“Now that we are back in the US, we (the Gonzalez family) wanted to write to express our great gratitude for your generous financial support for us through the global health fellowship. My family and I had a wonderful experience and wanted to share a bit about these past nine months. As you know, we started with a rotation at the Soddo Christian Hospital in Ethiopia where Michelle Yates, former VCMC graduate, is based. There I was able to rotate through various departments including OBGYN, surgery, pediatrics, emergency medicine. Through these rotations I was able to learn much about the local practice of medicine, provided direct patient care, and did several teaching presentations as a part of their didactics program. Our family was welcomed into the hospital community and my wife was able to perform volunteer work with a couple of local organizations.
Our next rotation was at PCEA Chogoria Hospital in Kenya where we were welcomed by Paul Opare Addo and his family, also former beneficiaries of the VGHP. There I served as a consultant, supervisor, and teacher in the adult and pediatric inpatient medicine departments, all the while of course continuing to learn the practice of medicine in a low resource setting. The Chogoria hospital serves as a teaching institution for family medicine residents as well as clinical officer and medical officer trainees and therefore my role there had a significant teaching and mentoring component. I was also able to begin a research project that is currently ongoing looking at the scope of practice of family physicians in Kenya. My family was able to integrate well into the hospital community there that was large and welcoming.
Following Kenya we finished our time in Africa with a rotation in Kisoro, Uganda, where I had rotated as a student through a program run by the Global Health and Clinical Skills Program at Montefiore/Einstein School of Medicine. There I worked with a team of US medical students, residents, and global health fellows at a very low resource government run hospital, providing direct adult and pediatric inpatient care as well as supervising the visiting medical students. Of the three locations this was the most low resource and where the needs were greatest. The butterfly ultrasound was indispensable there, and I can say, without exaggeration, truly life-saving. Our family was a bit more on its own on this experience but enjoyed the beautiful surroundings of southern Uganda.
Your support and funding not only covered our family’s living and travel expenses but also helped me cover translation services in Uganda (basically cover the salary of a translator that I relied on for the entire 3 months I was there) as well as support several of our patients there who couldn’t afford life-saving medications, labs and imaging. We are also able to enjoy a visit to a wildlife park with Paul and his family in Kenya as well as a little down time in between the rotations.
Our family is looking forward to returning to Africa for an extended period to continue to serve in medical missions. This year has been foundational for our future plans and we are very grateful that your support made it possible.
Wakoze chan! (thank you in Rufumbira, the language of Kisoro)”
– The Gonzalez Family,
Juan, Silvia, Gabriel, and Paolo