. “And since the tsunami, that certainly will increase. If we have one or two children die of E-coli contamination here in Seattle, there’s an uprising and suits and all sorts of things! Oftentimes we are so unaware of what’s happening in the rest of the world.” Catherman is not the kind of person to just sit around and shake her head over bad news. This graduate of Seattle Pacific University’s master’s of science in nursing leadership program helped in the creation of Medrix, an organization that helps educate people in Southeast Asia about water treatment and safety. As the executive director, Catherman implements systems that decontaminate water with ultraviolet light. While getting her master’s degree in nursing leadership at SPU, Catherman worked for Group Health where they had a medical mission to Southeast Asia. She and a friend traveled there and met the administrator of a Vietnam hospital. He later offered a guest lecture at SPU, and he challenged Catherman: “Mrs. LaRelle, if you really want to help children, you can come back to Vietnam and study. Do your research project and find out why our children are dying of diarrhea.” This led to Catherman’s education in water-related illnesses in the region. “It became very evident very quickly that diarrhea was not the problem; it is only the presenting symptom of a much greater problem, and a huge portion of that problem was water safety.” Thus, Catherman, her colleagues, and her husband (who works in water safety) developed Medrix, a non-profit organization that facilitates the efforts of volunteers to establish better water treatment procedures in Southeast Asia. Much of the challenge lies in educating foreign communities deeply rooted in animistic beliefs. “When you don’t have a germ theory, and when you feel that the spirits are causing your child to have a fever—you’ve done something to offend a uncle, an aunt, a mother, a father, or whatever spirit—you’re much less inclined to listen to somebody in health care, particularly when that person is from a foreign country.” Medrix is currently introducing the region to an ultra-violet light system that kills bacteria in the water. “We’re hope to place between five and 10 in rural Vietnam schools. We actually have 46 of them in tsunami-stricken areas.” SPU Graduate nursing students interested in playing a part in these endeavors may get the opportunity. “We’re actually looking at a contract now with the SPU nursing department and hope to take 10 to 12 nursing students for a transcultural nursing experience.”
|
|
||
|
