MEDLIFE helps remote communities fight uphill battle for good health
For residents of poor, remote communities, staying in good health is an uphill battle against disease, injury and malnutrition.
They face ordinary health concerns of anemia, dental health and cervical cancer, but those are complicated for towns located on steep hills with no stairs. Their location isolates the communities from doctors and from utilities such as water and electricity, and it also means that residents are more likely to fall and injure themselves.
MEDLIFE at UGA, the University’s chapter of a national nonprofit for medicine, education and development, works to solve these problems.
“The communities we work with, they’re located on these really hilly neighborhoods,” said Emily Peng, a biochemistry and anthropology major who is a co-president of MEDLIFE at UGA. “We help them build stairs, and that helps a lot of people get from place to place, and at times, if they don’t have stairs, they’ll fall and get injured.”
MEDLIFE at UGA goes throughout Peru and Ecuador setting up mobile health clinics.Courtesy of Katherine Mitry
More broadly, MEDLIFE “provide[s] medical care to communities that don’t really have access to them and also do[es] community development projects that have an effect on public health,” said Carolyn Adam, a biology and nutrition major who is a co-president of MEDLIFE at UGA.
The group organizes trips for University students – including students who aren’t pre-med or biology majors – to travel to remote communities in Peru and Ecuador and set up mobile health clinics. The groups travel for one to two weeks over winter, spring and summer breaks. Full-time MEDLIFE employees provide follow-up care after the students leave.
The University sent 26 volunteers on the last winter brigade, which had a total of 76 volunteers — a record high according to Danny Guidot, a public health major and MEDLIFE at UGA’s advertising chair.
Guidot, who recently returned from a trip to Pamplona, Peru, said the community in Lima, Peru was a little overwhelmed with these numbers.
“The staff in Lima were actually caught a little off guard by how many people we sent and have asked us to limit the number of people we send on a brigade to 20 until they can figure out how to better accomodate everyone,” he said.
The organization has already filled those 20 spots for the spring brigade.
MEDLIFE at UGA also focuses on health-related service in Athens. It has worked with a local tutoring center on grounds improvements such as building concrete, tables and play equipment, and sells scarves at the Athens Farmers Market to raise money for medical trips.
As a nonprofit organization, MEDLIFE focuses more on people who need health care than the students who volunteer, said Kelsey Campolong, a biology major and MEDLIFE at UGA’s events/service chair. But it still benefits students by giving them a chance to see what medical work is like, building student leaders and giving students a memorable learning experience.
Guidot, who just returned from a trip to Pamplona, Peru over winter break, said this was an imcomparable experience.
“It’s tied for the best week of my life,” he said – tied with the first MEDLIFE trip.
He and the other students did lab tests, educated residents about health issues and screened people to find potential long-term health problems.
“I shadowed doctors, I performed blood glucose tests and urinalysis for the first time, I diagnosed someone with diabetes, which was unfortunate,” Guidot said. “The place is still so poor, but you still feel like you’re making a difference.”
For more information or to join MEDLIFE:
medlifeweb.org (national organization)
Facebook: MEDLIFE AT UGA
Twitter: @medlifeuga
