By Jesse Serwer
"The biggest issue to people's health down there is how poor they are," said Elberger, who was accompanied on the trip by his son, Benjamin, a 2002 South Side High School graduate currently studying public policy at Stanford University. Also on the trip was Jon Roberts, a 1993 South Side graduate who is currently a pediatric fellow at Winthrop.
"There is some access to medical care but it is meager," said Elberger. "People can't afford to buy the medications they might need."
The commitment of the Winthrop doctors - who operate under the banner of Pediatricians For Central America's Children (PFCAC), and have been making similar missions to El Salvador and the Dominican Republic since the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in 1998 - doesn't end there, however. In addition to the donation of medical and other supplies, they collaborated with Habitat for Humanity in establishing the first medical clinic in Miraflores, an under-served village located 10 miles, or a day's walk, from the nearest hospital in the nation's capital, San Salvador. "We paid for the building of a clinic and we give them ongoing money to pay for utilities," Elberger said. "That was the only access these people have to healthcare."
PFCAC, which relies primarily on donations from private citizens for its funding and supplies, has found a willing partner in South Side High School, which began a school-wide fund-raising initiative after faculty members and student organization leaders were given a Power Point presentation by the Elbergers with slides from their trip last year.
"The kids didn't need much to be sold on the idea," said John Murphy, director of South Side's international baccalaureate (IB) program. "The presentation gave a sense of how seemingly common-sense approaches to health issues can have profound effects. And it tangentially related to the goals of our IB program. The philosophy is to have students actively involved in international affairs rather than just learning about it."
Sophomore Adam Levine, the vice president of South Shore's chapter of Amnesty International and a member of four other student activity organizations including the film club, has been coordinating an effort to pool the resources of all of the school's clubs into one big, school-wide fund-raiser for PFCAC. While a date has not yet been specified, the clubs will show a movie after-school, charging admission or accepting items suggested for donation by PFCAC, such as flip flops and toothpaste.
"Once you see how they are collecting flip flops because the people down there don't have shoes then the idea of extreme poverty becomes so much more real," Levine said. "When they take away the idea of something as simple as shoes, it becomes easy to identify with that strong sense of need."
In fact, it was seemingly preventable causes exasperated by conditions of poverty like a lack of shoes, that were among the biggest problems encountered by the medical missionaries. "Hookworm, which is transmitted through dogs and their feces and goes into their feet when they walk barefoot, was a big problem," Elberger said. "A lot of people there suffer badly from asthma because they cook with wood or dried dung which exposes them to particulate matter with high levels of carbon monoxide. We can go down there and give these people respiratory treatment but until someone helps them eradicate the source, which is the smoke in the air, their health will not improve."
As a result, PFCAC - which was founded by El Salvadoran-born pediatric cardiologist Carlos Montoya - is focusing more of its efforts into public health and education initiatives, as well as the establishment of more clinics.
"We are trying to purchase stoves that decrease particulate matter and bring carbon monoxide levels to a safe level. The closest hospital is in San Salvador, 10 miles away. Most people don't have access to transportation so it is an all-day affair to get to a hospital," said Elberger.
While South Side and its students have thus far contributed "a couple hundred dollars" and sandals and hygienic items to the cause, their long-term goals are more ambitious, according to Murphy. "We want to bring the student government together to develop a sister school relationship with a school down there or to create an adopt-a-town situation. On the local level, it is also a way for our kids to become involved in the medical community."
To donate to PFCAC: PFCAC c/o Maria Alonso, P.A., International Adoption Center, 120 Mineola Blvd., Mineola, NY 11501. For more information, visit www.latininos.com.
Comments on this story? JSerwer@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 285.
