Promoting health abroad

by Anna Hampton

Daily Lobo

Fourteen UNM premedical students are going to El Salvador in May to promote international health, said Megan Fitzpatrick, who is organizing the trip.

About 20 people attended a meeting in the SUB on Friday to discuss the trip.

David Hampton, a chemistry major who attended the event, said the trip will give students an opportunity to do what they are passionate about, and they will give back to the world.

Hampton said he wants to see what effect a language barrier will have on his skills.

"I'm interested in possibly working as a doctor in another country," he said. "It will give me a chance to see what problems do come up, and how I can work with that."

Fitzpatrick is president and founder of the International Medical Delegation at UNM. She started the organization this year through Aprodehni, a public health organization started by fighters in the El Salvador civil war that lasted from 1980 to 1992.

"It's not impossible, but it's definitely work," Fitzpatrick said of starting the organization.

Students find out Wednesday if they were accepted to go on the trip, Fitzpatrick said. She will take more students next year if the trip goes smoothly, she said.

"It just seems like a really great way to experience another culture and a great way to give back to the world," Hampton said.

Fitzpatrick said she has handed out about 50 applications to UNM students.

"We're going to fundraise 100 percent," Fitzpatrick said.

She said she is asking ASUNM and the Presbyterian and Holy Cross hospitals for financial support. The trip will cost around $1,000 per student.

When the students arrive in El Salvador, they will go through an orientation where they will be taught how to deal with some of the diseases that devastate the area, Fitzpatrick said.

Those diseases include common colds, the flu and grippe, which are severe because of poor hygiene and medical attention, she said.

"They're trying to set up a structure so that the community has some economy," Fitzpatrick said, while explaining the organization's general goal to help out one community and then move on to another.

Aprodehni focuses on outreach in areas of education, malnutrition, health care, scholarships and women's issues, according to Fitzpatrick's fundraising proposal.

"It's really great what Megan is doing," Hampton said.

Hampton said the only reason the idea didn't come together sooner was because no student has ever had such a strong vision.

Fitzpatrick said she is not worried about language barriers because many of the students are almost fluent in Spanish.

However, she is concerned about nutrition, she said.

"We're going to be extra cautious because we are Americans," she said, explaining that the students' digestive tracts will not be used to the uncooked food.

Their diets will consist mostly of corn and beans during the trip, she said.

The trip will last between four and seven days not including travel time, Fitzpatrick said.