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Transcript

Hi, it's Kristen with LDS Charities. We're back here with Dr. Draper, who just got back from Morocco. And I wanted to find out how his trip went. So how did it go? It was really great. We had a lot of excitement from the participants. And we weren't there very long, but the training went really well. And I think they'll be able to train a lot more people in Morocco now. So talk to me a little bit about how we do the training, how it works, because I know there's like--I don't know--a tree approach to it, where it kind of spreads through the country. So it's one of those things where we go and we make sure that we have master trainers. They're usually people who've been trained in the basic teachings that we've done in previous visits. And then we take those people, the ones that are really the better teachers, and teach them the new course. And then they teach the other courses that we do during a trip. They are the--they're not the only teachers; we help teach as well. But they're kind of the main ingredient for the course instruction. And this is--so what's the difference between the last time you went to Morocco and then coming back? Like, how many more people have been trained since your first time being there? So the first time we really didn't--there wasn't anybody trained with these courses, specifically. They'd had training in how to resuscitate newborns and how to do certain maternal care and take care of things like that. But they didn't have a course where they'd kind of put it all together in a logical flow. So when we first went there, there was no one taught, trained, in this specific kind of course. And now--I can't remember if this is the fourth or fifth time I've been there--but now 2,000 of the--right around 26, 2,700 midwives in the country are already trained. It's making a huge impact then. Yeah. And this new course, none of them are trained in that except for the 80 or so we just trained. But it won't take long to get the rest of them trained up to that level. I mean, to see that kind of growth in just, you know, a relatively short time period, I mean, that really speaks to the initiative and how valuable your time is to go and do those kind of things, which I think is awesome. Well, and it speaks to how committed the country is too. They're very--the champions there are very committed to saving their babies. So is there--I don't know--is there a story or something that, you know, you came back with that kind of impacted you? Yeah, I tried to think of a story from the course, but I wasn't very good at figuring out exactly what would be the best story there. But the thing that really struck me was our taxi driver. When we first met him, he took us from the airport to the hotel. And he was a little on edge about--just, he seemed a little short with us. But we arranged for him to be there for another day to take us, to be our transportation. And we had this great conversation, he and I did. We, first we--there was a little bit of touching on religion in the conversation. And because the religions are different, he wasn't quite as warm. But I just had this thought I should talk about family, because that's a lot of the reason that we're there. And when we started talking about family, he really opened up about difficulties he'd had in his family trying to get pregnant, and when they finally did get pregnant, and some complications of the delivery that he had. But everything is great now. He has two beautiful daughters. He brought out his phone. He started showing me the pictures. So just like anybody else that would be your friend. And it's just easy to connect over this sort of thing, because it's important to everybody, you know; you're saving lives of babies. And so what was it like going back? I know you knew a lot of these doctors before. What was it like, kind of seeing your friends again in Morocco? And how did they react to, you know, you guys coming and spending time doing that? Well, there's--they were all very happy to be able to do it. In fact, we started with nine master trainers. And by the end of the--so after we taught them, there was a course where we--they trained some other people. But during that course there were two other people that we had trained before, and they asked if they could come back and be master trainers the next day. So it was really--they were very excited about it. And it was really great to see people. There's one woman in particular who used to be the head of the midwives' society for the country, and she's just--if I wanted to describe her, I would say kindness and love. And she just--when she walks in a room, everyone lights up. Everyone wants to go see her. Everyone wants to give her a hug. It's just those kind of people that we get in trainings like this. I think this is so awesome. I mean, the impact is real, and people really care about this, and it's an amazing program. You know, Morocco in general--what's your favorite thing about the culture? Well, Morocco is just such an awesome country. It's just, it's so different than we are because they're Muslim. But it's so similar to us because they really, really care about everyone. And the--when you go to a place like this, you find out that there's really way more similarities than there are differences. And I think that's the base that you build on. And then you come and offer something like training that's going to help them. And it's really neat because these trainings are for people who aren't going to get anything personally out of the course, but they're going to get the satisfaction of helping everyone around them. And so it's a unique group of people that we work with. And just kind of a basic part of our human core, right? I mean, we really just want to help people. And that's the kind of people you get to work with and the kind of people that you are and the doctors are that go, which is just amazing. Well, thank you. I think that sounds awesome. You guys made a huge impact, and hopefully this gets you ready and even more excited to go out again, and then, for you guys do. So I brought my son because you haven't seen him since his six-week visit, and he's really cute. And so I wanted to bring Beck. I'm really excited to see him. This is my son, Beckham. Do I get to hold him? Yes, of course. Do you want to see Dr. Draper? He pulled you out of me. Hey, uh-oh. I stole his binky. [CRYING] This is the effect I usually have, so. Well, he just started doing that. "I want Mom," all the time. But you're going to--you're a sweetheart, huh? He's adorable. Again, thank you for delivering my son and for helping so many other people be able to deliver babies safely and happily, and just making an impact on all kinds of people all over the world. Well, I'm lucky. I'm a lucky man to get to do this. Awesome. Thank you so much.

LDS Charities behind the Scenes—Maternal and Newborn Care Volunteer, Part Two

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Dr. Michael Draper gives us a recap on his trip to Morocco.
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