The similarities between Maine and Uganda

Thousands of miles and an entire Atlantic Ocean separate Greenville, Maine, from Uganda, Africa. On the surface, it would appear that everything about the two places is different from one another; the skin color of the people, the language they speak, their history, the food they eat, the houses they live in, how they travel to work, even the way they laugh, sing and dance. How can two places so far apart, with people and cultures so dramatically different be similar to one another? I never truly understood the answer to this question until I traveled to Uganda this past January to volunteer for the Soft Power Health Clinic in Kyabirwa Village, Uganda.

Greenville may lie on the shores of Moosehead Lake and the village I lived in while in Africa may lie near the shores of Uganda’s massive Lake Victoria, but during my two week stay I learned that distance and differences are no match for the fundamental qualities shared between both places. Growing up in Greenville I have spent a fair amount of time at Charles A. Dean Memorial Hospital as both a patient and an EMT.

What I have seen in our local hospital is what I saw in the small clinic built on bright red African soil. In the examination room at C.A. Dean I saw a parent look at their sick or injured child with a simultaneous jumble of pain, worry and immense affection. In the eyes of a parent in Uganda I saw identical emotions as their gaze falls on their child lying in a hospital bed. I learned that on one side of the ocean a parent tenderly places a hand on their child’s feverish forehead in the same manner as on the other side.

We overestimate the extent to which cultural differences and geographical boundaries separate us. As Uganda and much of Africa struggle with a catastrophic fight against malaria, I urge you to remember there is no distinction between the pain and suffering of those in Africa and our own. Malaria is a preventable disease caused when a mosquito bites a human, injecting a parasite into the body that briskly invades and destroys red blood cells.

In Africa, approximately 3,000 children’s lives are lost to malaria each day, which swells to between 1 million and 3 million malaria deaths per year. Malaria is effectively prevented by sleeping under insecticide-treated mosquito nets. Financial and logistical challenges prevent these life-saving nets from falling into the possession of people who need them. Nonprofit organizations such as Nothing But Nets are making crucial strides in net distribution with the help of small donations. To us $10 is a night at the movies, or a sandwich and a soda at the pizza place downtown.

The lives of up to two people can be saved by $10, which covers the cost of manufacturing, shipping and distributing one net. A mosquito net also saves lives by saving families large sums of money they would normally be spending on medical treatment; money that can be dedicated towards food and education for their children. Malaria is a devastating epidemic, but fortunately it is one that can be eased by simple actions on an individual level.

Africa’s poverty crisis cannot improve until the health of its people improves. An adult stricken with malaria or one that spends all day hunched over the hospital bed that holds their ill child cannot work in order support their household, let alone make a contribution to their country and economy. In today’s world we become fixated on terror threats and security without addressing the fact that terrorists arise out of the world’s most impoverished regions. Disease and poverty affect us all and the effects of poverty know no boundaries.

To say there is nothing that can be done at an individual level and to dwell on the distance between us, is to ignore the connection we all share: our humanness. You can help narrow the gap between Maine and Africa by visiting nothingbutnets.net or softpowerhealth.org.

Elizabeth Connelly of Greenville is a senior at the University of Maine at Farmington.