[stock photo]

SO… what happens to a plant in a hot climate that doesn’t get sufficient water and minerals?

WELL, the adult human body is approximately 60% water, and a child’s body is nearly 75%!! Environmental heat, fever, diarrhea, vomiting… and a human body becomes DEHYDRATED.

If that condition persists and the ‘water need’ is replenshied, it can become VERY serious. Even deadly.

There will be approximately 1,500 children today (TODAY!) around the world that will die of dehydration.

WHAT!?!

Oral Rehydration Therapy, made with the simple materials of water, salt and sugar COULD spare those 1,500 childhood deaths today.

NO, I’m not kidding!

ORTIE Saving Lives!

ORTIE! ORTIE! ORTIE!

It’s a huge part of our Community Healthcare Education ministry.

[You’re thinking… what in the world is ORTIE?]

Ready???!!!

~~ORTIE Briefing~~

-ORTIE stands for Oral Rehydration Therapy Implementation and Education.

           [©2008 by Lori Bajkiewicz. Used by permission]

-When somebody is dehydrated, they immediately need to be given Oral Rehydration Therapy.

-The basis of Oral Rehydration Therapy is Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS). Safe water + electrolytes and citric acid = ORS. Commercial Pedialyte® is a form of ORS. In Latin America, ORS is called ‘Suero Oral’. The World Health Organization (WHO) calls the packets they distribute ‘Oral Rehydration Salts’.

-The ORTIE campaign is the 2019 ramp-up and revision-launch of our old effort ‘ORT’… this has been a major project Lori and I have worked on as missionaries since 1991.

-The ORTIE effort, in short, is teaching moms and kids how to make ‘home-made Pedialyte®’ in resource-poor areas of the world, especially with our beloved Mexican villagers.

-ORTIE is SO needed world-wide: over 3,000 sick children world-wide will die today from Dehydration, which most of those children can be treated… and survive… by drinking ORS.

-Dehydration, the condition that ORS treats, is also behind the illnesses of an estimated 50,000 children world-wide today… huge!

-Teaching and How-To materials we’ve developed have made it to 52 countries around the world since 1991 via missionaries and health-care workers on short-term outreach… every continent except Australia and the South Pole (hmmm…)…

~~How To Make a Cup of Oral Rehydration Solution~~

[©2008 by Lori Bajkiewicz. Used by permission]     

Simple (basic recipe):

-assemble materials

-wash hands WELL… hand gel with 70% alcohol is OK, soap + water is best

-ONE CUP of drinkable (potable) water

-add a three-finger pinch of TABLE SALT

-TASTE-TEST the solution and adjust to make it SALTY AS TEARS (too salty, add more water; not salty enough, add more salt)

-add one level teaspoon of SUGAR to the drink

-IF AVAILABLE, squeeze in juice from a slice of citrus fruit (lime, lemon, orange, etc). IF citrus not available, go with just the water-sugar-salt.

-GIVE to the sick child/person until they are making/giving urine every 2 hours.

-MAKE MORE ORS and give liberally. Give, give, give, give!

That’s it! SIMPLE!

Except for ‘profound humanitarian crisis’ areas (war, earthquake, typhoon, etc), many dwellings around the world have the water-sugar-salt ingredients easily available to them. The ‘citrus fruit’ CAN be omitted if totally NOT available.

~~Teaching Strategies~~

-We teach anyone age 5 and up how to make ORS [Demo and Return-Demo].

_The ‘student’ does NOT have to be able to read.

– Our ORTIE Save-A-Life-Stations utilize graphic charts (wordless AND with local language/dialect), pictures, posters, colouring sheets (sight), hand-outs, puppets, music, simple how-to promo talk (sound), AND actual hands-on (taste, smell, touch)… engage all styles of learning and memory

-We make sure everyone at a ORTIE Save-A-Life-Station tastes and drinks the ORS… that way, a young child will be familiar with it when they are sick and encouraged to drink! Drink! Drink!

-We strongly encourage that, when available, use of WHO Oral Rehydration Salts packets, such as those available from government clinics and stores, OR buy-able Pedialyte®… although such products can cost >400% more than soda-drink products, and difficult to find in most villages in Developing/Least Developed regions.

~~Ramp-Up~~

After a hiatus, the ORTIE arm of our ministry is up-and-running:

-live ORTIE Save-A-Life-Stations in villages are up-and-running

-pre-work and professional literature review for a major re-write of the ORS curriculum is under way (we published a nursing journal article in 1999; an updated version is in the works).

-all the previous ORS education was built and deployed in the pre-online world. With the revision, all education will be built for digital platforms and use on digital devices (it’s amazing how tekk is available and used world-wide, even in the middle of the most remote places you could imagine…)

-ORTIE is being built as an on-line COURSE that students will be able to enroll, learn all the finer points, receive a certificate (yes, we are investigating college on-line platforms and college credit availability) and will give alumni long-term access to all the tools and resources.

~~ORS and the Water of Life~~

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. [John 2:7]

37 On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! 38 Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” 39 (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.) [John 7:37-39]

14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” [Jesus, John 4:14]

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-So many people in the world… especially Mexicans… have been told that God is very angry with them, wants to punish them and their children, and that they are living under a curse that He put on them [the Hispanic concept is known as  ‘El castigo de los Dioses’ ]

-ORTIE is such a perfect and real demonstration of the Love of the Father, and a powerful platform to break these oppressive curses over people and their children. The healing waters of ORS are a parable of the Living Water that Jesus gives, and leads people to a God who wants to rescue lives and peoples, especially women and children. We’ve ‘shared Christ’ with SO many people while standing in their dirt-floor homes, making ORS for their sick child and ministering life to them through prayer and practical rehydration.

ORTIE points to Jesus, and we let everyone know!

ORTIE! ORTIE! ORTIE!

Your bro, Chris

All Scripture references from New International Version unless otherwise indicated.

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2023 UPDATE: This is a re-print of a Blog post from 2019… but it communicates well the basics of ORTIE!

REFERENCES:

Bajkiewicz, C. T. (1999). Drink of life: Oral rehydration therapy. Journal of Christian Nursing 16(4), 9-12.

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