This is a photo from my volunteer work with Rural Health Education Alliance in three rural villages in Ecuador. We went there to train "promotores de salud" or health promotors, who were locals selected by their villages to serve as health leaders in their communities. This photo involves one of the RHEA members teaching a promotor about using the stethoscope and the concept and importance of blood pressure.

-- Judith Hong

Ranwas Village, Island of Pentecost, Vanuatu
Submitted by Zach Isdahl, UCSF Field Coordinator.
Photo: Carol Medlin, PhD

Vanuatu, an archipelago of over 80 islands in the South Pacific, ranks behind only the Solomon Islands for having the highest rate of malaria infections. Malaria in Vanuatu has been getting steadily worse since the 1980s, which is why UCSF scientists are among the medical professionals working to control malaria in this region.

The photo depicts me assisting the Village Aid Post Worker in taking a blood sample from a Ranwas elder which would later be tested for Malaria.

-- Zach Isdahl

(For more information, see Vanuatu Malaria Project.)

Tocachi, Ecuador
Photo: David Stern Levitt MS2

Jonathan Weise, a colleague on exchange from the University of Minnesota, developed a dental hygiene workshop for the children living in the smaller communities surrounding the town of Tabacundo, Ecuador. I spent most of my spring internship in the town of Tabacundo, studying abroad with the CIMAS foundation.

-- David Stern Levitt