NGO Wants U.S. Missionary Prosecuted in Virginia

1,901 Views | 12 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by Patentmike
ramblin_ag02
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https://allafrica.com/stories/201906140716.html

So from what I can tell from the story, a woman went to Uganda running the following organization.
https://servinghischildren.org/

She apparently had no idea what she was doing, and she is being sued and prosecuted for 100 child deaths. This is obviously an eggregarious case of misrepresentation and malpractice. However, I think it also should make us reevaluate the benefit of short-term medical and Christian missions. Personally, I think both kinds of missions are pretty worthless when done short term. I can see needing temporary labor to augment a permanent presence, like building a building, responding to disaster or blitzing an epidemic. Otherwise I think short term missions do more harm than good
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PacifistAg
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Quote:

Otherwise I think short term missions do more harm than good
The term I like is 'voluntourism'.

I will need to read up more on this case before commenting on it though. From a quick glance, it sounds as though the issue is whether or not she presented herself as a medically trained individual, despite having no real medical training.
diehard03
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Quote:

Personally, I think both kinds of missions are pretty worthless when done short term

I don't know. God left the 99 to seek out the 1. I have a hard time saying that helping anyone, even if a short time, is something we shouldn't do.
UTExan
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Sounds like a bad situation, but many 3rd world areas are in perpetual medical crises due to overpopulation. Having real docs/dentists go in to ease human misery is not a bad thing because many of these missions also bring in large quantities of medication needed by these people.
ramblin_ag02
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I'm specifically referring to places where either medical or Christian missionaries go for a week and then leave with little or no infrastructure existing before or after.

In the Christian case, I think it's driven by the idea of the single salvific prayer, which is a modern evangelical thing. You go, get 100 people to say a prayer, and then you leave. Job done. I think that's worthless. Converting someone to Christianity is like adopting them into your family. In fact, we are taught that our Christian family should be dearer to us than our actual family. People you convert are like your children in the faith. You don't just adopt children and then leave them to fend for themselves. Even Paul left people behind at each of his stops to establish a Church, returned when he could and wrote letters when he could not.

On the medical side, there are only a handful of things where a single intervention makes a difference long term. Cataracts are a good example, and cleft palate repairs are another. Other times you are in the right place at the right time like setting a broken bone, pulling out an appendix, or managing a difficult birth. However, bringing a month's supply of blood pressure medicine isn't really going to help anyone. Or the staple of medical missions, antiparastic meds. They clear the parasites, and then people go right back to contaminated water and undercooked meat.

In either case I think it helps the missionaries to feel better about themselves without making a real difference.
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Frok
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I'm not willing to say they are all bad. There are certainly good ones. I just don't care for the photo ops that come with these. I once went on a short-term mission trip to an orphanage and they requested we use no photography while there. It wasn't followed, one of the church employees came in and just starting snapping pictures left and right. Really bugged me.

bmks270
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Apparently she was treating malnourished children, but a number of kids apparently died a few days after her care and some even in her care and returned kid to parents in a coffin.... seems it's been running since 2015.

The article cites a group called "no white saviors" that is bringing attention to her negligence:

Quote:

A group called No White Saviors (NWS) has taken to social media to raise awareness of this case. The group posted pictures of two children with visible scars they say were caused by Renee Bach's botched care.

@nowhitesaviors "Some of #ReneeBach 's victims are still alive. This is Patricia, left permanently disfigured after a botched blood transfusion performed by Renee. She didn't cross-match the blood, because she's not a medical professional, child had horrible reaction & now lives with these scars."

@nowhitesaviors "This is Maasai. He has been left with irreversible physical and mental disabilities because of #ReneeBach 's botched medical experimentation. Former staff and the family of Maasai report that Renee Bach was the one to treating their child at @servinghis"
Mr_mo8268
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Quote:

The term I like is 'voluntourism'.


This is spot on.
ramblin_ag02
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I still can't understand why someone who is supposedly a Christian would go off on a mission and think they should be providing medical care without any training. The only explanation I can think of is some sort of role playing wish fulfillment, done at the expense of other people's lives.
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diehard03
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At the absolute best case, I can see how someone could convince themselves that 1) doing something is better than doing nothing, and 2) this is God's will, so He will guide her hands.

Christians use this logic all the time for situations where a human life is not at stake. Again, at best case, she's just operating with the same logic without this restriction.
commando2004
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Frok said:

I'm not willing to say they are all bad. There are certainly good ones. I just don't care for the photo ops that come with these. I once went on a short-term mission trip to an orphanage and they requested we use no photography while there. It wasn't followed, one of the church employees came in and just starting snapping pictures left and right. Really bugged me.
Nowadays, they can just use an Instagram filter.
UTExan
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ramblin_ag02 said:

I'm specifically referring to places where either medical or Christian missionaries go for a week and then leave with little or no infrastructure existing before or after.

In the Christian case, I think it's driven by the idea of the single salvific prayer, which is a modern evangelical thing. You go, get 100 people to say a prayer, and then you leave. Job done. I think that's worthless. Converting someone to Christianity is like adopting them into your family. In fact, we are taught that our Christian family should be dearer to us than our actual family. People you convert are like your children in the faith. You don't just adopt children and then leave them to fend for themselves. Even Paul left people behind at each of his stops to establish a Church, returned when he could and wrote letters when he could not.

On the medical side, there are only a handful of things where a single intervention makes a difference long term. Cataracts are a good example, and cleft palate repairs are another. Other times you are in the right place at the right time like setting a broken bone, pulling out an appendix, or managing a difficult birth. However, bringing a month's supply of blood pressure medicine isn't really going to help anyone. Or the staple of medical missions, antiparastic meds. They clear the parasites, and then people go right back to contaminated water and undercooked meat.

In either case I think it helps the missionaries to feel better about themselves without making a real difference.


Medical folks from my church who go to Guatemala deal with mostly gynecological infections and dental problems. Their ten day voluntourism helps a lot of men and women with painful infections. And their bags are loaded with NSAIDS and antibiotics. And this medical tourism helped build an eye clinic in Ghana. One rotten example does not negate the good done for local people, because a single dentist can take care of a lot of problems. This "no white savior" nonsense is political eyewash because African leaders will openly seek European or American doctors over their own very qualified and trusted local docs.
schmendeler
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Where do "mission trip" youth group vacations fit in here?
Patentmike
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schmendeler said:

Where do "mission trip" youth group vacations fit in here?
Short term mission trips provide long term benefits if/when the trip causes a change in the "tourist". This happens because:

  • The tourists sometimes develop more humility after realizing how protected they are, at least physically.
  • Some of the tourists develop an affinity for the location they visited and provide more help as time passes.

We will see where the case in the OP leads, but an untrained person should not be performing medical procedures.

ETA, just for fun
PatentMike, J.D.
BS Biochem
MS Molecular Virology


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