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One of the goals of FM World Charities is to increase awareness of common, treatable illnesses among all populations. The most common causes of disease leading to death around the world are strikingly similar. Cardiovascular accidents (heart attack, stroke), neoplasm (cancers of all types), diabetes mellitus, and infectious diseases are the most often seen. One large problem is that many of these conditions are preventable or easily treated if diagnosed early.

We at FM World Charities feel that part of providing adequate health care is to help screen for common illnesses before they become life threatening. One concept that we have developed is to provide screening sessions during concerts and other public events. This is useful in two ways. It  not only increases the number of individuals being screened for these conditions but, given the age of the people usually attending these events, introduce the idea of preventative health care to a young audience. For example, the incidence of skin cancers is increasing rapidly throughout the world. A small lesion that develops when a person is 20 years of age will often be ignored for years before it becomes symptomatic and life threatening. Early diagnosis and treatment is the key to avoiding these problems.

In 2008 FM World Charities went on the Vans Warped Tour. FM screened 6500 youth for skin cancer 700 of  whom needed follow up. FM handed out 10,000 uv protective products and skin cancer awareness literature.  The vans Warped Tour is the nation's longest running concert festival touring series. They sold over one million tickets last year. The age demographic they serve is mainly 16-25 years old. This group is important to reach because they are at increasingly greater risk.  . Survival rate for patients with early detection of skin cancer is about 99%. According to Eric Gast, CEO of FM World Charities, “The Warped Tour not only gives us an increase in the number of individuals being screened for these conditions, but given the age demographic of this country wide tour, introduces the idea of preventative health care to a young audience. Our hope is to increase awareness and provide rudimentary screenings primarily to their given age demographic. As you know, people of this age are seldom concerned with health issues, especially those they can't see.  This initiative is somewhat revolutionary for a charity to be administering an initiative across a tour of this magnitude.” Look  for FM  and their 45 foot tour bus on many tours and festivals in 2009.

 

Vision and Services

We plan to establish a system where people who are attending an event will be able to have the screening done quickly and conveniently. A small tent or room can be set up to include a physician and nurse who will be able to quickly evaluate each person. The trained visual eye most often does this technique. However, small, handheld machines are becoming popular to evaluate questionable lesions and will make it easier to screen larger numbers of people. Photographs of the lesions are taken and later re-evaluated. If there is anything suspicious about the lesion, the patient will be contacted by mail or phone and directed to the appropriate medical facility for confirming diagnosis and follow up treatment.

Future Goals

As mentioned above, screening for potential skin cancers is only one of many types of screenings that can be easily and quickly done. Testing for glucose, blood pressure levels, cholesterol, and many other measures can help diagnose the most common problems leading to illness and death. Establishing a system that can be easily moved from one location to another will be our initial goal.

We are also planning on establishing a mobile unit that may be used to travel around the countries where we are working and set up in a specific location to screen populations that may not necessarily be able to attend one of our events. FM plans to use sponsored merchandise giveaways and media personality appearances to increase attendance at these screenings.

COSTA RICA PRIMARY CARE CLINIC

Punta Banco is a small village on southern Costa Rica’s pacific coast near the Panamanian border. There is also a reservation in the area established by the Costa Rican Social Security Agency, which is inhabited by a large population of indigenous people, the Borucas Indians.

Health care in Punta Banco is delivered in a small frame house located next to the local church. The facility was established several years ago and now houses a dental clinic that is staffed by local practitioners and a group of visiting foreign dentists including FM World Charities board member Dominick Giordono, DMD.

Medical care is also delivered in the clinic. There are three medical examination rooms that are used by government physicians from the Social Security office in San Jose. These doctors visit the clinic approximately once per month and see patients from Punta Banco, a few surrounding towns and the Indian reservation. There are many limitations to the prevision of health care in this manner. Given the lack of laboratory facilities in the clinic, all blood work needs to performed at a hospital in Golfito, a larger town located about three hours by bus from Punta Banco. Any patient in need of a blood test will need to spend a full day traveling to the hospital, waiting for the results and returning to Punta Banco. Even with a test result, no therapeutic decisions can be made for a month until the doctors return to interpret the data. Medical Director Dr. Barry Cohen and FM World Charities founder Eric Gast visited the clinic in Punta Banco in January 2008. It was found that the most pressing need for the clinic is equipment and personnel. For example, some of the common blood tests, which would take a day of travel to obtain, can be performed in the exam room using low cost, portable equipment. For example, a drop of blood from a finger stick can provide a range of information to the doctors from blood sugars concentrations to the presence of an infection. The provision of this equipment is a priority for FM.

The machines described above can be easily procured. The most important factor is how this equipment and other supplies are stored. As this area of Costa Rica is in the middle of the rain, forest, humidity is a significant problem.. One goal is to provide air conditioning and dehumidifying units along with refrigeration to store the equipment.

Along with equipment, FM proposes establishing a system to place medical personnel in the clinic. Using volunteer physicians and nurses, we hope to send personnel to Punta Banco on a regular schedule. We also hope to provide funding to staff the clinic with local healthcare workers in our absence.

Using this model, FM World Charities hopes to establish similar clinics in other underserved areas of the world with the ultimate goal of establishing a system by which healthcare providers may rotate between different locations.

Working with Reconstruct Art and local youth

FM is proud to be associated with Reconstruct Art (www.reconstructart.org), a charity founded by Lawrence Joyner in Rego Park, New York. Reconstruct Art aims to positively motivate disenfranchised youth and to cultivate their artistic strengths.

In December, FM will be auctioning off a guitar to benefit Reconstruct Art. Several NY artists and media role models will sign the guitar. There will be original art on it as well as signatures.

Current projects with Reconstruct Art

One of the goals of FM with Reconstruct Art is to aid it in some of its administrative needs. in keeping with this, FM is setting up equity situations for the youth that allows them to learn about business. Through a generous donation by board member Tony Sklar and his wife, Samantha Fryer, hundreds of hand painted Christmas ornaments from Eastern Europe have been given to FM.

The youth of Reconstruct Art are going to run an ebay store from which the proceeds will go toward their charity. FM is hoping this will be an annual event. Once the store is up and running, the rest of the year will be devoted to selling their art and tee shirts to benefit in their cause.

A long-term project that FM is planning with Reconstruct Art is a full on multi-media event. The event will encompass a theatrical performance, a photography exhibit, and an art display. The children will run the entire event from promotion and ticket sales to lighting and sound as well as acting in and directing the play. FM will bring in volunteers from the theatrical community to help coach the children, experts in production to teach them how to run the sound and lights, and business representatives to help them with the administrative end of the production.

Eric Gast, FM founder and board chairman, will be joining Lawrence Joyner on bi-monthly visits to Rikers Island correctional facility, speaking to 16-18 year-olds both male and female. Eric hopes to counsel them on jobs in the entertainment industry that aren't necessarily in the spotlight such as production, engineering, and management. He will also speak to them about cultivating their strengths and using these to find a vocational direction.

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