Keesling asks aid for Project Concern
By JACK CAMPBELL Feature and society editor
Dave Keesling. Herrington sophomore, vice-president and chairman of the Congress of the Class of 1969, spoke recently to representatives from Kansas State Teachers' College (KSTC), the College of Emporia, and area high school and adult civic leaders at a KSTC interclass council-sponsored meeting in Emporia.
Keesling, state chairman of Kansas' Collegiates for Concern project, urged the audience to become "involved in mankind" and invited them to lead in active participation of this newly formed youth effort.
"WE WANT VERY MUCH to emphasize the youth angle." Keesling said, and cited two fundamental factors contributing "lots of appeal" to Project Concern involvement.
"First, Project Concern is not supported in any way by the government.
"Secondly, it has no religious affiliation."
PROJECT CONCERN is an "international medical relief organization." Keesling explained; an independent and non-profit organization founded by Dr. Jim Turpin in 1961.
It functions "on the principle of love for humanity expressed in the practical terms of medical care, food and clothing for those in need," a Project Concern brochure said.
Project Concern operates a medical clinic in Mexico, four in Hong Kong and one in Vietnam. The goal of Kansas' Collegiate for Concern is a $400,000 children's complex in DaMpao, 150 miles northeast of Saigon, Vietnam. They hope to raise this sum by May, 1969.
YOU CAN SEE how important the non-governmental and non-religious status is, Keesling emphasized, by realizing the warm-stilled suspiciousness the Vietnamese would feel if they thought we were trying to win them over to our side. And it would be difficult, also, to convert as well as heal. One full-time job is all they can handle.
"This is a way, however," Keeling said, for the United States "to win friends and influence people the world over."
Keesling visited Dr. Jim Turpin in Wichita earlier this year, and Turpin told him a revealing story of how this is done.
ONE DAY Dr. Turpin was working in a Vietnamese clinic examination room when he heard a baby crying. You can usually tell what's wrong with a baby simply by the way it cries, he
told Keesling. He knew it was starving.
He ran outside and saw a crying mother cradling a crying baby. Both were desperately ill.
The history of their illness was revoltingly reflective of the obstacles Turpin and his staff face every day.
THE BABY had been delivered by the village witch doctor, who had cut the umbilical cord with a piece of bamboo. Mother and child were suffering from gangrene.
When they first became ill, they returned to the witch doctor for help. He performed a powerful medical act — he sacrificed a chicken and poured its blood over them. Their condition worsened and again they returned to the witch doctor.
This time he performed a sacrifice—he killed a pig (which represents about $ _{2} $ of a person's annual income (there) and poured its blood over them.
WHEN THEY RETURNED the third time, the witch doctor performed the most powerful act of his "profession." He sacrificed a buffalo, placed its head atop a pole, around which he wrapped its entrails. Then he danced around their hut.
The mother and child were found by a village medical assistant (VMA), a trainee of Dr. Turpin's. He took them to the clinic for a miraculous cure.
The striking part of all this, Keesling said, is that the woman's husband was a Viet Cong soldier. He had accompanied his wife and child to the clinic in their family-oriented custom.
WHEN THE MOTHER and child were cured, the man told Dr. Turpin he was defecting to the south.
Turpin said this happens 4,5 even 6 times a day. The average medical cost per patient is 73 cents. It costs the U.S. government about $500,000 for every Viet Cong soldier they kill.
Project Concern's job is not solely medical, philosophical, political or religious, but its results are a pleasing mixture of all.
IT IS "MAGIC potions replaced by magic needles" two Project Concern films testified, "wives tales by antibiotics and penicillin. It's the preventive medicine of basic nutrition. It's a cup of milk, a vitamin pill and a protein wafer. It's medical aid and human compassion."
The clinic is like a vacuum
Daily Kansan Wednesday, May 3, 1967
DaMpao means "a dream by the water," but it could more aptly be called a nightmare.
out in the sticks," Keesling said. "The VC don't bother it and the Americans don't need to protect it."
CONCERNED COLLEGIATES can help. Persons throughout Kansas are being asked to help in a statewide money-making campaign. Members of the Congress of the Class of 1969 have been assigned areas throughout the state in which they are soliciting contributions.
924 Massachusetts
Debbie Bryant, 1966 Miss America, chose Project Concern as her endorsed charity, and contributions made through her resulted in a light-weight medical plane for Project Concern.
Governor Robert Docking has given his total endorsement, saying he will help in any way he can. There may be a Project Concern Week next November.
KEESLING HAS received word from Bob Hope's press agent, giving promising hints that Hope may give a benefit tour in Kansas for Project Concern next year and Pat Boone is giving a benefit next November.
The Class of 1969 has raised money by producing the "Happiness Is . . ." variety show and there is a possibility that two student-rate tickets to Europe will be raffled off next year, the proceeds from which will be given
to the Collegiates for Concern project, Keesling said.
The $400,000 will build a pediatrics center in Vietnam. It will provide hygienic accomodations for the patients and their accompanying families. ("No family, no patients," Keesling said.) It will finance VMA training and will be named after Kansas.
"IT'S ALMOST LIKE a miniature peace corps," Keesling said. "Dr. Turpin wants to train 8,800
people to work for a summer, or for a year or two in Vietnam. This would mean a few people in each village and it would let the people retain their dignity by meeting them on a personal basis," he added.
"Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind," John Donne wrote in 1624. "And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee."
DR. JIM TURPIN OF PROJECT CONCERN
FOR COMFORT AND CONVENIENCE IN AIR-CONDITIONED RESIDENCE HALL LIVING, IT'S
NAISMITH HALL
THESE MANY FEATURES GIVE TO THE NAISMITH HALL RESIDENT THE BEST CONDITIONS FOR LIVING AND STUDYING
- Central Air-Conditioning Controls in Each Suite
- 20 Meals a Week—No Limit on Servings
- 4 Student Suites with Private Tub-Bath
* 8 Wall-to-Wall Carpeted Rooms
- Wall-to-Wall Carpeted Rooms
- Closet and Large Desk-Dresser for Each Student
- Variety Desk in Each Student's Room
- Complete Vending Service
- Complete Vending Service
* TV and Study Lounge on Each Floor
- Recreation Room and Recreational Equipment
MEN AND WOMEN STUDENTS—LOOK US OVER!
SEE OUR MODEL ROOM AND ADVANTAGES
at 1800 Naismith Drive