Do you dream of adventure, a new challenge, a new perspective?
Do you wonder whether other places and people half a world away have any similarity to the places and people in our hometown?
We have a hometown hero who felt the pull of these things and acted on her passion by moving to Shinyanga, Tanzania, to practice medicine at an understaffed, underequipped, and underfunded regional hospital.
Dr. Kayla Griffith was born and raised in Warren County. Many of you know her and many more have read about her mission of mercy in Africa in prior issues of this newspaper. Now, we all have an opportunity to see and hear about her experiences at an evening with Dr. Griffith and an exhibition of her breathtaking photographs this Saturday, April 20, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Magness Library.
During the event, our community will not only have an opportunity to view Dr. Griffith’s photographs, beautifully mounted on canvas, but also to hear about her transformative time in Africa.
Shinyanga is an agricultural region with no tourist trade. While in Shinyanga, Dr. Griffith was the only surgeon at a 300-bed local hospital serving a region of 150 million people and a central city of 150,000. The hospital had one operating room with a burned-out OR light and pipes that frequently had no running water.
The African doctors she worked with had training that consisted of only three months of rotation in obstetrics, pediatrics, internal medicine, and surgery. Dr. Griffith quickly realized the best way to advance medical care in Shinyanga is to advance the training of the local doctors, but advanced training is expensive.
The Rotary Club of McMinnville is very pleased to have assisted Dr. Griffith this past year in paying the tuition for one of her Tanzanian colleagues, Dr. Emmanuel Ngadaya, to advance his training in obstetrics/ gynecology. He still has two years to go in the program at a cost of $2,759 per year.
All proceeds from ticket sales to the event April 20 will go to fund Dr. Ngadaya’s continued education. Dr. Griffith’s photographs will also be available for purchase with all proceeds going to fund Dr. Griffith’s #KiliForACause Project to continue the education of more local Tanzanian physicians.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students. Tickets may be purchased at the library, from Sherry Griffith (Kayla’s proud mom) or any of the employees at Citizen’s Tri-County Bank, or from any noon Rotarian.
Donations may also be made at Citizen’s Tri-County Bank and samples of Dr. Griffith’s photography will be on display in the Main Street lobby.
