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Lorain twins aid poor Africans
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By MARILYN H. KARFELD, Senior Staff Reporter
Africa called to Lorain natives Rebecca and Allison Goldberg this summer, as the 24-year-old twins each participated in healthcare programs there.
Rebecca, a dental student at The Ohio State University, assessed the oral health of patients at a Uganda clinic. Allison, who works at Abt Associates, a Washington, D.C., social-and-economic-policy research firm, observed a nationwide HIV testing program in Malawi.
After completing her first year at OSU, Rebecca spent a month in Kampala, Uganda, at the Makerere University Dental Clinic. There, she and classmate Charu Gupta helped educate patients about proper oral health techniques.
“I’ve always been interested in going to Africa,” says Rebecca. “I looked at opportunities online, and the oral-health needs there were obvious.”
The fact that her older brother Jeremy, co-founder of the nonprofit Global Youth Partnership for Africa, could help facilitate her volunteer work made the idea even more appealing.
After Rebecca piqued the interest of the administrator of OSU’s summer research program, the dental school agreed to donate over 1,000 toothbrushes, floss kits, and toothpaste tubes. She and her classmate packed the donations, which also included masks, gloves, gauze, disposable mirrors, and fluoride varnish, into huge duffel bags, which they checked with their suitcases.
In Africa, the OSU students taught patients how to brush and floss properly and painted the children’s teeth with a concentrated topical fluoride treatment. They conducted basic oral health screenings of patients, noting the number of missing teeth, gingival inflammation, lesions or other problems.
Over the course of five weeks, they interviewed 150 people to determine if there is a correlation between oral health and education level and economic status.
Rebecca was surprised that so many patients, including university students, had no idea what dental floss was or how to use it. A diet filled with soda pop and other sugary products contributes to the rampant decay Rebecca saw in many Ugandans’ teeth, including those who were well-educated.
Ugandans did not practice good oral health, but they were “very cooperative and extremely interested in learning how to brush and floss,” she says. “It was an awesome feeling that we had helped.”
In addition to working at the university clinic, the American dental students traveled to a few villages and to Namuwango, an extremely poor Kampalan slum.
The children, who ranged in age from 10 months to 13 or 14, had “terrible teeth,” Rebecca says. “Not getting a proper diet when they were young, the teeth reflect that. Some had even lost teeth.”
There is no dental insurance in Uganda, and while a filling costs $10, that’s prohibitively expensive for the very poor who earn as little as $100 a year.
“I saw 22-year-olds with dentures,” says Rebecca. “Why spend money to fill a tooth, they say, when for $12 you can pull it and not deal with it anymore. They don’t understand the concept of keeping their teeth.”
Armed with video and still cameras, the dental students recorded their work to help recruit OSU students for the project next summer. OSU offers third- and fourth-year dental students externships in Honduras and other overseas locales as well as in the U.S. Rebecca hopes to add Uganda to the list and to return herself, perhaps during winter break this December.
While the Americans enjoyed exploring the beautiful Ugandan countryside and its traditional culture and even saw rare silverback and blackback gorillas, interacting with patients was the highlight of their stay. “They bombarded us with questions,” Rebecca says. “They see our TV shows and hear our music and assume what they see on TV is how we live.”
Some Ugandan natives had never seen a Caucasian person, although in Kampala large numbers of Westerners work as volunteers with nonprofit organizations. Children in the rural villages would run up to Rebecca, touching her hair and skin.
Many want to come to America, she says. Because education is not free in Uganda, youngsters often attend school on scholarship. Nonprofit organizations pay for the schooling of some children.
While there are some Muslims in Uganda, most of the population is Catholic. When Rebecca would tell patients she was Jewish, they could not understand what that was, although there is a very small native community in Uganda that has converted to Judaism.
Allison observes in Malawi
Twin sister Allison journeyed to Malawi for three weeks in July with staff from the U.S. Agency for International Development, Centers for Disease Control, and the Office of Global AIDS Coordinator. The group observed the implementation of Malawi’s International Voluntary Testing & Counseling week, and interviewed government officials, counselors, healthcare workers and patients.
The team is now writing a case study about Malawi’s HIV/AIDS testing campaign, which other countries can use to create similar programs.
As an associate analyst with Abt Associates, a large government contractor, Allison has studied and researched how foreign countries are dealing with HIV and AIDS. Malawi hoped to test 130,000 people in the weeklong program. Instead, the campaign exceeded its goal, reaching 180,000 people, Allison says.
She first became interested in Africa as a student at the University of Michigan, which both she and her twin attended. Allison wrote her honors’ thesis on orphan policy in Uganda.
While in Uganda in the summer of 2004, she interviewed government officials and community members about the orphan crisis, which has reached monumental proportions in part due to AIDS. Although Uganda has been successful in coping with AIDS, the epidemic has stretched thin the safety net of social services and exacerbated the orphan problem.
Malawi, with a population of about 13 million, has long known about its HIV epidemic, but only recently started tackling the issue. An estimated 14% of the adult population is living with HIV/AIDS n nearly 1 million people. Unlike Uganda, where infection rates have declined, in Malawi the rate of infection has remained constant for the last 10 years. This means the country is still experiencing many new cases.
“Only about 15% of the people in Malawi have actually gotten an HIV test,” reports Allison.
There’s a definite stigma attached to the testing, she adds. Most cases are transmitted heterosexually, so the government promoted the idea that couples should be tested.
“If you are negative, learn how to stay negative,” Allison says, describing the government’s message. “If you are positive, learn how to stay positive and get on with your life.”
While the data from the July study is still confidential, Allison says it is very clear that “Malawi has a very strong political leadership and will. This campaign is one of their successes. They were incredibly organized in getting it done.”
During the one-week campaign, HIV testing sites were set up all over the country. Part of a team of seven observers, Allison traveled throughout landlocked Malawi, sometimes going 60 miles off the main road in an all-terrain vehicle to reach a rural church, school or clinic in central and southern Malawi. Her group alone visited 50 or 60 sites.
If a person tested positive, counselors would give him or her a referral for more clinical screening to learn blood count levels and eligibility for treatment. There’s a shortage of doctors and medical providers, so to receive anti-retroviral therapy, an individual has to exhibit a certain stage of infection, Allison says.
English is commonly spoken in Malawi, a former British colony. In rural areas where people speak Chichewa, translators helped the observers communicate, Allison adds. Many Westerners are involved in aid and medical work in Malawi, as well as a number of Christian missionaries, particularly from Taiwan.
Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Africa and in the world, the Lorain native notes. Despite their difficult financial circumstances, the people are very welcoming. The country is called “the warm heart of Africa.”
One Malawian counselor confided in Allison that she had only recently discovered her own HIV status. Her husband, also an educated professional, became very sick and died suddenly, although no one diagnosed his illness. Despite the fact that she dealt with AIDS daily, the counselor had never been tested for HIV. Her husband’s death prompted her to learn her status, and she discovered she was positive for the virus.
The counselor’s story “really touched me; that’s the reality of the situation here,” says Allison. “She was a mother, in her 30s, a relatively well-to-do professional in the field.”
The Goldberg twins grew up as members of Agudath B’nai Israel in Lorain, where they attended Hebrew School, became b’not mitzvah, and were confirmed. Members of the Zionist youth group Young Judaea, they spent their first year of college in Israel, deferring their admission to Michigan.
Following separate paths is difficult, they acknowledge.
“Last year was so hard,” admits Rebecca. “We’re so close. I was having withdrawal” pangs.
But their African journeys have brought them together once more.
“It was an awesome experience,” says Rebecca. “I really want to go back.”
“I love this kind of work,” says Allison, echoing her twin’s reaction. “It made me feel good about giving back. It’s important for me to do something for the greater good.”
mkarfeld@cjn.org
Rebecca, a dental student at The Ohio State University, assessed the oral health of patients at a Uganda clinic. Allison, who works at Abt Associates, a Washington, D.C., social-and-economic-policy research firm, observed a nationwide HIV testing program in Malawi.
After completing her first year at OSU, Rebecca spent a month in Kampala, Uganda, at the Makerere University Dental Clinic. There, she and classmate Charu Gupta helped educate patients about proper oral health techniques.
“I’ve always been interested in going to Africa,” says Rebecca. “I looked at opportunities online, and the oral-health needs there were obvious.”
The fact that her older brother Jeremy, co-founder of the nonprofit Global Youth Partnership for Africa, could help facilitate her volunteer work made the idea even more appealing.
After Rebecca piqued the interest of the administrator of OSU’s summer research program, the dental school agreed to donate over 1,000 toothbrushes, floss kits, and toothpaste tubes. She and her classmate packed the donations, which also included masks, gloves, gauze, disposable mirrors, and fluoride varnish, into huge duffel bags, which they checked with their suitcases.
In Africa, the OSU students taught patients how to brush and floss properly and painted the children’s teeth with a concentrated topical fluoride treatment. They conducted basic oral health screenings of patients, noting the number of missing teeth, gingival inflammation, lesions or other problems.
Over the course of five weeks, they interviewed 150 people to determine if there is a correlation between oral health and education level and economic status.
Rebecca was surprised that so many patients, including university students, had no idea what dental floss was or how to use it. A diet filled with soda pop and other sugary products contributes to the rampant decay Rebecca saw in many Ugandans’ teeth, including those who were well-educated.
Ugandans did not practice good oral health, but they were “very cooperative and extremely interested in learning how to brush and floss,” she says. “It was an awesome feeling that we had helped.”
In addition to working at the university clinic, the American dental students traveled to a few villages and to Namuwango, an extremely poor Kampalan slum.
The children, who ranged in age from 10 months to 13 or 14, had “terrible teeth,” Rebecca says. “Not getting a proper diet when they were young, the teeth reflect that. Some had even lost teeth.”
There is no dental insurance in Uganda, and while a filling costs $10, that’s prohibitively expensive for the very poor who earn as little as $100 a year.
“I saw 22-year-olds with dentures,” says Rebecca. “Why spend money to fill a tooth, they say, when for $12 you can pull it and not deal with it anymore. They don’t understand the concept of keeping their teeth.”
Armed with video and still cameras, the dental students recorded their work to help recruit OSU students for the project next summer. OSU offers third- and fourth-year dental students externships in Honduras and other overseas locales as well as in the U.S. Rebecca hopes to add Uganda to the list and to return herself, perhaps during winter break this December.
While the Americans enjoyed exploring the beautiful Ugandan countryside and its traditional culture and even saw rare silverback and blackback gorillas, interacting with patients was the highlight of their stay. “They bombarded us with questions,” Rebecca says. “They see our TV shows and hear our music and assume what they see on TV is how we live.”
Some Ugandan natives had never seen a Caucasian person, although in Kampala large numbers of Westerners work as volunteers with nonprofit organizations. Children in the rural villages would run up to Rebecca, touching her hair and skin.
Many want to come to America, she says. Because education is not free in Uganda, youngsters often attend school on scholarship. Nonprofit organizations pay for the schooling of some children.
While there are some Muslims in Uganda, most of the population is Catholic. When Rebecca would tell patients she was Jewish, they could not understand what that was, although there is a very small native community in Uganda that has converted to Judaism.
Allison observes in Malawi
Twin sister Allison journeyed to Malawi for three weeks in July with staff from the U.S. Agency for International Development, Centers for Disease Control, and the Office of Global AIDS Coordinator. The group observed the implementation of Malawi’s International Voluntary Testing & Counseling week, and interviewed government officials, counselors, healthcare workers and patients.
The team is now writing a case study about Malawi’s HIV/AIDS testing campaign, which other countries can use to create similar programs.
As an associate analyst with Abt Associates, a large government contractor, Allison has studied and researched how foreign countries are dealing with HIV and AIDS. Malawi hoped to test 130,000 people in the weeklong program. Instead, the campaign exceeded its goal, reaching 180,000 people, Allison says.
She first became interested in Africa as a student at the University of Michigan, which both she and her twin attended. Allison wrote her honors’ thesis on orphan policy in Uganda.
While in Uganda in the summer of 2004, she interviewed government officials and community members about the orphan crisis, which has reached monumental proportions in part due to AIDS. Although Uganda has been successful in coping with AIDS, the epidemic has stretched thin the safety net of social services and exacerbated the orphan problem.
Malawi, with a population of about 13 million, has long known about its HIV epidemic, but only recently started tackling the issue. An estimated 14% of the adult population is living with HIV/AIDS n nearly 1 million people. Unlike Uganda, where infection rates have declined, in Malawi the rate of infection has remained constant for the last 10 years. This means the country is still experiencing many new cases.
“Only about 15% of the people in Malawi have actually gotten an HIV test,” reports Allison.
There’s a definite stigma attached to the testing, she adds. Most cases are transmitted heterosexually, so the government promoted the idea that couples should be tested.
“If you are negative, learn how to stay negative,” Allison says, describing the government’s message. “If you are positive, learn how to stay positive and get on with your life.”
While the data from the July study is still confidential, Allison says it is very clear that “Malawi has a very strong political leadership and will. This campaign is one of their successes. They were incredibly organized in getting it done.”
During the one-week campaign, HIV testing sites were set up all over the country. Part of a team of seven observers, Allison traveled throughout landlocked Malawi, sometimes going 60 miles off the main road in an all-terrain vehicle to reach a rural church, school or clinic in central and southern Malawi. Her group alone visited 50 or 60 sites.
If a person tested positive, counselors would give him or her a referral for more clinical screening to learn blood count levels and eligibility for treatment. There’s a shortage of doctors and medical providers, so to receive anti-retroviral therapy, an individual has to exhibit a certain stage of infection, Allison says.
English is commonly spoken in Malawi, a former British colony. In rural areas where people speak Chichewa, translators helped the observers communicate, Allison adds. Many Westerners are involved in aid and medical work in Malawi, as well as a number of Christian missionaries, particularly from Taiwan.
Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Africa and in the world, the Lorain native notes. Despite their difficult financial circumstances, the people are very welcoming. The country is called “the warm heart of Africa.”
One Malawian counselor confided in Allison that she had only recently discovered her own HIV status. Her husband, also an educated professional, became very sick and died suddenly, although no one diagnosed his illness. Despite the fact that she dealt with AIDS daily, the counselor had never been tested for HIV. Her husband’s death prompted her to learn her status, and she discovered she was positive for the virus.
The counselor’s story “really touched me; that’s the reality of the situation here,” says Allison. “She was a mother, in her 30s, a relatively well-to-do professional in the field.”
The Goldberg twins grew up as members of Agudath B’nai Israel in Lorain, where they attended Hebrew School, became b’not mitzvah, and were confirmed. Members of the Zionist youth group Young Judaea, they spent their first year of college in Israel, deferring their admission to Michigan.
Following separate paths is difficult, they acknowledge.
“Last year was so hard,” admits Rebecca. “We’re so close. I was having withdrawal” pangs.
But their African journeys have brought them together once more.
“It was an awesome experience,” says Rebecca. “I really want to go back.”
“I love this kind of work,” says Allison, echoing her twin’s reaction. “It made me feel good about giving back. It’s important for me to do something for the greater good.”
mkarfeld@cjn.org
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