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People On The Move - Dr. Tricia Gilbert
04/26/2010 - By Chad A. Safran
HELPING TAKE CARE OF CHILDREN IN NEED IN AFRICA
Sylvia’s Children came about after Sylvia Allen made a trip to Uganda as part of a nonprofit organization’s humanitarian trip to the impoverished nation. While there she was asked by the head of the Mbiriizi Advanced Primary and Day Care School to be its grandmother. Over 200 of the children at the school were orphans due to the AIDS crisis. Sylvia accepted the honor and began the charity to help improve the lives of those children.
Dr. Tricia Gilbert, after meeting Sylvia at the Holmdel Community Church three years ago, became a volunteer for Sylvia’s Children. She decided that this year she was going to join the charity on its trip to Uganda...and it turned out to be a life changing experience for the pulmonary and critical care physician.
“I will never be the same again,” says Tricia, a Holmdel native whose trip to Africa was her first to the continent. “I appreciate more things. It reminds me that there is a lot to be done in the world and that we are one big worldwide community. One person can make a difference. There’s a lot you can do.”
While in Uganda, Tricia, along with the group of volunteers, which included her father, mother-in-law, and an aunt, worked out of a makeshift clinic at the school. They began with a plan to see 50 kids each hour so they could reach a goal of examining all 1,000 children in their four days at the Mbiriizi School. However, a special greeting delayed those ideas.
Upon reaching the school on Monday (after dropping off supplies on Sunday), all the orange and green clad students were lined up along its dirt road entrance, cheering to greet Tricia and her group. The volunteers exited the van, followed more children who were dancing traditional African dance, and were formally welcomed by the students in a large meeting room.
By the time Tricia was ready to see the children at the clinic, a line had stretched around the front of the building! Not all the kids were enthusiastic about seeing a doctor since it’s often painful for them to see one; if stitches are needed, an anesthetic is often not available. “They were scared,” says Tricia. “One ran out screaming. We had to win him over, but kids talk and word got out that we weren’t scary. By the second day, kids would just flock to the door.” The enthusiasm helped, as by the end of the second day over 500 students had been examined.
Tricia saw children with a variety of illnesses, including pneumonia, malaria, bone infections, heart murmurs, and AIDS. They all have headaches, worm infections, issues from sun exposure, and suffer from hunger. Even on a good day, most of the kids don’t feel well. Seeing all this along with the daily living conditions, which include poor water and air quality, helped Tricia gain perspective. “The things in my routine life that used to bother me don’t seem to bother me anymore, like day-to-day nonsense at work or getting cut off on the road,” says the married mother of two. “It’s so unimportant. It makes you really appreciate what we have here for our kids.”
Just because she is back to work at her practice in East Brunswick and enjoying cooking and being a youth/group leader at her church, does not mean her work for the children of the Mbiriizi school is finished. She hopes to return to Uganda in two years, but in the meantime is working stateside on AIDS education for those children and their parents, as well as helping to get them better access to HIV testing and treatment.
While the trip was remarkable for many reasons, one memory sticks with Tricia: I will remember the smiles,” she says. “I think about them every minute of the day.”
For more information about Sylvia’s Children and how to help the children in Masaka, Uganda, you can visit sylviaschildren.org.
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