AFRICOM surgeon brings needed medicine to Mali

[unhappycamper]

AFRICOM surgeon brings needed medicine to Mali
By John Vandiver, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, February 25, 2009

STUTTGART, Germany — The first step was to get a meeting with the village elder. After getting the OK from him, Dr. (Col.) Schuyler Geller brought in some of his medics to do an outreach operation in a small village in the impoverished African country of Mali.

With the ice broken, the next step was to bring in some medics from the Malian army. Though the Malian military wouldn’t traditionally be welcomed in the village, where suspicion runs deep, trust had already been established from the medical support offered, said Geller, the command surgeon for U.S. Africa Command.

"We introduced the (Mali) military into this village in a nonmilitary way," said Geller, explaining how medical outreach also can serve as a means for promoting cooperation between sides that have traditionally clashed.

The Mali mission, conducted last summer in western Africa, is one example of the type of work AFRICOM’s medical staff is engaged in on the sprawling continent where destabilizing public health issues abound.

Unlike other military commands, which deal mostly with treatment and health issues concerning U.S. personnel, Geller’s mission as AFRICOM’s top doctor is unique. Geller’s main focus is on other matters, such as HIV prevention within African defense forces and building up the number of trained medics within the ranks of partner countries.


Rest of Africom article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60957