Stronghold Newsletter - October to December 2022
Please Note: These newsletters may contain written descriptions or images of the violence, disease, and injuries our teams confront on a regular basis. Please view at your own discretion.
Mozambique
Stronghold personnel run Mozambique Park Rangers through a helicopter medical extract drill in the field.
Stronghold’s first mission into africa
As part of Stronghold’s ongoing mission to protect and care for people in conflict zones, this past quarter our team conducted our first mission to assist the park rangers on the frontlines of the poaching wars in Africa.
The Stronghold team was able to visit Mozambique and was graciously granted access by Peace Parks Foundation to provide medical training to some of their park rangers in Zinave National Park.
During the training, Stronghold’s team…
First responder medical training to 12 frontline park rangers
Conducted field medevac drills using helicopters
Provided and trained the park ranger team in the use of tactical field litters
Supplied each ranger with personal medical kits, a headlamp, and a multi-tool
Provided extra medical kits and supplies to restock more rangers over time
We owe special thank-you to everyone at Peace Parks Foundation for their kindness and generosity while hosting the Stronghold team.
Mozambique Park Rangers talk a helicopter onto their position during a Stronghold-run field exercise.
Real-world Rhino attack and Helicopter evacuation
While the Stronghold team was conducting a first-responder medical class, we received a call that a park ranger had been attacked by a Black Rhino in the field and needed medical assistance.
One Stronghold medic along with an Emergency Medicine doctor who was volunteering with Stronghold, immediately responded in Peace Parks’ helicopter to provide immediate medical care to the park ranger in the field.
Stronghold’s CEO, Ephraim Mattos, went in by vehicle and on foot into the badlands with a South African tracker to provide a ground extract option if the patient had spinal damage and could not be safely evacuated in the small helicopter.
The Stronghold helicopter team reached the patient and discovered the park ranger had no visible, life-threatening injuries. This was due solely to the fact that the black rhino had previously been de-horned by the parks system.
The Stronghold ground and helicopter teams linked up and decided it was safe to evacuate the park ranger via helicopter, while the remaining team members extracted on foot.
A Stronghold medic stayed with the park ranger for hours until the park ranger was turned over to a professional medical facility.
A Stronghold medic instructs Mozambique Park Rangers on the proper use of a tourniquet.
Going Forward
In 2023, Stronghold will continue to assist the people affected by the poaching wars in Africa — not just park rangers, but also the local African communities within and around the national parks and conservation areas.
The poaching wars and the conflict surrounding conservation is a unique challenge that affects not only animals and wildlife, but also the humans caught in the middle.
In 2023, Stronghold will continue to learn about this kind of conflict and will be providing direct support, training, and assistance to help the good guys in their struggle to protect wildlife, our planet, and the people who live in this wild and beautiful places.
Mozambique Park Rangers treat a simulated patient’s wounds while waiting for extract during a Stronghold-run field exercise.
Burma
A Stronghold trainer watches as two students in Burma are put through a field test to become emergency medical trainers.
Stronghold’s First Medical Trainers in Burma
As part of Stronghold’s policy of “Charity with Dignity” and our commitment to enabling the people we serve to help themselves long into the future, this past quarter, we graduated our first classes of emergency medical trainers.
For years, Stronghold has provided direct emergency medical training to hundreds of people throughout Burma. However, by training local personnel to provide this training to members of their own tribes and by providing the medical supplies needed to conduct the training, we are able to greatly multiply the amount of people who ultimately receive the life-saving training.
Stronghold teams graduated 14 new emergency medical instructors and directly mentored them as they conducted their first classes for more than 100 students.
A student in Burma handles a simulated compound femur fracture with massive bleeding while using only rudimentary tools.
Emergency medevac for a pregnant woman
While working in a remote part of Burma, the Stronghold team was asked if we would be willing to use our truck to transport a patient to jungle clinic deep in the jungle. The Stronghold team immediately agreed to help.
When our team arrived in the village to pick up the patient, they discovered the patient was 7 months pregnant woman who had been bleeding for the past 12 hours. She was already accompanied by a local nurse, but needed advanced medical care immediately.
After loading the patient into our vehicle, the Stronghold team transported the pregnant lady 3 hours on rough, mountainous, dirt roads and delivered her to the jungle clinic.
A month went by and the Stronghold team heard nothing about the pregnant woman’s outcome. However, one day while visiting other patients at the jungle clinic, the lady came out holding her newborn baby boy. She had been required to receive a month of medical care at the clinic until the doctors were able to operate and deliver her son.
She had just been released to go home to her village, and the Stronghold team immediately volunteered to drive her all the way back to her home — just in time for Christmas.
A Stronghold trainer watches as two students in Burma are put through a field test to become emergency medical trainers.
coming soon… Stronghold Jungle Ambulance Service
Because of the particular event mentioned above, Stronghold has decided to begin a professional jungle ambulance service to provide emergency medical care to critically injured and ill patients in remote parts of Burma.
The Stronghold team has already begun the process and expects to have these ambulances in full operation and transporting patients in early 2023.
Stronghold Jungle Ambulance Service …Coming in early 2023!
Would you like to help us reach more people?
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Charity With Dignity | Your support goes 10X as far with us as we organize and enable teams of locals to care for their own communities long into the future.
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We Take No Days Off | Stronghold teams are working to help families in conflict zones every single day of the year.
