Most North Americans are only a short car ride from their family doctors, local medical clinics, or community hospitals. They can't imagine a world in which the closest medical help is three to four hours away, and the only way to reach it is by hiking up and down a seemingly never-ending series of steep, chest-heaving mountain trails.

But that's the reality for people living in the impoverished Lai Chau and Lao Cai provinces of northern Vietnam, along the border with China. The mountains there are staggeringly beautiful—rivaling much of what the Rocky Mountains have to offer—but they also represent a huge challenge for those in need of health care.

Vietnamese government officials have established regional hospitals and a network of medical clinics, but the hospitals are often very far from the far-flung rural population and the clinics frequently are in need of significant upgrades and expansions.

Vuong Van Thang, chairman of a local government committee in the eastern part of Lai Chau province, says officials want to improve health care for rural people in the northern highlands, but they lack the funds in large part because the impoverished families (many in the region earn less than $200 per year) can't afford to pay for care.

Samaritan's Purse is helping by building medical clinics in several remote northern communities. The clinics, staffed by Vietnamese doctors and nurses, are providing essential medical services including vaccinations, prescriptions, childbirth assistance, and help with broken limbs, infections, cuts, scrapes, and other out-patient care. More challenging cases, including surgeries, are sent to regional hospitals.

Lo Van Not, a district health manager, says the most common problems at the clinics are intestinal infections caused by drinking contaminated water or eating spoiled food, and respiratory problems caused by living in close proximity to livestock and by the region's relatively high humidity.

There are no water treatment facilities in a region where water buffalo, cattle and other livestock wander freely, including through streams and ponds. People regularly drink from these streams and ponds, and often pay a price for it.

"They boil the water when they are at home, but when they are working on the mountain sides they just drink it straight from the streams," Lo Van Not says. "Then they become sick."

Some highland people are reluctant to visit a clinic. They prefer to rely on their traditional home remedies. But the success of the clinics in treating cases for which herbal medicine has provided no help is enabling them to gain credibility and respect among local people.

"We thank Samaritan's Purse very much for the construction of these clinics," Lo Van Not says.

Recently, a woman named Chang Ti Cha came into a Samaritan's Purse clinic in Khun Ha after suffering a painful fall while walking a steep mountain trail. She hit her chest hard on some rocks and was struggling to breath. Clinic staff prescribed pain medication for her badly bruised ribs, and asked her to spend a day or two in one of the clinic's beds to ensure her pain and breathing problems were easing.

Without access to a clinic, Chang Ti Cha would have been forced to endure the pain and breathing problems on her own, with potentially dire consequences. "I am very lucky to have the clinic close by because the district health center is far away and expensive," she told our staff.

This community health project is just one of many relief and development programs supported by Samaritan's Purse in Vietnam. Please pray for our work in this nation as we share the love of Jesus Christ with impoverished people and give them hope for a brighter future.

Samaritan's Purse , Vietnam , Community Development , Clinics Provide Aid in Remote Villages