So here they are, THE FINAL NUMBERS… DRUMMMMM ROLLLLLLL, please! 45: Number of miles Steph and Coral ran around Mt Hood 11,250: Mt Hood’s total elevation 8,000: Feet of elevation gain on Steph and Coral’s route 3: Number of toenails lost 13.5: Hours it took to run 45 miles 47: Number of Kekeli women (current…
Read More
Guess what…I’m going to Ghana, Again!
T-minus 14 days until Olivia and I depart for Akatsi, Ghana. This will be my sixth trip with RHC. I have had the privilege to teach and connect with the amazing Kekeli women every year since the start of the organization in 2010. And although it takes 20+ hours to reach West Africa, each time…
Read More
Olivia Teaches…and Smiles!
In addition to my duties at the health clinic assessing and treating patients, I had come to Ghana to teach. To share health skills and life skills for women to improve the quality of life in the communities they lived in. The day had finally arrived, after two months of preparation and we set out…
Read More
Olivia in the Clinic
We traveled through the countryside on one of our outings for me to see the villages and assess for high blood pressure. We bumped along on the dusty dirt roads that are reshaped each year by the rains and only passable during the dry season. Deep ruts paralleled each side where the unfettered rain had…
Read More
Olivia Experiences the Village
On my first full day in the village I cleaned my face with wet wipes because I wasn’t sure how to get water. I had begun to worry that I would not have enough of these to last me so I had started breaking them in half and stuffing the remainder back into the packet,…
Read More
Olivia Goes to Ghana
In the summer of 2007, after graduating from nursing school, Olivia went to Ghana for the first time. She volunteered at a clinic, in a village called Seva, in rural Ghana. Anyone who knows her, or knew her then, knows that this was a difficult three months for her. She recently wrote an essay about…
Read More
Universal #ChildrensDay
Children’s Day was proclaimed by the United Nations in 1954 in order to initiate action and promote children’s welfare on a global scale. There is a lot to be said about how far we’ve come over the years to bring about better conditions for children. UNICEF Executive Director, Anthony Lake, stated in a press release…
Read More
You’re “Ghana” wanna read this!
I just returned from my fifth trip to Akatsi, Ghana, and yes, I’m still wearing this fantastic leisure suit I had made. Anyhoooo, the Kekeli Program is 5 years in and so am I. I remember my first visit to Akatsi like it was yesterday. I stepped off the plane into the thick summer air,…
Read More
Words from Akatsi
We’ve been here a little over a week, and we have a handful of days left in Akatsi, Ghana. Time in Africa is strange. This is our fourth trip, and we are beginning to get used to the shift in pace. Time moves forward, but periodically pauses and holds still for a second longer than…
Read More
Portland Fundraiser- Great Success! Get ready for the SD fundraiser!
On Friday, November 30th, the Rural Health Collaborative hosted our second annual Portland fundraiser and it was a great success! We would like to thank everyone who took the time to be a part of it. Over 50 people were in attendance and in high spirits. The biggest prizes included a home-cooked Puerto-Rican dinner for 6…
Read More