Purdue student takes Project HEART to Ethiopia
August 15, 2012
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Purdue student Milad Alucozai
(right) stands with Jared Moon (left), a University of Iowa graduate who worked
a summer internship at Purdue, and the managing director of the Chechela Higher
Clinic in Ababa, Ethiopia. Alucozai and Moon traveled to Ethiopia in June for Project
HEART (Health, Education and Agriculture for Regional Transformation), which
they co-founded. (Photo provided) |
For many Purdue students, the summer break can mean making money at a part-time job, gaining real-world experience through an internship or simply recharging the gray matter. Milad Alucozai, a globetrotting junior majoring in brain and behavioral sciences, found his heart, perhaps his mission, in Africa.
After co-founding Project HEART (Health, Education and Agriculture for Regional Transformation) with a couple of his lab mates from Purdue's Center for Paralysis Research, Alucozai and Jared Moon traveled to Ethiopia in June to investigate the collaborative possibilities with various medical clinics and the University of Gondar. Moon, a University of Iowa graduate who worked a summer internship at Purdue, is staying in Ethiopia a little longer to immerse himself further in the community. He'll begin medical studies at Cornell University in a year.
Abeje Ambaw, a native of Gondar who earned his PhD neuroscience in August, is the third partner in Project HEART, which was recognized as a featured project in the "poverty alleviation" category at the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIUA) Conference in Washington, D.C., in April.
Though the CGIU recognition provided the team with some expert resources, Alucozai and Moon toured Ethiopia on a shoestring budget.
"We spent a lot of time just walking around," says Alucozai of the adventurous fact-finding trip. "The gaps between the poor and the rich are very extreme. There's really no middle class over there. Without a tour guide or a Range Rover we got to see what life was like for a typical Ethiopian."
Alucozai and Moon shadowed managing directors and physicians at various clinics, which revealed, among other shortages, a severe lack of adequate blood-pressure monitoring devices. He says the University of Gondar's president and deans from several of its colleges also expressed interest in working with Purdue faculty and students.
"We wanted to familiarize ourselves with the community and culture in Gondar to see if there were any holes we could fill with Project HEART initiatives," says Alucozai, who hopes to head back to Ethiopia with some working prototypes of technology to share on his next break from school.
To learn more about Alucozai and his global outlook, go to:
* Three Touched by War (Life 360)
* Without Boundaries (Life 360)
* Milad's Mission (Purdue Alumnus)
