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Postcard from Kenya

Dr. Allison Diamant with Samburu warriors at a makeshift clinic on the outskirts of the Kenyan village of Wamba.

Dr. Allison Diamant (left) with Samburu warriors at a makeshift clinic on the outskirts of the Kenyan village of Wamba. Photo: Courtesy of Dr.  Allison Diamant

Allison Diamant, MD, completed her residency in internal medicine at UCLA in 1995. Currently, she is associate professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Diamant has strong research and clinical interests in eliminating disparities in access to and receipt of healthcare to ultimately improve health. She studies access and quality of care for underserved and vulnerable populations. She also evaluates programs for low-income and uninsured populations, including breast-cancer care, racial and ethnic disparities and the effect of sexual orientation on access to quality of care as well as health status. In addition, Dr. Diamant is a practicing primary-care physician.

I first traveled to Kenya in 1987, after completing a Peace Corps assignment in Botswana. In December 2011, I had the opportunity to return as a member of a volunteer team of American and  Kenyan physicians and nurses organized by Medical Missions Kenya (MMK) and Hunger Relief. For two weeks, we traveled to rural areas north of Nairobi and provided basic healthcare services to underserved communities.

My favorite parts of our trip were traveling to the villages of Gaitheri and Wamba, where we provided care to all comers, first seeing patients in the remnants of a stone church and then in a school beyond the outskirts of the village. Accessing healthcare in rural Kenya is always a challenge and even more so during the doctors' strike at the time. Clinical care was a collage of the singsong of different languages, the pain of musculoskeletal aches from long hours and years of working, simple remedies for colds and allergies and more-severe diagnoses and treatments.

In addition to Partners in Hope/EQUIP, I continue working with my CITW colleagues. We have established a nutrition program in a rural community in northern Malawi. Two major program components have been initiated: a communal garden for community education and shared cultivation of crops for the local villages and family gardens for specific guardians and caregivers of orphans and vulnerable children and the neediest families. Since the inception of this program, the nutrition gardens have helped more than 60 families and several hundred children. In the coming year, it is expanding to include school-based nutrition education.

The challenges in Malawi are endless. However, I am very lucky to be working with people who are making inroads.


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Spring 2013

Spring 2013
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IN THIS ISSUE
  • No More Dreams Deferred
  • Once-Fragile Newborns Return to Give Thanks
  • A Better Way to Make Bone
  • Keep It Clean with Copper
  • Fitness Training for the Brain
  • How to Prove a Sexual Addiction
  • Sleep, Perchance to Remember
  • In Vitro Fertilization Linked to Increased Risk of Birth Defects
  • Imaging the Impact of High-Impact Sports
  • Potential New Treatment to Stop Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Redirect Wasted Healthcare Dollars to Transform America
  • Going Viral to Kill Zits
  • David Hayes-Bautista, PhD
  • Pushing It
  • Cindy Abbott's Incredible Journey
  • Getting a Grasp on Science
  • When Cancer and Depression Collide
  • The Dualist
  • Dr. Magic
  • Awards/Honors
  • Postcard from Kenya
  • In His Own Words: Chi Y. Chung, MD, FACS
  • Medical Mission Opportunities in Malawi
  • Revamping MAA 2013 Reunion
  • A Visionary Evening
  • Events
  • UCLA Health Board Inaugural Meeting
  • In Memoriam
  • Gifts
  • History Lesson
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