Thank you Shan Janmohamed for sharing your wonderful photos and taking along a medical supply suitcase on your vacation to the Dominican Republic! Shan’s family showcases how the simple act of delivering a suitcase can bring out a humanitarian out of any of us 🙂
“I did have a great vacation to DR last December. It was a family trip with 10 people spanning 3 generations, the eldest being 75 and the youngest being 5. We thought the easiest way to keep everybody happy was to stay at the Bahia Principe El Portillo resort near Samana. And we had a great time! It was nice to spend a lot of down time with family and to relax on the beach.
That said, this is not the type of holiday that my wife and I usually take. We prefer to be more active and to experience the culture of our destination. We did take several day trips and got to learn about the colonial history of DR in Santo Domingo and of the agriculture and village life from a trip to a coffee plantation.
But, with all the resort time, we wanted to make sure that we got out more to meet people off resort. One reason we took a bag of supplies was to accomplish this.
I also wanted to show my niece and nephews how other people live to cultivate a sense of gratitude and volunteerism in them.
My sister is a Doctor in Toronto and it was also a great opportunity for her to see how people practise in other countries, though she has already been exposed to this through work she did in Cuba when she was just starting out. It benefitted us to have her there as well as she asked a lot of questions of the staff at the clinic and was able to give us a better understanding of how the facility operated.
The clinic itself was a temporary facility as the government is in the process of building a new clinic. It primarily addressed birth & child care needs as well as traumas. While we were there a woman came in on the back of a scooter holding her baby who had saline drip attached to speak with the doctor. This provided a quick snapshot of everything that the staff there is up against!
Since hearing our stories, a friend of ours has taken a bag of medical supplies to Vietnam through NJT so I’m pleased to report that your impact has gone beyond our little effort.
Thank you for the work that you do and for giving us an opportunity to help out!
We will definitely be in touch when we have future trips planned.”
Warm regards,
Shan Janmohamed
