To listserve subscribers:

Here is a piece written by Alison Archer about Sarah Stewart,
the remarkable woman headed to a great career in public health
and medical missionary service. This was originally submitted in
my 318 class (and Alison also wrote it for the Hamilton Journal).

My editor at the New York Times Syndicate handles both medical
and religion stories -- so this was a natural fit. The piece will
be released to the religion, medical and lifestyle
editors at more than 500 papers in North America.

Congratulations to Alison.

Cheryl Heckler-Feltz

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> By Alison Archer
> New York Times Syndicate Special Features
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>         As American colleges release thousands of graduates to very promising  futures in graduate school placement and starting salaries this spring, one of the nation's brightest is postponing medical school to attack a deadly and badly misunderstood disease in Africa.
>         Illinois native Sarah Stewart, a Truman Scholar, a Fulbright Scholar and USA Today Academic All-American is taking her quiet faith and over-the-top academic achievements into the heart of Africa to attack the AIDS virus.
>         Her focus is Namibia, a small country located at the southeastern tip of the continent, where if the current rate of HIV infection persists, one-quarter of the population will be wiped out by 2010.
>         Suffering a record 26 percent infection rate, Namibia's treatment of AIDS is hindered by the lack of healthcare education, facilities and media technology to promote awareness.
>         With the help of the $18,414 Joanna Jackson Goldman Memorial Prize, 22-year-old Stewart is conducting an HIV and AIDS education and research project that focuses on the exploration of the indigenous culture and modification of behavior.
>         From her comfortable neighborhood in Peoria, Illinois to her four stellar  years at the tidy and quietly wealthy Miami University in Ohio, Stewart first entered the world of medical missionary service in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1997.
>         As Stewart walked the streets of Port au Prince one day, she heard a soft voice whisper, "Anmwe. M'ap mouri," which in Haitian Creole means, "Help. I'm dying."
        She looked toward the voice and saw an abandoned little girl lying in
the street.
>         "Her tiny hands groped over her body, scratching the scabies that infested the sores under her armpits, legs, and groin. Each of her ribs was clearly  demarcated, bulging through her translucent brown skin… Completely lethargic, she made no sound as I picked her up to take her with us," said Stewart.
>         "I saw dying people lying in the dirt, singing spiritual songs and hoping to die. They accepted the hand they had been dealt because of their amazing faith," said Stewart.
>         It was on that trip, as Stewart rocked children with sad eyes, stomachs distended by hunger, and wounded spirits at the Missionaries of Charity Orphanage, that she decided to make a change in international healthcare attitudes.
>         She points to the arrogance of western culture in the implementation of transnational medical research as a major hurdle in the race to effectively promote health reforms in third world countries.
>         "The root of the healthcare problems in the international world is the attitude that if something is different, it's wrong. We've got to overcome that," said Stewart.
>         With the help of Dr.Martin Bosman, a Namibian professor visiting Miami, Stewart will focus on the eight local tribe's understanding of the country's history, leaders, practices, and resources through case studies, and questionnaires to form a culturally sensitive program that will be  well-received by the community.
>         During the year-long project, which begins in August, she will examine  local cultures to isolate the problems that make their region home to  three-fifths of the world's AIDS population.
>         Stewart's unique approach to the Namibia project, stemming from her  mission work with the sick and poverty-stricken in Haiti and India, began under the direction of Dr. John Caroll, an emergency room doctor at St. Francis Hospital in Peoria.
>         In Stewart's first experience with Third World healthcare, she brought six Haitian children to the U.S. for life-saving surgery, after lobbying for visas, raising money for airfare, and locating U.S. doctors to donate  surgeries.
>         Three of the children received open-heart surgery, two hydrocephalic babies, a deadly condition of fluid collecting on the brain, underwent surgery, and one blind boy received a cornea transplant, restoring his sight.
>         These are stories of success, but Stewart also tells stories of tragedy  and death.
>         She held a 5-pound, 8-month-old girl, Alice, in her arms as the baby died, so she wouldn't be alone.
>         "Slowly, I began to accept my limitations, and realize that, sometimes, my job was to comfort, not to cure," said Stewart.
>         During the summer of 1998, Stewart continued her work in Radjkar, India, where she helped local residents of the small rural village learn proper sanitation techniques for their hospital, which allowed cows to pass through the operating room and had not been cleaned in 25 years
        "To many people in the world, this kind of suffering seems
insurmountable. People deem their efforts as futile and use the
justification 'life just isn't fair.' However, the medical work I have
rendered in Haiti, India, and the U.S., has convinced me that by being
privileged to be a citizen of this country and obtain an education, I
have not only the ability, but the responsibility to help others who are
not as privileged," said Stewart.
>         Though these problems seem far from the United States, Stewart points out that Haiti is only a 90 minute plane ride from the U.S. coast and one child  dies every five minutes there from dehydration.
>         Upon her return to the United States, Stewart, who is already the author of four academically-published research papers, plans to pursue both a medical degree and master's degree in international public health at either Harvard University or John-Hopkins University. She plans to follow her passion of global healthcare reform as a doctor with the World Health  Organization, where she will use hands-on experiences drawn from countries to develop policies, allocate funds for research and reform, and enact  public health projects.
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