Into Africa: Dispensing Hope One Day at at Time

Monique Tarin is only in third grade but is already demonstrating a wisdom and compassion beyond her tender years: “It is not fair that kids in Africa are sick and dying,” Tarin says. “All they need is hope and someone to care for them. I care about sick kids a lot. But if I don’t know they are sick, I can’t help them. So I really need to know everything that is going on in the world.”

Tarin and her fellow classmates at Southern California's Creative Planet School of the Arts have been learning a lot about Africa lately as a result of the travels by Dr. Kimberly Shriner and her team of Huntington Hospital medical professionals who recently completed their fourth trip to Tanzania. The team’s delivery of medical care and needed supplies to the Upone Charitable Medical Centre, an outpatient AIDS clinic in East Africa, has stirred the empathy of these local youth who recently pooled their collective talents as dancers and artists for a fundraiser held at Pasadena's historic Castle Green.

The sobering statistics of 25 million people infected with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and over 12 million African children orphaned as a result of this devastating disease is a reality that’s not lost on the aspiring young performers.

Many of us can afford medicine but they can’t,” observes sixth grader Kennedy Holmes. “I feel bad that children in Africa are dying of AIDS and we get mad because we didn’t get to watch TV. We should be more thankful.”

Adds eighth grader Danika Espinoza, “I want to help them because they are just kids like us but they are living a very hard life. I want to help put a smile on their faces.”

Fourth grader Tiffany Reynosa has decided that dancing is her dream “and when you’re doing your dream to help someone else, you get a good feeling inside.”

Renee Arellano, a seventh grader, predicts, “This show is going to help many children in Africa and it’s going to change how many of us think and act.”

I wish I could go over there and cheer them on,” says sixth grader David Wilson. “It’s great to tell the ones that are dying that they’re going to have a chance to live. This is why I am doing this project.”

At Holy Family School in South Pasadena, a group of fifth graders were swept up in the spirit of giving as well and contributing for auction a collection of bronze sculptures they created under the direction of renowned artist Louis Longi.

When Longi was approached and asked if he’d like to help with the fundraiser,” Shriner says, “he immediately jumped into it. Louis offered to run a workshop for the kids and, over the course of two days, taught them how to design and make wax models that were subsequently cast in bronze. In keeping with the theme of our Tanzania project, most of the student sculptures portray African animals and African art.” In addition to the bronze sculptures by these young artists, older artists from the South Pasadena Senior Center made over 100 watercolors and collages which were also offered for sale.

Shriner, who recently gave talks at Holy Family School and the Creative Planet School of the Arts, is excited to share what she’s witnessed since her medical team’s first trip in 2002.

In the last year, we’ve seen a huge change. In large part, it’s due to the Tanzanian government now providing a certain amount of anti-retroviral therapy. There are about 1,500 individuals in Northern Tanzania who are in HIV programs and currently receiving these drugs.”

Shriner and her staff routinely do home-visits on their trips to Arusha, Tanzania. “I recall one gentleman named Peter who lived in a squatters village. He and his wife and one of their two children were infected. He was very debilitated when we first saw him and almost like a skeleton from the advanced stages of the disease. We learned on this trip that he has subsequently enrolled in an HIV program, has gained about 30 pounds and is able to resume working and providing for his family. I think that really speaks to the impact that even relatively minimal numbers of drugs can make.”

She goes on to explain that they don’t have as many different varieties of anti-retroviral drugs available in Africa as in the United States. “By comparison, we have roughly 22 and they only have about 3. What we’re seeing in terms of progress over there, though, is that they’re experiencing hope and this, in turn, is encouraging them to get tested, to learn about HIV, and to erase some of the stigma associated with the disease.”

In addition to Shriner and her team’s ongoing work with Upone, the opening of an outpatient clinic in nearby Moivaro Village will allow them to provide treatment for even more patients. “Our primary focus throughout has been to provide education, financial support and medical supplies and equipment for programs that are already in existence or in the process of being set up. We’ve been fortunate in this regard to have built a relationship the past three years with Dr. Solomon Ole Logilunore. This has not only allowed us to broaden our reach but also to bring Tanzanian physicians to Pasadena for several weeks in October to learn about state of the art treatment to combat this disease.” Next year, she relates, her team will be bringing surgeons to Tanzania who expressed an interest in participating. “I think their expertise is going to be a wonderful addition to what we’re already accomplishing over there.”

To San Marino residents Suzie Icaza - a social worker - and Gyongyver Sozago who is a swim coach for the San Marino Swim Team, the chance to accompany Shriner overseas was an opportunity to film an emotionally gripping documentary.

The Tanzania outreach program is privately funded. Shriner labels it a very “lean” operation that runs on a small budget. “What’s so great about it, though, is that most of the materials provided to the Tanzanian people in a metaphorical sense come from professional people and so it’s their experience and their passion that’s a priceless commodity. The only thing it really costs us is in getting everything over there. Since there’s no overhead, every penny goes to helping those who need our assistance.”

Huntington Memorial has also established a scholarship program to send some of its health care providers in Tanzania to school to advance their medical degrees. Readers who are interested in making contributions can do so by contacting Shriner’s assistant, Lyn Smillie at (626) 397-5480. They can also look on the website (www.thephilsimonclinic.org).”

Shriner is unabashed in her praise of how the community - especially its younger population - has stepped up to the challenge of helping raise money for those less fortunate in Africa. “It’s been a really empowering thing for them to participate. In addition, the orphanage we’ve been working with in Northern Tanzania was the recipient of a prayer chain and some art supplies donated by the students at Holy Family. In exchange, the orphans in Tanzania made a prayer chain and asked me to bring it back to their new ‘friends’. As an adult, it’s rewarding to see children take the initiative and want to reach out to those who are less fortunate.”

To create an exciting ambiance for the Castle Green event, Shriner relied on the talents of Raffee Reyes – head of the Food Services Department at Huntington – for lots of eye-popping decorations. “We actually took Raffee on our last trip to Tanzania so she could see our work firsthand. For the official unveiling of the bronze sculptures at Holy Family School, she put together this incredible environment with huge papier mâché African animals. I’m not sure who was more blown away by the results – the kids or their parents! And when Raffee set in to decorate Castle Green for us, it looked just like something out of the Serengeti.”

The emotional toll imposed on Shriner and her medical associates is obviously an enormous one. In closing the interview, I ask her what keeps her going.

It’s the Tanzanian people themselves,” she replies without hesitation. “It’s as simple as that. Each evening that we were there we’d each write in a journal that we put on the website so that people back home could read what we were doing. Before we’d enter it online, we’d have each person read their entry out loud and inevitably everyone would be in tears afterwards. It’s not because it’s depressing but because it’s an emotionally powerful experience that changes your life forever. In Africa, it’s not about the materialism but about the beauty of life and compassion for others. The generosity, the courage and the dignity of the Tanzanian people is so inspiring that they end up giving us so much more than I think we could possibly give them.”