Class travels to South America to volunteer in village clinic
Two years ago, political science professor Rick Mayes and his U.S. healthcare policy & politics class read a book called “Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World,” by Tracy Kidder. Mayes had allocated only one week to discuss the issues that the book dealt with: global heath, infectious disease and human rights.
Mayes’ students were so affected by the discussions that followed that they approached him at the end of the semester and asked if he would create an entirely new course—one that picked up where the book left off. One year later, Mayes developed a course, global health and human rights, which focused solely on public health in developing countries. The course had an immediate following, even when Mayes announced that the only available meeting time was Friday nights.
The structure of the course is unique: readings and discussions on the interplay between medicine, public health and human rights are supplemented by a Quest-funded trip to Peru, which brings the classroom crashing into real life. Students in both the spring 2007 and spring 2008 classes were saddened and inspired by the eye-opening experience.
“The trip to Peru gives the books meaning,” said first-year medical student Jon Alpern, ’07, who, after taking the trip himself as an undergraduate at Richmond, acted as a co-instructor for the course and co-leader of the 2008 trip.
While in Peru, students are able to see how the government, the economy and social life of a developing country affect the availability of healthcare. But the class doesn’t travel to South America just to observe—they have the opportunity to take part in a medical campaign in the remote mountain village of Pampas Grande. Working with a non-profit organization called Pan Peru, the students volunteered their time and energy to help promote awareness and do a needs-assessment of the village.
“Pan Peru has built a library with satellite Internet access and extensive learning materials,” said Alpern. “They graciously put us in a position to get to know and learn from the villagers of Pampas Grande, without feeling like we didn’t belong there.”
Pan Peru was founded by Julia Ardiles de Espinoza, whose daughter, Dianna Espinoza, ’08,was on the trip, and is devoted to improving the education of the Pampas Grande villagers, especially its children. Because of Pampas Grande’s location (12,000 feet above sea level and precariously positioned on the side of a mountain), necessities like heat and running water have only recently been introduced to the village. As a result, villagers struggle with simple health issues related to nutrition and hygiene.
“Seeing the hardships of these people’s lives makes it difficult to remain complacent once you return home,” said Alpern. “For me, the decision to co-lead the trip this year with Dr. Mayes was easy. It allowed me to continue to learn about public health and social justice as well as to provide a helpful perspective to the students on the trip, whose shoes I was in last year.”
Alpern, along with Robbie Contino, ’07, and Jen Fuchs, ’07, were on the first Peru trip in spring 2007. All three are now in medical school and remain significantly affected by their time in the mountains of Peru.
“Books, research papers, news articles and video documentaries are wonderful learning tools, but there is nothing like going into the slums of Lima, traveling through the Andes mountains or observing patient care within a rural mountain clinic to learn about and witness first hand the great divide that tragically separates the rich and the poorest of the poor in our world,” said Contino, who is in his second year at Emory University School of Medicine.
“I think a trip like this, or any health service trip to another country, is incredibly important for the pre-medical student. This trip really excited me and gave me a passion for public health. Seeing first-hand how powerful social, political and economic factors are in determining both who gets sick and who receives medical care once they are sick, clearly demonstrated to me how important a solid public health approach is to thinking about the problem of health care inequality,” Contino said.
“I think what Dr. Mayes is doing with this Global Health class is essential,” agreed Fuchs, who is attending medical school at Wake Forest University. “It gives a perspective on so many things, not just health care. It makes students appreciate how lucky they are.”
The 13 students who traveled to Peru in 2008 very quickly felt the frustration that Alpern, Contino and Fuchs had experienced when visiting the region a year prior—what can short term resources do in the face of such great need?
“We brought medicine with us but it was very simple, such as painkillers and vitamins,” said Lauren Davis, ’09. “Knowing that the medicines we brought could be purchased for about one dollar in the U.S. made it even harder when we saw people with diseases that we simply could not treat with the resources available.”
“I was amazed at the generosity of the people I met in Peru,” said Julie Kokemor, ’09. “When people are stripped of their material possessions, they have no reason to be selfish.”
Many of the students agreed that their most meaningful connections were made with the village’s children.
“Playing soccer with the kids and being high enough to look down from the soccer field and to see the clouds dancing below,” Contino said, recalling his best moment of the trip.
The students on the 2008 trip had the benefit of watching pediatrician Sean McKenna from VCU’s School of Medicine provide services to the people of Pampas Grande. The students shadowed McKenna, as well as the Peruvian doctors who traveled with them, but were empowered to provide services as well. They set up a dental clinic in Pampas Grande and organized an art competition for the kids. Lee Jablow, ’08, put his EMT training to good use when a car accident left him with no other choice but to stabilize the condition of those who were injured while the victims waited on medical attention that was over two hours away.
“Extreme poverty is easy to study but hard to understand until you experience it,” said Davis. “But the people were so appreciative that it was actually encouraging to be there, just to see that we could have some small impact on the future of this rural town.”
All who went on the Pampas Grande trip with Mayes expressed a desire to return and do more.
“Understanding the pathophysiology of disease and how to treat the sick is necessary in caring for people. However, extending beyond the clinical science and examining the social, political and economic determinants of health is imperative if we’re going to begin to care for those in greatest need,” said Contino. “Our trip helped open my eyes to this reality.”