DukeEngage | Duke Center for Civic Engagement

photo by Eric Van Danen

Ju Yon Kang joined six other students in the DukeEngage "Healing and Change in Haiti" program this summer to help with health education initiatives and plans for a new health center.  Below she shares what sparked her interest in the program and what she hopes to bring back to Duke's campus this fall.

1. What drew you to this particular program or project?

I wanted to do a health-focused project to apply what I learned in my global health classes and to learn more about the subject through a first-hand fieldwork experience. I chose Haiti, because reading "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder about the work of Dr. Paul Farmer and Zanmi Lasante sparked my interest in the country, and I saw that this project would allow me to directly interact with the members of the community.

2. What excited you about working with your community partner?

Family Health Ministries had plans to enhance the clinic that it has established in Leogane.  I was excited that I got to partake in this improvement process by working together with various community members and doctors in the clinic. Also, our group took a couple of Creole lessons as a pre-departure preparation, so I was very excited about the opportunity to use the language and learn more Creole words and phrases while serving the community.

3. What benefit do you hope your service will have for your community partner and your host community?

I hope that my service contributed to promoting a trusting relationship between Family Health Ministries and the Leogane community. In addition, I hope that by surveying the women in the community about their health needs and the obstacles they face in accessing health care, I helped the clinic determine its priorities in improving its services and facilities.

4. How do you hope to put into action what you learned through your DukeEngage experience once back at Duke? 

I plan on sharing what I learn through DukeEngage in my classes and presenting my experiences to the Duke Global Health Institute upon my return to Duke.  I also hope that I can help next year’s students participating in the DukeEngage in Haiti program by giving them advice on how to optimize their experience and maximize benefits to the community.

DukeEngage is featuring 18 students over the course of the summer participating in both group programs and independent projects.  Check back weekly to view the latest student profile.
 

“We at company X take great pride in the diversity of our workforce.” I never fully understood the value of such statements used by nearly every major company in America. They always seemed to be something cliché that companies would often use to fit in or avoid getting sued. However, when my group members and I first met with some nursing school students in Leogane to work on a humorous skit in order to educate the local community about cervical cancer prevention, “diversity” and “workforce” began to mean more to me.

My group and I had been working on the script of the skit prior to meeting with the nursing students, and had been struggling to find ways to make it entertaining and humorous. Things started to change once we sat down with the students. Communication was a challenge, but facial expressions and nods told us that the students understood through our translator what we were trying to accomplish. Within a matter of minutes, pens were being used to jot down ideas, high fives were being exchanged, and laughs echoed across the cafeteria that we were seated in. It was exhilarating to know that we were brainstorming ideas with students from a completely different part of the world.

Cervical cancer, caused by the HPV virus, is a significant issue for women’s health in Leogane. Four visits to the clinic is often required for proper treatment of HPV positive women after the initial screening. Since arriving in Haiti, my group has been working on contacting HPV positive women in Leogane who did not return for a follow-up visit in order to better understand the barriers for returning. Wilkens, a young man attending business school in Porta-au-Prince, has been our translator.

Conversations with women thus far seem to be establishing the trend that money for both treatment and transportation is the primary reason why women have not been returning to the clinic. After speaking with yet another woman who stated money as the reason for not returning, Wilkens, usually very easy-going, said in a serious voice to us, “As you can see, lack of money is always the issue in Haiti. I hope that when you return to America you will not waste the resources that you have.”

Hearing this from Wilkens made me think about our culture of excess in America. How is it that in Miami, people can wear expensive jewelry and drive fancy cars when just an hour’s flight away in Haiti, people cannot even afford transportation to see a doctor? Disparities obviously exist in the US as well, but never have I ever seen anything quite as striking as the contrast between Miami and Haiti.

As soon as we arrived at the Port au Prince airport yesterday afternoon, I knew that this was going to be a special trip. The drive from Port au Prince to Leogane was an experience in itself. Cars and trucks were coming from every direction, with pedestrians weaving in and out of traffic. People came up to the van that we were in to sell refreshments and children waved at us at the window, shouting “Hey you!” Vibrant, festive, and bustling would be the best words to describe the city.

My initial impressions of Haiti have been very positive so far. The atmosphere is very upbeat and the people are very friendly. From reading about Haiti in the American media, you tend to get the impression that people living in Haiti must be terribly depressed. However, this is quite far from the truth. The locals that we have met so far are very lively and all seem to be living in the moment, not really worrying about things. When Dr. David Walmer, one of our group leaders who has spent many years in Haiti, said that “Americans can’t change Haiti, but Haiti can change Americans,” I didn’t quite understand what he meant. But now I think I am starting to realize his meaning.

Right now we are in the Leogane clinic for women where part of our group will be working to organize medical records for patients and develop health education materials for cervical cancer prevention. Hope to update you guys again soon!