Chiropractors Without Borders Dominican Republic – What an experience! Set up in a classroom in a small town called Villa Milla. Front row (Left to right) Dr. Carol Ann Weis, Jackie Perron, Katie Lingard, Nitu Gabi, Adam Armstrong. Back row (left to right): Dr. Les Wiltshire, Dr. Jaclyn Durante, Kim Pugh, Heather Ulrichsen, Katie Sellars, Kimberly Richter Dr.Carol Ann Weis is a 2008 graduate of Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. In addition, she has an Honours BA in Physical Education and MSc in Kinesiology from the University of Western Ontario. She practises in a busy multidisciplinary clinic in downtown Toronto. She also teaches a small group class and conducts research on back pain during pregnancy at CMCC. f you ask friends and family, you’ll see that many people have heard of Doctors With- out Borders. However, many individuals have not heard of a Canadian organization, Terre Sans Frontieres (www.terresansfrontieres.ca), that organizes other health pro- fessionals, including chiropractors, to provide care in poverty stricken countries. Our group was lucky enough to be the fi rst at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic Col- lege (CMCC) to go on a mission to the Dominican Republic with Terre Sans Frontieres – Chiropractors without Borders (CWB). Although there have been other chiropractic missions, what made this situation unique is that CMCC supported and helped send a collection of students (who had completed their clinical fourth year) and chiropractors (one clinician, one graduate student and one faculty member) to volunteer at two dif- ferent locations in Santo Domingo. On April 18, 2009, at 4 a.m., eight interns and three clinicians from CMCC met at Pearson International Airport to embark on a journey that would impact our lives forever. I A VENTURE INTO THE UNKNOWN As we were the fi rst group from CMCC to participate in a CWB mission, there were a lot of unknowns for us – there were questions regarding our transportation, our lodging, our chaperone and our sponsor that could not be completely answered prior to leav- ing. In addition, although the students had been in the same class for four years, they were not a part of one another’s social groups, and did not really know one another. Also, with the exception of a few students being assigned to one clinician’s pod for part of their clinical year, the students did not know the chiropractors who were being sent down to act as their clinicians – this made putting forth questions or concerns harder for them. However, all of these concerns were quickly put to rest when we arrived in Santa Domingo. Our chaperone, Miguel Callaci from Terre Sans Frontieres and Dr. Lopez, our sponsor – and his entire family – welcomed us with open arms and eased any concerns that we may have had. After this there was one certainty – this was going to be an experience we would not forget! 28 • CANADIAN CHIROPRACTOR | JULY/AUGUST 2009 www.canadianchiropractor.ca Carol Weis, BA (Hons), MSc, DC feature
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