Kevin Fiori, MPH '03, Brings Hope to Togo, 5 Years after Launching Non-Profit
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- Published on Wednesday, 12 August 2009 11:56
Some Peace Corps volunteers make their mark in the world and then move on.
Boston University School of Public Health alumnus Kevin Fiori Jr. has moved on from the Peace Corps to make his mark in the world.
Fiori joined the Peace Corps in 2003 to learn more about infectious diseases and the other health problems he had studied at BUSPH. Assigned to Togo, West Africa, he spent three years scrambling to try to help people with HIV and AIDS, in a country with limited resources and little international clout.
"The need for services was just immense," said Fiori, who earned his master's degree in public health, with a concentration in epidemiology, in 2003. "The poverty in Togo is overwhelming. The people who were trying to help were working without a safety net."
Among the people Fiori met were the founders of Association Espoir Pour Demain-Lidaw (AED), a local association of people living with HIV and AIDS, which had received a grant to open a health clinic in the Kara region of Togo. Fiori forged a relationship with the group, which lacked resources to staff and furnish the clinic.
Inspired by AED's mission to provide services and outreach to people infected with HIV and AIDS, Fiori began exploring ways to bring financial and technical support to the group. In 2004, after consulting with Peace Corps colleagues, BUSPH contacts and his family members, he decided to form his own non-profit agency, Hope Through Health, to assist AED in establishing a community-based program in Togo.
"They were trying to do really courageous work, but they didn't have the resources or the technical support," Fiori recalled. "I saw the need and just realized, hey, maybe I can do something to help."
In the five years since its founding, Hope Through Health has flourished in Togo, growing from an agency serving 100 patients to one that serves more than 1,400 patients. The group now manages three satellite clinics, in addition to the original clinic in Kara, and coordinates 90 Togolese staff members, as well as a network of volunteers throughout the U.S.
Through its collaboration with AED, Hope Through Health provides comprehensive medical care and outreach to people living with HIV and AIDS, employing medical staff, community health workers and counselors, many of whom themselves live with HIV. The program provides anti-retroviral treatment, other medications and nutritional assistance, as well as free HIV testing for children and adults. Hope Through Health and AED also offer counseling and prophylactic medications to reduce the transmission of HIV from mother to child.
Fiori said he has been awed by how quickly the agency has grown, given its modest start. He had recruited his brother, Thomas Fiori, his aunt, Dawn Fiori, and other family members to help him launch the venture.
His parents, Debi and Kevin Fiori Sr., provided the initial funding to purchase medications for AED clients living with HIV/AIDS, and they continue to provide financial support. Fiori's wife, Jennifer Schechter, whom he met during his Peace Corps service, joined Hope Through Health in 2005 and now serves as its executive director.
"There wouldn't be a Hope Through Health without my family and friends," said Fiori, who was born and raised in California and has extended family in the Boston area. "They're either inspired or guilt-tripped or both."
Hope Through Health raises money from foundations and through a grassroots network of volunteers, organized into six chapters - in New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Washington, DC, and Denver. In 2008, the group raised $250,000 for AED.
Fiori said that more than half of the agency's staff members in Togo are patients living with HIV. The antiretroviral program hires and trains patients to serve as accompagnateurs who conduct home visits and provide monitoring and support to ensure that patients are taking drug regimens correctly.
"We're trying to get people healthy and then get them involved in providing services," he said.
Hope Through Health also helps AED organize an annual camp and other activities for children orphaned by AIDS or who are HIV-positive.
Togo, a small country bordering Ghana, has seen HIV and AIDS spread at an alarming rate, but has had limited success in attracting help from the international community - until recently. In July 2009, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria signed an agreement with Togo's Ministry of Health, worth more than $20 million, to scale-up treatment and care for people living with HIV and AIDS.
Fiori has reached back to BUSPH by inviting several MPH students to complete their practicum working with his agency. Last summer, student Ashley Thompson helped with an evaluation of the accompagnateurs program. In her practicum report, Thompson said she was "pleasantly surprised by what AED and HTH have put together, especially in a region where no other group is actively conducting this kind of work. My practicum experience was educational, thought-provoking, joyous, depressing, frustrating and inspirational, all at the same time."
Fiori started medical school last year at the University of Washington. He said his experience working in Togo fueled his desire "to have a clinical skill-set to be able to better address some of the problems." He continues to help oversee Hope Through Health as the group's associate director.
He said that while running a non-profit is demanding, he is grateful that his path in public health led him to AED in Togo.
"I didn't think this would grow to be as big as it is now," Fiori said. "We thought we were going to stay relatively small. But in Togo, it's like this group has started a movement...
"What it shows is that a small group of individuals can really have an impact. I feel fortunate to be a part of that."
More information on Hope Through Health is available online.
Submitted by Lisa Chedekel
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