JEFFERSON MEDICAL AND ALLIED HEATH STUDENTS ADDRESS AN AFRICAN NATION IN CRISIS

Rwanda Health and Healing Project Addresses Refugees’ Immediate Health Needs and Builds a Foundation of Hope for the Future

PHILADELPHIA – December 18, 2007 – Can artwork heal the pain of a genocide? Can a group of young American medical and allied health students make a difference in a war-torn African country? Can one person’s simple contribution impact the life of a stranger?

The Rwanda Health and Healing Project, spearheaded by resident Dr. James Plumb, MD, MPH, Clinical Associate Professor and Director of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Jefferson Medical College, and a philanthropic group of Jefferson Medical College students, was created to answer these questions.

The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass killing of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutu sympathizers in Rwanda. It was the largest atrocity during the four-year Rwandan Civil War. Among the atrocities committed during the genocide, many people were infected with AIDS, which was used as a weapon of war, or were left with debilitating deformities. Rwanda was left in ruin, with nothing left except thousands of orphans living in extreme poverty. The Rugerero Survivors Village in Northwestern Rwanda was built as a safe haven, a temporary home, for the thousands of Rwandans who had fled to the Congo to escape the genocide.

In October 2005, Thomas Jefferson University faculty and a team of Jefferson medical students, as an extension of Jeff Health (Helping Africans Link to Health), began working with Barefoot Artists, a philanthropic organization which seeks to “bring the transformative power of art to impoverished communities around the world.” The team designed a community-oriented primary care health needs assessment of the Rugerero Survivors Village and integrated basic public health principles into Barefoot Artists’ holistic philosophy of healing and community.

In the summer of 2006, Jefferson’s first “Rwanda Squad,” comprised of two faculty, three medical students and one public health nursing student, journeyed to the Rugerero Survivors Village and began a community health assessment. They had three goals: to document the needs of community members, to evaluate the health resources currently available, and to better understand the community’s health needs in the context of the unique social and political history of Rwanda. To achieve these goals, the Rwanda Squad developed a health and hygiene “train-the-trainer” program, which included an environmental walk, disease transmission prevention training, and a health fair.

“One of our family medicine faculty members just sat and listened to the Rwandan people talk about their lives. Listening, understanding, creating friendships: these are the treasured opportunities we had in Rwanda,” remarks Dr. Plumb.

Rwanda Squad II, a group of seven second-year medical students, started meeting in the fall of 2006 to plan for the following summer, with the goal of developing an ongoing presence in the community. Using the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals as a foundation, the team journeyed back to Rwanda in the summer of 2007 to complete a nutritional assessment of the village and provide HIV/AIDS education. They also connected the village to Rwandan medical students as part of the Rwanda Village Concept Project, which aims to improve the living standards in the community by using simple and low cost methods and to develop the capabilities of students in participatory development work.

Future project goals include improvements to the village’s clean water supply, malaria prevention, a nutrition plan, and continued HIV/AIDS education.

The Jefferson medical students have also instituted an exchange with their counterparts. Rwandan medical students receive additional training in the United States, while Jefferson students participate in clinical clerkships in the National University of Rwanda’s Medical School in Butare, Rwanda. Three Rwandan students arrived on campus in early December and will studying alongside Jefferson medical students into the new year.

Frances Gilman, MS, RT (R)(CT)(MR)(CV), assistant professor and chair of the Department of Radiologic Sciences first heard about the Rwanda Health and Healing Project during a diversity panel meeting and brought it to the attention of her department. The students, faculty, and staff loved the idea and immediately organized a bake sale to raise funds, awareness, and support for the project.

“Radiologic Sciences students cannot go out and serve like nurses, OTs and PTs can,” explains Gilman. “Our department wanted to find a way to be involved in the community.”

Through the fundraising efforts of students, staff, and faculty, the Department of Radiologic Sciences raised $2300 to support the Rwanda Health and Healing Project. Modesty Orfetal (center), second year Radiologic Sciences student and president of Lambda Nu honor society, presented Dr. Plumb and the JMC students with a check on November 12, 2007.

“It was a truly collaborative project,” Sue Schaffling, Radiologic Sciences education coordinator proudly recalls. “Everyone in the department helped, whether they were baking cookies or running the sale.”

Looking forward to next year, the Radiologic Sciences department plans to get all of the College’s disciplines involved and make next year’s fundraiser an interdisciplinary effort. The School of Nursing has already expressed interest in participating in the Rwanda Health and Healing Project, which they discovered solely through the outreach and fundraising done by the Radiologic Sciences department.

If you are interested in contributing to the Rwanda Health and Healing Project, please contact Dr. James Plumb at james.plumb@jefferson.edu

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