When J-Lynne Brown ’10 was at KSC, she majored in biology with minors in chemistry and Spanish, planning to go on to medical school and someday practice international medicine. But then she got sidetracked—or maybe she got fast-tracked. You decide:
Before she graduated, a friend told her about the Peace Corps and its programs in Public Health. With her background, which includes HIV/AIDS education, and the need she knew existed in several Latin American countries, she knew the Peace Corps was for her. “I wanted a part of this organization!” she said.
Now she’s a community health volunteer in Peru, working in a small Andean village in Ancash. “My district has a total of about 5000 people, but I work mainly in conjunction with a health post that attends to about 2000 people,” J-Lynne explained. She works with community health promoters, with mothers with young children (five years and under), and teenagers. She trains the health promoters to prevent illnesses and disease in their neighborhoods and gives them basic first aid skills so they can assist community members who get sick or injured and can not reach the health post in time.
J-Lynne works with mothers with young children, teaching them about nutrition, hygiene, early stimulation, trash management, and how to grow a small vegetable garden. “The traditional way of cooking is usually over an open fire in the middle of their kitchen, so the families are inhaling lots of smoke that leads to more respiratory infections,” she reported. “With the main project I conduct with the moms, I also give an incentive of an improved cooking stove that uses a stovetop for cooking and a chimney in order to remove the smoke from the kitchen.”
Most of J-Lynne’s work with teenagers involves teaching them about self-esteem, confidence, and healthy sexual practices. “We have a course that we conduct in the schools that train youth peer educators in safe sex practices (including abstinence, fidelity, and the use of condoms). There is a high rate of HIV transmission in most of Peru, but we mostly focus on preventing teenage pregnancies.” Most Peruvian women have their first child when they’re 17 or 18, but sometimes they’re as young as 14.
J-Lynne also works with children in an elementary school, teaching them about nutrition, oral health (how to brush their teeth), washing their hands, some basic English, and some American games. “I also have a project in a technical institute for superior learning in the next town over. We are teaching the students in agrarian sciences about environmental awareness, saving natural resources, and how illnesses can be linked to poor hygiene, worsened by mismanagement of farm animals (feces contaminating the living areas). We are also installing a biodigestor at the institute in order to show how the families can use cow excrement to provide renewable energy (such as biogas and boil).”
Sounds like enough to keep several people busy, right? But not J-Lynne: “I am also part of the Peer Support Network, a program that provides mental/emotional health support and advice to volunteers in the field. I have about 8–9 more months left of my regular service, and time is just flying by. I love my host family that I live with (both parents and five kids, ranging from 5–18 years old), and I love living in my town. Every day is a new adventure (especially during the rainy season, which lasts from about December to early May). … Life really doesn’t get any better!”
If you know J-Lynne, or just appreciate her good work, drop her a line. if you’d like to hear more about her life in Peru, check out her blog. And if you were the admissions officer at a medical school, wouldn’t you fast-track an applicant with her background?