BETHEL,ALASKA

believe that in life,

one should work to

ameliorate the injus-

tices that one has experi-

enced or witnessed, so

that others should not

have to suffer the same

obstacles. Born and raised in

Liberia, West Africa, I did not

visit a doctor until I was eight

years old. Only one hospital

clinic existed in the country,

corrupted by government

officials and lacking adequate

facilities. Although I experi-

enced a serious lack of access

to health care, the access for

indigenous tribes living in

Raj PanjabiSeniorHigh Point N.C.

isolated villages was further sti-fled. A deceitful government wasresponsible for this, and in 1990civil war erupted forcing my fami-ly to flee the country with nothing.After years of determination, myfamily has rebuilt our lives. Ireflect on this difficult time and Ithink about indigenous Liberiansand others around the world thatstill suffer from a lack of healthcare under corrupt governments.Thus, I wanted to use my BurchFellowship to contribute to workin the public health field to help

improve the well being ofimpoverished people so

they will not have to suffer from a lack of access to

essential needs.With the fellowship, I was able

to design an experience allowingme to pursue a passionate interest.Thus, I decided to create an experi-

ence in cross-cultural publichealth. I traveled to Alaska tostudy the health care delivery sys-tem for native tribes—a system inwhich each village selects a repre-sentative for training as a layhealth care provider, called a vil-lage health aide. During my fellow-ship, I researched this model hop-ing that it would provide me witha good understanding of how toimprove health care access interna-tionally. Working with the directorof Western Alaska's communityhealth aide program and otherpublic health professionals, Iimplemented projects that involvedextensive travel to villages. At vil-lage clinics, I trained health aideson the use of telemedicine, whichallowed them to begin using EKGsand video otoscopes to transmit

vital patient information to doctorshundreds of miles away.

Also, teaching villagers how touse glucose meters and conductingpatient satisfaction interviewsallowed me to learn about theirlives. While I lived in impoverishedvillages without essentials like run-ning water, major public healthhazards like open dumps and poorhealth practices like children chew-ing tobacco shocked me. Manytimes, I discussed these issues withtribal councils who were workingwith public health officials toimprove these problems throughnew initiatives. Appreciating theimportance of good public healthin these communities, I understoodthe crucial role of public healthleaders in creating essential pro-grams and policies that serve peo-

ple in poor and hard to reach areas.Based on this understanding, I traveled to New York where I presented my research to the director of a free health clinic in an indigenous Liberian village. The director and I used the AlaskaNative model to initiate concreteplans of expanding public healtheducation in villages with aid fromthe Liberian government.

My interest in public healthspawns from childhood experiencesin a third world country. My BurchFellowship has burned in my mem-ory the struggles of those in needof adequate healthcare. As I pursuea career in public health, my mem-ories of my Burch experience willenrich my ability to help needypopulations gain access to properhealth care.

Continued

BURCH FELLOW 2001

I

Serving Yupik Eskimos:Public Health on the Last Frontier

Ra

j Pa

nja

bi