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From left to right, Yemi Smith, Sherrita Toler, Lucille Tyler and LaKisha Williams, with some of the 500 pairs of shoes they collected. |
As part of the 2003 Nebraskan African American HIV/AIDS Awareness and Education Day, on Feb. 6, members of the Student National Medical Society (SNMA) at UNMC launched “Shoes for a Thousand Feet in Ghana.” The drive resulted in 500 pairs of shoes in new and good condition, which will be sent to the NekoTech Educational Center in Tema, Ghana, West Africa, and distributed to children and adults.
SNMA is a division of the National Medical Association, the largest and oldest African American-founded medical association in the United States. There are 150 student chapters in the United States with more than 5,000 minority medical student members.
Commitment to Ghana
In the summer of 2002, the national SNMA body began a three-year commitment to send a medical mission to work with AIDS patients and families in Ghana, West Africa. The American medical delegation included almost 30 physicians, nurses and medical/health science students. The NekoTech Center is a staging point for the medical mission. Before the Americans departed for Ghana, they held a shoe collection drive and took 500 pairs of new and used shoes for orphans who have lost parents to AIDS and for adult AIDS patients. UNMC’s students matched that collection.
Many thanks
“We are especially proud that most of the shoes our chapter collected came from campus donations, ” said Yemi Smith, SNMA president. “Students, faculty and staff on this campus have been very supportive of SNMA.”
She also thanked Tina Watson-Deberry, community health specialist at the Nebraska Health Connection; Curt Simon, senior director of operations at the Metro Area Transit headquarters; Jackie Cooke, HIV/AIDS prevention specialist at the Charles Drew Health Center; and staff at the Douglas County Drug Court, for collecting shoes. The drive used more than a dozen colorfully decorated collection boxes designed by high school students in the UNMC Community Academy program.
Helping others near, far
“The AIDS catastrophe on the African continent can be mind-numbing when we read of the millions who have died or the more than 10 million children who have lost one or both parents to the disease,” Smith said. “It would be easy for people to feel a sense of hopelessness and a feeling that there’s nothing they can do. Sending 500 pairs of shoes to Ghana won’t stop the plague, but when SNMA delegates returned from Ghana last year, they spoke of how much a simple pair of decent shoes meant to someone who was barefoot. The shoe drive also is a reminder that each of us can do something to assist people living with AIDS, whether right here in Nebraska or across the globe.”
About SNMA
SNMA was chartered nationally in 1964 as a non-profit organization whose major concerns are to address issues of importance to current minority medical students, improve health care delivery to underrepresented communities, and to provide assistance to undergraduate minority students in their pursuit of a medical degree. Members share interest in four areas: leadership development, social awareness, service to humanity and excellence as physicians.
Education conference
Members of UNMC’s SNMA now are preparing for the 38th Annual Medical Education Conference and are seeking additional community support. The conference theme for 2003 is “Mind, Body, and Soul: The Role of Mental Health in Physical Well-Being.” The conference will be April 17-20 in Washington, D.C. In past years, the UNMC chapter SNMA has sent two to six students to the conference, usually with the help of donated financial assistance.
For more information
For more information on SNMA or how to make a contribution, contact Diane Strnad at 559-7493 or LaKisha Williams at lakwilli@hotmail.com.