Sept. 15, 2017
By: Margaret Hurt
Megan Rauh, junior on the Auburn equestrian team and an exercise science major, is aiming to become a physician's assistant, and this past summer chose a life-changing way to earn some of the patient care hours that programs require applicants to have.
In July, Rauh traveled with a team of volunteers and medical staff she found through her church to Haiti, and spent a week providing Haitians with medicine and treatment.
The weeklong trip began with Rauh and the team organizing and packing medicine that would be given to patients. Each package contained a 30-day supply of medication that was intended to fulfill the needs of patients until the next team arrived with more ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" which in this case for most villages was two months later in September.
Rauh stayed at Nehemiah Vision Ministry in Chambrun, Haiti, and from there traveled to different villages with the team setting up stations. The team would see 75 patients a day who would pay the equivalent of 30 U.S. cents in exchange for a ticket that would get them an appointment and medicine.
"A big thing in Haiti is not giving handouts but giving what they call handups," Rauh said. "So they're still accountable for paying and it makes them feel like the mom is doing something because she sold this thing ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" whatever she made to sell ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" and she can pay for this appointment for her kids."
Rauh herself took patients blood pressure, talked to them about their medical issues through a translator, and would weigh children under the age of 13. The most common ailments Rauh saw in patients were intestinal issues, because of the lack of access to clean water or proper hygiene, and overall malnourishment.
"What would be easy for us ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" we can take a shower, we can wash our hands before we eat, we have food, we have clean water, we have all of these things ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" you don't think about that other people don't have that," Rauh said.
Most of the homes that Rauh saw were composed of tree branches and tarps in villages where oftentimes the local church was the nicest structure they had.
The most eye-opening experiences for Rauh were when she mistook a six-year-old boy for a toddler because malnourishment had caused the child's growth to stop, and when a six-month-old baby she weighed was only four pounds.
Despite the conditions the Haitians Rauh met live in, she was surprised to see the amount of joy and thankfulness that they showed.
"Everyone was so thankful there," Rauh said. "It was absolutely crazy how they were thankful for the one piece of bread that they may have that day."
Rauh's time in Haiti solidified her plan to dedicate her career to helping people through medicine and care, and she now sponsors a four-year-old child in Haiti, providing him with free medical care, schooling and a meal a day. Though she plans to work in the U.S., Rauh hopes to return to Haiti in the future.
"It really solidified that I do want to go into medicine because I want to help people and I want to work with patients," Rauh said. "I will 100 percent go back, I'm already looking at next years trip."