For Kevin Fiori, three years in Togo was not enough.
After UCSD, he completed a master’s degree in public health
at Boston University and then decided he wanted to learn about
infectious diseases in West Africa. He got the opportunity for
hands-on experience when he joined the Peace Corps and they sent
him to Togo, bordering on Ghana to the west, Burkina Faso to the
north, and Benin to the east.
For the three years of his service, working mostly with HIV/AIDS
victims, Fiori’s10-hour days would start at 6 a.m. in the
clinic and include home visits, youth programs and fieldwork with
health workers.
After his Peace Corps service ended, Fiori decided to continue
his work in the area, and he and his brother, Thomas Fiori, a UC
Berkeley alumnus, ’03, founded Hope Through Health, a nonprofit
development project. “After three years,” Fiori says, “I
was just starting to realize how ignorant I was regarding the terrible
situation of millions.”
Hope Through Health provides technical and financial support for
community health initiatives in resource-deprived areas, with a
focus on HIV/AIDS support for the over 1,000 patients in Kara.
The project also develops innovative approaches to break down cultural
barriers. They have weeklong camps for AIDS orphans and vulnerable
children, which encourage skill building and offer support and
social opportunities. Most importantly, they provide free treatment
(with a one-dollar monthly contribution) in order to promote early
detection of the HIV virus.
“The poverty in Togo is overwhelming,” Fiori says. “It
is a life-changing moment to see how people living in the same
world can also live in completely different realities.”
Within five years, Fiori hopes to expand Hope Through Health to
at least one additional West African nation and plans to continue
his community work while working on his M.D. and Ph.D. in medical
or sociocultural anthropology. And he says he is particularly grateful
for UCSD professors Jay Siegel, Andrew McCammon and Willie Brown
for teaching him valuable research skills, giving him a new perspective
on the world and continuing to support and encourage him in his
projects.
—
Neda Oreizy, ’08
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