Madeline Duehrssen

A student at Weimar University completing a degree in psychology with a minor concentration in music with a passion for helping others and easing suffering. Has developed effective interpersonal skills from working around the world on humanitarian missions. Possesses knowledge and skills in psychology, medical first aid, rescue operations, and musical composition.

• Emergency Medical Responder (EMR)
• Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician (Wilderness EMT)
• Swift Water Rescue Technician (SWRT) by Rescue 3 International
• Technical Rope Rescue Technician by Rescue 3 International
• Psychological First Aid - Certified through John Hopkins University

Disaster Response

• Responded to Harvey Hurricane in Texas (2017) with Gideon Rescue Company. Aided in medical aid, supply distribution, and rescue retrieval of lives from flooded homes.
• Responded to an Alabama hurricane (2008) - Helped to set up and maintain a point of distribution. Went door to door providing water and other necessary supplies. Listened to victim's stories and provided emotional support.
• Responded to a hurricane and flooding in Malawi Africa (2020) - Our team was flown into flooded areas by helicopter to provide basic medical care. Assisted with medication and supply organization, blood sugar testing, and urine analysis.
• Responded with a team from Weimar University and an additional group of medical doctors and workers from the U.S. to Ukraine after war broke out in March 2022. Helped meet refugees' emotional, physical, and mental needs in Chernivtsi Ukraine by offering medical assistance, grief coaching, musical therapy, and messages of hope. Performed on the harp and joined in providing choral performances to provide musical therapy. Assisted in basic medical teaching and practical demonstration of wound management. Provided talks on hope and healing. Helped organize supplies for field volunteers and facilitate therapeutic games and entertainment for refugees and young orphaned children. Helped to disperse food and other supplies among refugees. Listened to individual stories while providing emotional support.

Mission Work

• Served as a student missionary in Zimbabwe Africa for three months at an orphanage. Cared for young orphaned children, helped with meal distribution, and aided in garden maintenance and harvesting.
• Served at a refugee camp in Malawi Africa assisting with the feeding of malnourished children, childbirth, pharmaceutical dispersion, and vital sign collection.
• Assisted in training the first free ambulance service in Myanmar. Personally responsible for lecturing on airway management. Aided with the training of rope rescue and other basic medical skills.
• Assisted in building a school for children in Kenya.
• Assisted in refinishing a school and providing evangelistic messages in the Dominican Republic.
• Assisted in training a fire department in Jamaica with basic first aid and rope skills cumulating in an emergency mock scenario.
• Assisted in the distribution of eyeglasses, de-worming medication, and other medications overseen by a physician in South America (Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, Brazil).
• Served the people in the Philippines by organizing and leading a children's program of over 100 children, providing several cooking demonstrations, and giving lectures on health and hope. Taught adults and children the importance of drinking water and its cleanliness to prevent disease, particularly diarrhea-related diseases as this accounted for a large amount of death. Assisted in dental work, pulled teach, and performed circumcisions.
• Served the people of India beneath the Himalayas on the border of Myanmar by joining a team of volunteers who were flown into remote villages, hiking approximately 100 miles out to modern civilization. The project provided medical treatment to each village along the way. Assisted with minor surgeries and collected patient baseline vitals and medical histories for the Physicians.

Other Volunteer Work

• Volunteered on a local ambulance as an Emergency Medical Responder
• Assisted in a program for feeding the homeless in Albuquerque New Mexico
• Participated in weekly community outreach during high school: cleaning churches, homes, and parks, providing childcare, putting on community health programs, organizing materials for single mothers, and distributing literature on hope and health.
• Participated in weekly community outreach at University: providing yard work, highway clean-up, musical performances, visititation of the elderly in nursing homes, door-to-door surveys of community needs, community health programs, afterschool child care and tutoring, cleaning homes, feeding families etc.
• Performed on my musical instrument (the harp) as therapy for the elderly in a nursing home facility.

Helping others with their mental health, particularly in overcoming depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. I do this through an online platform where I provide short lessons of hope and encouragement. 

Staying active and spending time outdoors

Mission and Disaster Work

Helping Others

Music

Creative Expression