Main description:

In 2006, Kwan Kew Lai left her full-time position as a professor in the United States to provide medical humanitarian aid to the remote villages and the war-torn areas of Africa. This memoir follows her experiences from 2006 to 2013 as she provided care during the HIV/AIDs epidemics, after natural disasters, and as a relief doctor in refugee camps in Kenya, Libya, Uganda and in South Sudan, where civil war virtually wiped out all existing healthcare facilities.

Throughout her memoir, Lai recounts intimate encounters with refugees and internally displaced people in camps and in hospitals with limited resources, telling tales of their resilience, unflinching courage, and survival through extreme hardship. Her writing provides insight into communities and transports readers to heart-achingly beautiful parts of Africa not frequented by the usual travelers. This is a deeply personal account of the huge disparities in the healthcare system of our "global village" and is a call to action for readers to understand the interconnectedness of the modern world, the needs of less developed neighbors, and the shortcomings of their healthcare systems.

Contents:

Acknowledgments viii
List of Abbreviations ix
Preface 1
Introduction: 2005, The South Asian Tsunami, My First Mission in
Medical Volunteering 5
Part I-HIV/AIDS Epidemic and
Medical Care in Africa, 2006-2013
1. Tanzania: 2006, Mentoring in Rural Mtwara with the Clinton
HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) 12
2. Uganda: 2006, Teaching at the Infectious Disease Institute, Makerere
University in Kampala, Uganda 37
3. Kenya: Following the 2007 Presidential Election 46
4. South Africa: 2009 63
5. Nigeria: 2009 81
6. Malawi: 2013, My First Mission with Medecins Sans Frontieres 98
Part II-Medical Care for Internally Displaced People and Refugees in Africa, 2011-2013
7. Back to Uganda: 2011, The Nakivale Refugee Camp 142
8. Libya: 2011, Arab Spring 154
9. Kenya: 2011, The Drought and Famine of the Horn of Africa 170
10. Uganda: 2012, The Nyakabande Transit Refugee Camp for the
Democratic Republic of Congo 185
11. Unity State, South Sudan: 2013, Providing Medical Care after the Civil War 200
Afterword-Non Ministrari sed Ministrare 225
Chapter Notes 229
Bibliography 237
Index 245