Last March, Dr. Bill Fridinger was among the medical volunteers who journeyed to Kaberamaido to treat the children at the orphanage and other people in need of medical care.  He was compelled by what he saw to continue his involvement with the Asayo's Wish Foundation.  “The poverty, deprivation, diseases, and general brutality of life are overwhelming,” he wrote.

Dr. Bill was unable to make it to Kaberamaido this trip, but his son Robert Fridinger accompanied the Asayo’s Wish Foundation there.  Robert is a graduate student pursuing a Master’s in Biology at the University of Alaska Anchorage.  His medical background is limited to what his father exposed him to as an emergency room physician, but he has been trained to screen the children for diseases in close consultation with local physician Dr. Oscar, local nurse Teddy, and Dr. Bill.

Robert is checking the children at the orphanage for malaria and schistosomiasis, two common and easily-curable diseases.  “[The screening] is for my Dad’s information for future trips and for helping Sarah Asayo design some of the plans for the orphanage to try to keep kids away from the diseases and to treat them,” Robert said.  He is also working with the local medical staff to treat children who are found to be sick.

Robert brought more than 200 pounds of medical supplies, including a variety of drugs, a wheelchair, and a suitcase full of eyeglasses.

“I have my entire carry-on packed with glasses,” he said before departing to Kaberamaido.  “All my clothes and everything I’m bringing for myself are stuffed in the pocket of my carry-on.”

This is Robert’s first trip to Kaberamaido.  “I’ve always been interested in doing this kind of thing, but it’s a lot easier to talk about and a lot harder to actually do,” he said.

Findings

Dr. Bill has been in close contact with Robert.  “On the medical front things are going very well,” Dr. Bill wrote of the medical screening so far.

It’s not all good news.  Two three-year-old twins at the orphanage have been suffering acute malaria attacks nearly every two weeks.  The locally-available malaria drugs are not stopping these attacks, so Robert is giving the twins some of the anti-malaria pills that he takes to prevent contracting malaria himself.  In addition to preventing malaria, these drugs have a 98.7 percent cure rate, according to Dr. Bill.  “These kids have at least a 20 percent chance that one of them will die before age five of malaria if they aren’t successfully treated,” Dr. Bill wrote.

Robert is also taking measures to prevent more kids from contracting malaria.  He is spraying walls and mosquito nets with a powerful insecticide to prevent the children from being bitten by mosquitoes, which transmit malaria between people.

The screening has left Dr. Bill with the belief that most of the children are in good health.  Robert has been conducting hemoglobin tests to determine which children are anemic, and only one of the children has a significantly low red blood cell count.  “[That] is amazing considering that on average 20 percent of African kids have severe anemia,” Dr. Bill wrote.

And none of the children have been found to have the parasite schistosomiasis, “which is another big surprise!” Dr. Bill wrote.  “These kids are turning out much healthier than I expected,” he concluded.