Visiting the doctor’s office is a generally an easy process in which the hardest part for most Americans might be making the appointment fit into their busy schedules or coming up with the insurance co-payment. Our options for health care heavily outweigh those of the majority of people in the world where doctors are not even an option poverty is the only thing consistently on hand and even basic necessities like clean water are unavailable.
Kameron Teal a 2005 Pepperdine alum is a medical student at Ohio State University and decided to become involved with the Ride For World Health. Pepperdine tries to prepare its students for lives not only of purpose and leadership but also those of service. Teal took this tenet of the Pepperdine mission into action when she chose to be the Chief Operating Officer for the 2009 Ride For World Health.
“I thought being involved with this organization would really give
me a chance to hone my leadership and communication skills as well as do something that involves global health Teal said.
Concern about disparities like the issue of lack of universal health care motivated a group of Ohio State medical students to create the Ride for World Health in 2004.
The Ride For World Health, or R4WH, is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the lack of universal access to health care. Though the idea was birthed in 2004, the first ride didn’t take place until 2006. This year marks the third annual cycling and education program.
From April 2 to May 24 Teal will pedal with a group of about 25 medical students over 3,700 miles across the country to raise awareness and funds for beneficiaries. The issues to be addressed center around global health and health care. Teal said she is very interested in helping improve people’s health.
I am fascinated by the human body and love the idea of being able to improve peoples’ health through my hard work and knowledge Teal said. I also like to lead by example so I like to stay in shape and challenge myself which the ride will definitely do.”
The ride will start in San Diego and end in Bethany Beach Delaware stretching from West coast to East coast. PR Director for the 2009 Ride Alissa Gilbert is also a medical student at Ohio State and said she thinks the ride is a great opportunity.
“I’m very interested in global health and I thought being able to help plan this years ride is a great opportunity Gilbert said. You get to meet people who are passionate about the same thing as you and you get to go out and interact with the community about a really important issue.”
Riders pledge to raise $2500. This covers the cost of the ride and leaves a large portion of the money for organizations affiliated with the ride.
This year the two primary groups receiving the proceeds from the Ride are Village Health Works and Esperanca which is a disease prevention and health education program in impoverished communities of more than 14 countries.
The Ride features several large education and lecture event days in major cities including one in Los Angeles on April 3 at USC. This event will feature two key note speakers. Raul Espercueta the president of Esperanca will speak on housing in the developing world. John Rodarte M.D. who is the president of Healing Hearts Across Borders will be addressing issues of development amidst violence and drug cartels.
From the starting date on the riders will each cover between 60 to 70 miles per day and participate in lectures and events.
Gilbert also said she is looking forward to the different events specifically the Los Angeles-based event.
“LA is one of our big Global Health Days Gilbert said, It would be great if Pepperdine students wanted to come out and get more information about what we’re doing.”
Teal said she is really looking forward to both the physical and educational parts of the ride.
“I’ve done some education before so I’m excited for that aspect of it Teal said. This is such an important matter I think it is important to spread the word people can’t change things they don’t know about.”___
To support Kameron specifically for her ride visit www.rideforworldhealth.org/theriders/kteal.html