Alameda woman gets inside look at Africa's 'shocking' health care crisis

A few weeks ago, Alamedan Maddie Kennedy, an Ithaca College junior, had a hands-on lesson in poverty when she went with a group of students and a teacher to the Republic of Malawi, a country in Southeast Africa.

The two-week trip was part of Kennedy's Health Care and Culture course at Ithaca. She is majoring in clinical health studies in the New York college's School of Health Sciences and Human Performance.

"It was pretty shocking," she said, referring not only to the open-armed welcoming from the people there, but also to the lack of medical supplies and food and the resulting sicknesses and deaths, including infants.

A real eye-opener was when Kennedy, 20, worked in a health clinic, which included a pregnancy ward, in a rural area.

"I was expecting running water, but there was none, and there was no electricity. If the doctor had to deliver at night, he did it by candlelight. There were 25 beds in the general clinic, but only five mattresses. The pregnancy ward had eight beds and only three mattresses.

"If there were too many patients, some would have to be put on the floor," Kennedy said. "I was assigned to take the blood pressure of the pregnant women. They were all so tiny I had to use a child's blood pressure cuff. They were also all anemic."

The other patients were treated for different types of malaria, and for elephantiasis and pneumonia. The doctors and nurses would see from 50 to 80 patients within a three-hour period.

"Doctoring there is based entirely on current symptoms," Kennedy said. "You always ask, 'When was last time you had malaria.' One man had it seven times since last year. A lot of the babies are premature."

Kennedy continued, "When I gave one woman an Advil, she said her only wish is that God would give her another day."

Kennedy was saddened by such a small wish.

"But you can't cry in front of them because you're their symbol of hope," she said. "I had a hard time with that."

Agencies from the U.S. are helping, Kennedy said. Ministry of Hope, Heart to Heart and others are helping the people with medical needs and basic living provisions, including clean water. Some of the villages are trying to raise their own food — corn, beans, greens — to become more self-sufficient. But, Kennedy said, there are still orphans who walk miles for one meal.

Kennedy and the students played with children, and provided them with volleyballs, Frisbees and bicycles. The items were paid from the students' tuition for the program. They also provided mattresses — not the thick cushions on most America beds, but foam mattresses of a few inches. For most of these people, it was the first time they slept on mattresses, Kennedy said. The students fed babies, worked with widows (when women are widowed, the husbands' families can take all of the widow's possessions, Kennedy said).

"I wish that I could say that my initial interest in going on the trip was because I was keenly interested in learning more about the health crisis that is facing one of the poorest nations in the world," Kennedy said. "But, truthfully, I went on a whim because going to Africa offered the opportunity to travel."

That whim turned out to be one of the most profound experiences of her life, she said.

Kennedy is taking summer courses at Diablo Valley College and will return to Ithaca in the fall. She plans to become a physical therapist and will minor in sports psychology and health.