Dr. Jay Cox practices in Teays Valley these days, but his family is originally from Omar. Cox is a part of the Hannah Project, a charitable effort to provide much needed healthcare to third world natives in Ivory Coast. An orthopedic surgeon, Cox was joined by a plastic surgeon, nurses and other healthcare providers and volunteers to provide humanitarian aid to the impoverished natives of a war-torn country.
"This is a project near and dear to my heart," Cox told members of the Rotary Club of Logan recently, where he was guest speaker.
The Hannah Project is named after a missionary who went to India and died in the 1990s. Cox discussed the nature of life in Ivory Coast a desolate country which as been devastated by civil war and poverty.
"It was a very bloody conflict," Cox said. "For awhile there has been a very uneasy standoff."
Cox said the northern part of Ivory Coast is controlled by rebel forces and is cut off from many resources in the south. A doctor set up a missionary clinic in Ivory Coast over 30 years ago, but most of the medical care providers wee forced out when the war broke out. People in the French-speaking country are very poor, have few Western luxuries and face a hardscrabble existence, made that much worse by the civil war there, where Rebels often act as bandits. Other than a few medical missionaries, no outsiders are let into the Rebel areas.
"This little clinic has sat vacant for 15 years, but lately there is an effort to revitalize it. The Hannah Project is funded for two years. This February will be the third year. I went last year and hope to go in February again.
Cox once practiced at Logan General Hospital and his father is a Freewill Baptist preacher, which is how he got involved in medical missionary work.
Cox said volunteering to help poor people in the third world can be very emotionally gratifying. He was the only orthopedic surgeon with the Hannah Project last year, but he worked with a plastic surgeon, physical therapist and optometrist along with nurses and volunteers in providing healthcare and aid to people in Ivory Coast.
"It is my goal to take some orthoscopic surgical equipment over this year," Cox noted, explaining that for $20,000 he can get over $100,000 worth of refurbished equipment that came from the hospital where he currently works, which recently upgraded, through a medical supply company called Stryker. Cox said the gear could be very useful.
"I am trying to drum up some money for this project," Cox said, explaining the bare-bones nature of the clinic, which had a dirt floor waiting room and no air conditioning in the operating room where a volunteer had to swat flies off the doctors while they operated in 120 degree heat. Power was provided by an electrical generator.
Cox was not the only West Virginian working with the poor in Ivory Coast. Alice Smith, originally from Beckley, was also a part of the Hannah Project. Cox said she has been a missionary for three decades. Other Hannah Project volunteers were from Oklahoma and Arkansas.
"Everybody played a vital role," Cox said. "We also had three high school boys who brought in 300 soccer balls donated by Adidas, which they gave to children."
Every day over 500 people would show up at the clinic begging for help, Cox said, explaining it was heartbreaking to see so many people who needed care. Some patients traveled hundreds of miles in ramshackle vehicles to get to the clinic and see if they could be helped.
"You would see 15 people on a truck that looked like it just drove off Walton's Mountain," Cox quipped. Cox discussed several of the surgeries he performed including some reconstructive surgeries on burn victims and people injured in the civil war there. He noted that some children were crippled due to a lack of basic medical care, and had photos of some of the injuries which were gruesome.
"You never take anything for granted once you have been there," Cox said.
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