Teaching for life
If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day. If you teach him to fish, he eats for a lifetime. That old saying resonates with Dr. Todd Olsen, associate professor of health and education at Lynchburg College and an epidemiologist who recently returned from his fourth trip to Africa. His job there, he says, is to teach others to teach.
Dr. Olsen spent his spring sabbatical preparing a basic manual about health and safety for health workers in Uganda and Kenya so they can pass this information on to their communities. In late spring, he trained 75 people in Gulu and Kampala, Uganda, and Nairobi, Kenya, where grinding poverty and lack of education keep many people in the dark about the most basic health care.
The most basic principles of hygiene, safety, and health are misunderstood. Children wash their hands in the same basin of dirty water. People don't know whether thunder or lightning is a bigger concern. Women with AIDS think it's safe to breast feed their children.
"They're so hungry for information," Dr. Olsen said. "There are so many myths." He gained credibility with his students by proving that he is committed to helping them. "I understand the trust, and that's why I have to go back."
The folks Dr. Olsen trained are staff members for Sports Outreach, a Lynchburg-based organization that uses sports as a tool for its ministry to help some of the most neglected people on earth.
Dr. Olsen, who also happens to be LC's women's head soccer coach, became involved with Sports Outreach in March 2007 when the College was asked to host a soccer extravaganza to raise awareness and solicit donations of athletic equipment primarily for children in war-torn northern Uganda. "Gifts for Gulu" is now an annual event at the College.
When Rodney Suddith, executive director of Sports Outreach, told Dr. Olsen that his background was a perfect fit for his organization's work in Africa, Dr. Olsen could not resist doing more. He traveled to Uganda in June 2007 and spoke to AIDS patients. He visited "brutal, nasty" slums in Nairobi, Kenya.
"It truly changes you," Dr. Olsen said. "You see that taking a stand is important. Sometimes just your presence is enough to give people hope."
Dr. Olsen took three LC students to Africa in June 2008 and one of them, Sara Hardin '10, a nursing major, returned with him again in May. She took the initiative to find a doctor who was telling women with AIDS that it was safe to breast feed for the first six months. She told him that isn't true and then sent him the information to back up her words. Sara also helped teach part of the Community Public Health Curriculum during each training session.
The three-day trainings covered everything from suicide and alcohol consumption (Uganda has the highest rates of both in the world) to nutrition and child birth. At the end of the training, they received certificates of appreciation with the logos of Lynchburg College and Sports Outreach carrying the signatures of LC President Kenneth R. Garren, Sports Outreach founder Russ Carr, along with those of Suddith and Dr. Olsen.
Dr. Olsen said he wants to model service not only to his students, but to his two young children. "It makes you feel pretty good," he said. "I've just sort of fallen in love with people there. They're really terrific people who have had horrific things happen."
