Ethiopia Outreach: Fundraising

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Fundraising Update

As we enter the new year, Ethiopia Outreach's fundraising plans are in full swing. Our tentative leave date is the 3rd week of May- but this is contingent on raising the funds to purchase our flights. While we all realize the total sum is quite high, we also know with a little creativity and some hard work we can make it happen.

In the fall, we held a few small fundraisers.

The first was our Bake Sale in November. On our health science center campus, bake sales are usually quite successful. There is something about a gooey brownie that is much more satisfying when it is eaten in the middle of physiology or biochemistry lecture. There are plenty of sugar-needing professional students roaming. We all baked something, and a few friends donated items. Thanks to Lauren for the pumpkin cupcakes (yum. I always eat at least two), Brittany for the "awesome turkeys", and Cassie for the delicious vegan cookies.

Special thanks to Brittany Embry for assembling these eye catchers!

In December, Elizabeth Organized a gift wrapping fundraiser through Elf Louise, a San Antonio Organization that provides Holiday gifts for local families who found themselves in financial difficulty during the gift-giving season. We asked for donations from our classmates in return for an organized afternoon of serving our community.

Allison started organizing our "Baby Photo Guessing Game" in late December. We collected baby photos of our professors and classmates and offered prizes to the person that could name the most babies, and the person voted "cutest baby" We finish collecting votes next week, and will announce the winner of cutest baby hopefully by displaying their photo on as many projector screens as possible. Here a few photos from the game:

John Anhalt

Courtney Wiener

Allison Price

Kelsey Bryant

Thank you to all our classmates and the faculty members that participated. We are all eagerly awaiting to hear who will be named "Cutest Baby".

I'll end with a preview of coming attractions:

The best Valentines Party Ever: February 10th

2nd Annual Global Health 5k: March 25th

2nd Annual Ethiopia Outreach Charity Golf Tournament: April 15th

Thanks again to our friends, family, and supporters in the community. We truly appreciate all you do for us!

-Kelsey

Friday, January 6, 2012

Welcome to Ethiopia Outreach's Blog!

We are a group of 8 medical students from the University of Texas Health Science Center venturing to Ethiopia this summer to work with a local NGO, Common River, conduct community research concerning water and sanitation, and learn about health care in a developing nation.

We will be staffing a clinic a run by Dr. Jonathan Karnes, with the support of Common River, for the people of Aleta Wonda, Ethiopia. We will also visit individual homes to collect data for our research. Many exciting project ideas have been pitched, so we are in the process of selecting what we want to take on and how best to execute the work.

For now, our main focus is fundraising. In total, our travel expenses plus money for medicine and community needs totals around $40,000. We are all working very hard to reach this sum. From small bake sales on campus to a large, carefully planned golf tournament, we are making our way towards our goal. We are incredibly grateful for the help and support from our family, friends, and members of our San Antonio community.

Please subscribe to our blog for periodic updates on our work.

Thanks for the support,

Kelsey

Allison Price

I am looking forward to becoming a family with my fellow teammates and with the staff and children in Aleta Wondo. I am ecstatic and feel so blessed not only to have the opportunity to travel to Africa for my first time, but also to have an opportunity to practice medicine in an environment many physicians will never get to experience. I am excited to learn more about the field of medicine, as well as the culture of Ethiopia. I know this will be an invaluable experience in terms of furthering my studies as well as broadening my awareness of the medical and social needs of people at home and abroad

John Anhalt

As a first year student I am still learning my way around the university and I’m looking for the opportunities that will not only be beneficial to my own education but ones to which I can be an active contributor. I am enrolled in the Global Health elective and I will travel to Ethiopia this summer as member of the Ethiopia Outreach student organization. I look forward to seeing how American trained physicians are attending to the needs of underdeveloped communities. As I progress in my medical training I expect that my contributions will become increasingly valuable.

Dr. Jonathan Karnes

As junior clinical faculty with UTHSCSA, I am inspired by the enthusiasm and goodwill of the students on the Ethiopia Outreach team. Early in my training, before I had any real practical skills in medicine, I went with some classmates and professors to a small town in central Ecuador where we partnered with members of the local health care community striving to meet the needs of patients in various resource poor settings. Now with a few more years of training and experience, I am grateful to walk alongside these students as we seek perspective about what doctoring means in Ethiopia and also in our own backyard.