International Health Initiatives

BY ALISON HOLLENBECK - The South Florida doctor had stumbled almost by accident upon the rural African village with its dirt roads and its mud houses topped with palm frond roofs during a vacation with his family in December 2005.

Dr. Bill Kirsh would soon discover the Tafi Atome village in Ghana was the ideal setting for the ambitious plans he shared with Dr. Cyril Blavo, a Nova Southeastern University medical school professor.

The two friends had long hoped to bring healthcare to underserved communities in the United States and abroad. With the formation of International Health Initiatives Inc., a nonprofit organization, they were prepared to embark on their first project.

The humanitarian task would be daunting. Tafi Atome villagers routinely died from preventable and treatable diseases like diarrhea and malaria.

Tetanus, a rarity in developed countries, killed mothers and infants during childbirth.

With no doctors or pharmacies for miles, the village relied on traditional herbal medicine.

A British woman had recognized the crisis -- and tried to help. But her effort to build a local clinic failed, with only the building's incomplete foundation left as a reminder.

For Kirsh and Blavo, Tafi Atome represented an opportunity to finally make a dream -- on hold for 20 years -- a reality.

The duo first discussed their hopes to export healthcare to needy populations around the globe two decades ago when they met at the Broward County Family Health Center.

''At that time, Cyril had a dream of putting together an organization that would promote international health and combine international health with a lot of public health programs,'' Kirsh said. 'I said to Cyril, `When you get ready to do this, I want to play.' ''

Both were young doctors from different worlds. Kirsh, a Texas native who was raised in Miami Beach, studied medicine at Nova Southeastern University.

Blavo, the son of a United Nations diplomat who was born and raised in Ghana, came to America to go to college and become a doctor.

Years passed as the two men worked to establish themselves in the field of medicine in South Florida.

HARD WORK

Kirsh dedicated himself to a family practice and in geriatrics, while forming and running a variety of organizations.

He vaulted to positions as executive director, chief medical officer and CEO at several companies in the health industry, while continuing to practice. Today, he heads the preventive care program at Mercy Hospital in Miami.

Blavo moved around often as a child because his father worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. His father was part of the UNHCR team that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1981.

He attended high school in England and moved to Texas in 1975 to attend college. He completed his studies in medicine at the University of North Texas and obtained a graduate degree in tropical medicine at Tulane University.

He came to South Florida in 1988, joining the faculty at what is now Nova Southeastern University's medical school. He was recently awarded a lifetime achievement award as a teacher.

But through these successes, Blavo's childhood in Ghana stayed with him. He made occasional trips to the country to undertake minor projects, but he always pined to do more for his homeland. ''Growing up, I saw people in villages who did not have the kind of opportunities that I did,'' he said.

Kirsh and Blavo's plans to help communities abroad began to take shape in 2005 when they, with several other local doctors and activists, formed International Health Initiatives. They started with small projects, like sending money to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

But they yearned to go international. That's when they came across the village in Tafi Atome, where they found the perfect project: completing the unfinished clinic.

The plan: IHI would buy the materials, the villagers would build it. That strategy would become the organization's philosophy.

''You don't want to go there and do things for them,'' Blavo said. ``You want to help them do it themselves.''

The hope is that through building the clinic, the locals establish a stake in the project and take pride in it.

Six months and $10,000 later, the seven-room clinic was finished.

But Kirsh and Blavo would soon learn a lesson -- places like Tafi Atome need more than bricks and mortar.

Built in part to lure public health nurses and international organizations, the clinic has yet to be used since its completion in September 2006. But Blavo plans to add a pharmacy -- the first in the area -- and a full-time staff.

SAVING LIVES

Despite the challenges, the organization has pushed forward with other efforts to save lives in the impoverished region.

When the Ghanaian government began to develop a campaign to vaccinate women against tetanus to stop them from dying in childbirth, Tafi Atome and the four surrounding villages were not part of the plan.

So IHI decided to step in, work with the government and bring the area the vaccinations.

Tetanus was the number one killer of women during childbirth in Ghananian villages like Tafi Atome.

It is usually contracted through the contamination of a wound. Contracting tetanus during childbirth rarely -- if ever -- occurs in developed countries.

But in Tafi Atome, women are susceptible to the disease during childbirth because the unsanitary conditions make it easy for the resilient bacteria to infect wounds.

''In a place with no healthcare, you get something like that -- you die,'' Blavo said.

Delali Blavo, Cyril Blavo's niece and a first-year medical student at Nova Southeastern University, coordinated the campaign with another student, working with the Ghanaian government.

In December, 1,170 women in Tafi Atome and four nearby villages were vaccinated against tetanus.

''We hope the impact of this project is that we are going to save generations,'' Cyril Blavo said. ``These woman are the ones who are going to give birth to the next generation.''

The project cost $2,500 -- a little more than $2 a person.

''It's really, really exciting to be able to look at a population and be able to help them achieve minimal healthcare standards that are very achievable through little dollars and action,'' Kirsh said. ``You just don't get a chance to do that in the United States.''

LOCAL EDUCATION

That's not to say the organization doesn't work locally. For example, IHI is organizing education seminars for children to teach them about different health issues, Blavo said.

Minor efforts can make huge differences in a place like those villages in eastern Ghana, Blavo said. Proper nutrition, basic sanitation and even taking vitamins can be the difference between health and sickness, life and death.

''Things that you and I take for granted here will have a major impact there,'' he said. ``It is endless work you can do for them.''