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Unexpected Illness Opens Unexpected Door
SHARON, MA (April 29, 2005) - Extreme disappointment turned to divine
appointment and appreciation of God's grace for Alynne MacLean during
the scientist's recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The founder and president of Science with a Mission traveled in March to
the African nation with five others on a fact-finding mission on behalf
of the Paul Carlson Partnership. MacLean assessed medical needs,
especially for inexpensive diagnostic tools that her non-profit
organization manufactures and distributes. She also gathered statistics
to support her grant writing.
Addressing medical needs in Congo is a natural fit for MacLean, who is a
member of the Covenant Congregational Church in Easton, Massachusetts,
and a member of the Executive Board of the Evangelical Covenant Church.
She had hoped to meet medical director Dr. Makuta Zambite. "I had been
emailing back and forth with him for several years," MacLean says. "I
was really looking forward to meeting him."
But MacLean's muscular sclerosis flared in the heat of the African
jungle and she was forced to return to the United States on the same day
that the rest of the team traveled to the hospital in Karawa. Dejected,
she sat at the airport and waited for her plane.
As she sat, her traveling companion recognized Zambite, who had arrived
to pick up a friend. Introductions were made and because her flight had
been delayed several hours, they had a long meeting. "It was wonderful,"
MacLean says.
Through their conversation, MacLean learned more about medical
operations and needs. She currently is seeking financial donors to help
deliver the next set of supplies.
On her shortened trip, MacLean brought 5,000 malaria test strips and
1,000 typhoid test strips. Other team members delivered the tests when
she was unable to continue to the hospital. The tests are desperately
needed in the area, MacLean says. "Before, they didn't have the means to
treat these diseases," she explains. Now, they need an inexpensive way
in which to test for them. Previously, if it was possible to test, it
meant sending samples a great distance to be tested with a long delay in
results.
Such delays can lead to serious consequences as nearly happened to
several Congo church leaders, including Sabuli Sanguma, the wife of
Mossai Sanguma, president of the Congo Covenant Church (CEUM). Sabuli
and the others had contracted what initially was diagnosed as malaria,
but the fever did not go down with appropriate treatment. At one point,
Sabuli slipped into unconsciousness. Finally blood samples were sent by
plane to Kinshasa. There, the group was diagnosed as having typhoid.
Within three days of getting the diagnosis and treatment, everyone began
their successful recoveries. Having access to the diagnostic tools could
have prevented the ordeal, MacLean says.
MacLean left her $76,000-a-year job in 2000 to begin Science with a
Mission and develop low-cost tests that can be administered onsite. She
now lives humbly on a $25,000-a-year salary. Much of the funding for the
organization comes from grants, but finding them is a difficult task.
Science with a Mission uses enzyme immunoassays (EIA) to detect disease
from blood samples or urine using testing that does not require electric
power. MacLean works out of a home office and travels as much as an hour
and a half several times a week to work in a small section of a lab at
Salem State College, where her sister, Christine Mac-Taylor, is an
associate professor in chemistry. Undergraduate students help with the
research. Mac-Taylor also serves on the board of Science with a Mission.
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