Field Projects
KFWH Peds Ward in Tanzania
KFWH has many “in the field” ACTIONS! Check out “Where Do Your Dollars Go?“ for more information!
The Actions described in this section are fully funded by student chapters or through individual student member projects.
Our Advisory Team and outside resources give options to the representative Student Policy Board for discussion. The Board decides on the option that is best qualified within the criteria of our mission as well as the level of village healthcare need, realistic partnership, safety, and active and realistic management. The final vote becomes the focus or Immediate Goal for the school year or semester.
The Actions of Kids for World Health are representative of all student members. Contributions made in every way define Kids for World Health and its commitment to a quality of Life for all the world’s people.
Thanks to each of you from our partners around the globe. Keep up the great work! You are making a difference!
Dr. Dorn Visits Mamaroneck Schools
November 8-9, 2017 Dr. Patricia Dorn, a distinguished parasitological professor in The Department of Biological Sciences at Loyola University and in partnership with Kids For World Health, gave presentations to Larchmont and Mamaroneck students. Dr. Dorn spent the entire morning on November 8th with the fourth and fifth graders at Murray Avenue School. Many of the students at Murray are members of a KFWH chapter. Ms. Linda Finn and Ms. Carole Moroney, who are chapter leaders, organized the Murray Avenue morning visit. In the afternoon, Dr. Dorn visited Mamaroneck Avenue Elementary School. She presented her slide show to the entire fifth grade of over one hundred students, on the Eco-Health approach that helps villagers in Guatemala to help eliminate Chagas disease. Ms. Donna Shore took charge of planning the event. On November 9th, Dr. Dorn visited Ms. DeSilva-Lisa’s advanced Spanish class at Mamaroneck High School. Dr. Dorn spoke in Spanish as she described her unique and remarkable work through a visual presentation of village life in Guatemala. That same afternoon, Dr. Dorn presented another slide show to Ms. O’Reilly’s Biology, Anatomy, and ELL class. When students saw the images of poverty and parasite infestations along with the process of improvement, their empathetic responses led them to come up with ways that they could also help. Students and teachers appreciated Dr. Dorn coming all the way from New Orleans to meet them. Everyone was extremely interested in learning about her work and experiences in Guatemala. Her presentations, discussions, and question & answer time motivated all the students. They were eager to participate. Dr. Dorn brought the tools she uses and evidence of her work for hands-on sharing. This included: preserved “kissing bugs,” headlamps (which she uses in dark caves and houses,) Incaparina, a nutritional packet given to women who undergo treatment for Chagas disease, tweezers used to capture bugs, protective gloves, and vials that hold the bugs for further research. KFWH is privileged to enter into a partnership that supports her project in Jutiapas, Guatemala and other adjacent villages, to help stop the spread of Chagas disease. For the past three years, the fourth and fifth grade chapter at Murray Avenue School voted to raise funds to provide nutritional packets, to resurface the house walls and to build chicken pens. Here Dr. Dorn shows photographs of how the local houses are improved to prevent kissing bugs from hiding in the adobe cracks in the walls. The resurfacing of the walls and floors is done using all local materials and involves the collaboration of teams of workers including the local villagers. Students demonstrated their interest by the many thoughtful questions and the desire to help Dr. Dorn with her Eco-Health project. Many international groups support the Eco-Health approach around the...
read moreLatest Work of Dr. Dorn and KFWH: On site, On Film!
KFWH is making home improvements with villagers in 144 houses, in the village of Jutiapa. (Click image...
read moreKids For World Health Celebrated Its Fifth Community Educational and Fundraising Event!
Our Fifth KFWH Community Event was held on October 14, 2016, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at The Hommocks Middle School in Larchmont, New York. This event included an opportunity for the community to focus on global health concerns, to find out information on KFWH chapter initiatives, to hear a panel discussion with worldwide experts, and to contribute to fundraising efforts. Our Special Event began with a high- end range of donated products and services offered at our Silent Auction which was chaired by Patrice Schwartz and aided by consultant, Joan Gansfuss, and their volunteer team. The quality items for auction included: crafted jewelry, professional signed photographs, paintings, baskets of selected children’s books and author-signed books along with services for a professional nutritional consultation, gardening design, and a vacation in Naples, FL. These were only a sampling of what our auction offered. We thank all of those who came out to support this! Ongoing during the silent auction was an array of home baked foods by the Parent Team, Brooke Mitchell, and professional baker, Anne McCarthy. It was beautifully arranged by Chairperson, Sue Gannon and her team. In the lobby, there were also tables containing information about Kids for World Health Actions: Prevention and Treatment of Chagas Disease. Fourth and fifth graders from our Murray Avenue School chapter stood at an information table wearing white doctors’ coats while explaining the treatment and prevention of Chagas. They also helped people examine the deceased carrier bugs of the parasite causing Chagas by looking at them under the microscope! The theme for this event was: “Understanding Human Partnership: An Evening of Global Health Awareness and Connection.” The featured Keynote Speaker was John Dau, “A Lost Boy of the Sudanese War,” along with a Global Health Panel of knowledgeable experts from the field. Our Panelists Included: Aduk Gideon Dau, currently from Australia and originally from Jonglei State, South Sudan, who is a trauma survivor expert. Aine Fay, President, Concern Worldwide. Raquel Lima, Loyola University, site researcher in Guatemala. Geoffrey Miles, Peace Corps and UNICEF SASDE volunteer. Dr. Tracy Rabin, The Yale School of Medicine, assistant professor, assistant director of global health, and an internist and pediatrician at The Yale New Haven Hospital. Pamela Bolton, Panel moderator and Global Health Specialist at KFWH and Concern Worldwide. The Evening’s Masters Of Ceremonies were co-founders of KFWH: Sam Gruppo, former student and Kay Kobbe, founding teacher and administrator, both from The Chatsworth School in Larchmont. Also in attendance were two other co-founders: Graham Crawford, who acts as a consultant for policy and ideas, and Meghan Marr, who is on leave from the KFWH board while she is serving in India as a field worker. They were joined by The KFWH Board of Directors Team: Pamela Bolton, Mary Davidson, Jane Rothman, and Patrice Schwartz, and former KFWH Board members: Bill Crawford, Sheila Filipowski, and Anne Gruppo. Our program began when the audience was ushered by student chapter members into the auditorium while photographs of KFWH accomplishments in Uganda, Washington, DC, and at home in Larchmont were projetcted onto a huge screen. Kay Kobbe introduced the evening’s agenda and history of KFWH. Sam Gruppo introduced Chagas and briefly explained how KFWH Actions have grown since its inception. A representative of the Murray Avenue School chapter,...
read moreKFWH Collaborates With Dr. Patricia Dorn From Loyola University In Guatemala, 2015
As the targeted focus for the 2015-2016 school year, KFWH Students, Founders and Board of Directors have all voted to collaborate with Dr. Patricia Dorn from Loyola University and her team in Guatemala. In keeping with the KFWH mission, our Action will consist of support for on-going research and community projects to help local people in Chagas-infested villages. KFWH will be involved in the education of villagers about Chagas disease in efforts to eliminate its transmission and in the supplemental nutrition of women as they undergo treatments. Dr. Dorn is a molecular parasitologist who, for over twenty years, collaborated with researchers and students from diverse backgrounds with the common goal of halting the transmission of Chagas disease. In Guatemala, Dr. Dorn teams with Dr. Carlota Monroy, who heads the fieldwork and sociological investigations of the local communities. KFWH Students have chosen to launch the following Actions through their fundraising efforts as their Immediate Goals for the 2015-2016 School Year: Providing food packets to women of child-bearing age who are subject to severe weight loss while receiving treatment. Focus is placed on this age group because the disease can be passed from mothers to their unborn children. Food packets are distributed by the local community leaders. Supplying the community with local materials that include lime, salt and local cement to smooth adobe floors and walls where Chagas-bearing bugs thrive, and teaching residents how to organize their houses to eliminate the vector bugs. Providing funding for chicken wire for villagers to construct animal pens that prevent bug carriers such as pigs from transmitting the disease into living spaces. Providing flash drives with instructional videos that can be used in communities to educate villagers about prevention and treatment of Chagas disease. KFWH works toward equal and sustainable partnership with villagers in the planning and execution of all...
read moreMurray Avenue KFWH Chapter Fundraisers Boost Efforts in Guatemala in 2015
The Murray Avenue School KFWH Chapter of fourth and fifth graders held events that raised money for and awareness of Chagas disease. The events included a reading marathon, a pizza sale during a Science Fair event, and a cookies booth at the annual STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Alliance regional gathering. The Chapter studied the work of Dr. Patricia Dorn, Professor at Loyola University in New Orleans. As their first priority, KFWH students chose to place their funds toward nutritional supplemental packets for women who suffer severe weight loss while undergoing treatment for Chagas disease. The students felt that helping with these packets would also help unborn children, since Chagas is transmitted from mother to child. Women tend to give their own packets to their children if there is little food or if they are too weak to cook, which creates further need for life-sustaining nourishment. Look at these photos of KfWH nutritional packets arriving in Jutiapa, Guatemala. Members of the community help to distribute the food bags to women of child- bearing...
read moreKFWH Enters South America for the Treatment of Chagas Disease!
Click to view CDC PDF (printable images) Chagas in Bolivia (Hit Cancel to stop printing) The above slide presentation is a series of photos taken by workers from CDC in Camiri, Bolivia where KFWH is working on the treatment of Chagas. Notice the cracks in the mud houses where the beetle vector may enter at night. Click off the “print” page, and the beginning of the slide show will be appear. Below the photo of the map, you will find arrows to lead you through the pages. In 2012, the Kids for World Health Policy Board voted to expand its outreach to Bolivia after a meeting with the Neglected Diseases Department of the Center for Disease Control ( CDC) in Atlanta, GA. Coordinating with doctoral program researchers, Dr. Eva Clark, Lauren Pring and Dr. Gerson Galdos of The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health based in Santa Cruz, a program to provide introducers and leads for pacemakers was created and implemented. At late stages, Chagas Disease damages the intestinal tract and /or heart muscle. The one chance for survival is pacemaker surgery, something victims are unable to fund on their own. Photo Gallery: Note KFWH Intern, Emily Wharton in the field with villagers and healthcare workers. [nggallery...
read moreCelebration of Clinic #6 in Bodo, Chad!
In October, 2012, Kids for World Health opened its 6th Treatment Center. This newest clinic was built in Bodo, Chad in Africa. Guided by our Advisory Team Member,Dr. Pere` Simarro of WHO, the Student Policy Board voted to construct this much needed clinic for the treatment of Sleeping Sickness. The clinic will service potentially 150,000 villagers at various times. The KFWH Pediatric Clinic #6 was honored in tribute to the work of Dr. Pere Simarro. [nggallery...
read moreCelebrating the Opening of KFWH Pediatric Clinic #4 in Lwala,Uganda
It’s open! The new mattresses and beds are in place and the mosquito nets are hung! Our shipment has arrived, and our clinic is open! The staff at Lwala Hospital are ready to receive children from the villages of Lwala, and the 150,000 villagers in the surrounding areas where people suffer from malaria and sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis). The clinic built by funds raised by students in KFWH is in tribute to Dr. Jean Jannin, Coordinator/Director of Neglected Tropical Diseases at the World Health Organization. Dr. Jean Jannin is our founding mentor and currently serves on our Advisory Board and KFWH Advisory Team. He and his department have been highly responsible for the possible elimination of sleeping sickness in many highly effected areas of Africa. Dr. Jannin Photo Gallery, Lwala Hospital, KFWH Clinic [nggallery...
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