Lionberger's Not-for-Profit Takes Root in Mexico Senior Founds 'Bridge to Community Health,' Combats Malnutrition Abroad

Author: Julie Samara Staff Writer

Inch by inch, row by row, Anne Lionberger '02 has planted the seeds for a growing non-profit organization called Puente a la Salud Comunitaria, or Bridge to Community Health. Building upon extensive experience in the study of public health acquired in both Latin America and the United States, Lionberger has created an international service organization with a "viable future" which bridges back to the Middlebury community.

The mission of Bridge to Community Health is "to foster community specific development and gender equality by empowering women to act as local health promoters and establishing relationships among and between communities, grassroots organizations and institutions, said Lionberger" Through this organization Lionberger, along with friend Tess Bridgeman of Stanford University, hopes to provide tangible solutions to community health concerns, primarily the critical lack of folic acid consumed by the women of Oaxaca, Mexico.

In the summer of 1999, Lionberger and Bridgeman worked in Oaxaca as project supervisors with Amigos de las Americas, a non-profit, volunteer-based public health organization. Lionberger's work with Oaxacan women, along with an internship at the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago that summer, initially made her aware of the importance of folic acid and provided the original impetus for Bridge to Community Health.

Folate is an essential nutrient in protecting against ovarian and uterine cancers and in reducing the chances of neural tube defects in newborns, according to the Food and Druge Administration. This B vitamin, of which folic acid is the synthetic form, can be found in fruits, dark green leafy vegetables and fortified grains. Women need plenty of folic acid throughout their childbearing years, particularly during the first stages of pregnancy.

Folic acid has only recently become a buzzword in American medicine thanks to the promotional efforts of organizations such as the March of Dimes. Whereas the Chicago clinic where Lionberger worked two years ago was actively promoting folic acid, specifically targeting Hispanic women due to the comparative lack of this vitamin in their diet, Lionberger realized that nothing was being done to educate the women of Oaxaca, where neural tube birth defects are prevalent and women's access to medicine is often limited.

Returning to Oaxaca last summer, Lionberger and Bridgeman conducted a study among Oaxacan women on "the use and knowledge of folic acid" with permission from the government. Interviews with women and health providers in different communities formed the basis for an article on the health benefits of folic acid published in Las Noticas, a widely circulated Oaxacan newspaper. The Oaxacan government, in response to their article, has recently taken new initiatives to promote folic acid and increase the supplies of community health providers. Oaxacan health officials also invited Lionberger and Bridgeman to continue their research in the summer of 2002. For Lionberger, the government's positive reaction to their pilot study shows that "this organization really seems to work" and denotes a promising future for later initiatives.

Bridge to Community Health, according to Lionberger, aims to tackle broad social issues "at the root of the problem" by setting up feasible solutions through education and local programs, then leaving communities to continue these initiatives on their own. "We didn't want to perpetuate a cycle of dependency by being the 'imperialist white girls' and setting up camp," Lionberger remarked. "Mexican women are aware of their oppression and want to do something about it."

Last summer, Lionberger discovered that amaranth, a grain indigenous to Oaxaca, provides one such solution to the lack of folic acid in the Oaxacan diet and a way for women to act as "health promoters" in their communities. Containing folic acid as well as protein and fiber, amaranth grows well in Oaxacan soil and facilitates recipes for easy, inexpensive meals.

All of these benefits made Lionberger and Bridgeman decide to "incorporate the cultivation and use of amaranth as an alternative solution." Their educational program therefore included family gardens and cooking demonstrations with amaranth. Amaranth is used in granola (Proctor's Quaker brand, for example), traditional dishes such as tortillas and empanadas, and even in candy bars and breakfast drinks.

In addition to hands-on community work, Lionberger wants "to address the issue of folic acid deficiency through the broader lens of social injustices that contribute to this and other public health concerns," a goal at the base of Bridge to Community Health and also the objective of Lionberger's senior project in geography. Middlebury has facilitated both the academic and logistic aspects of Lionberger's project in a number of ways, including grants for summer research. Middlebury students have also shown a great deal of interest in Lionberger's organization, which now boasts an expanding base of volunteers and supporters at the College. An on-campus fundraising event in association with Wonnacott Commons is in the works, for example, as well as a Winter Term workshop on the emerging role of non-profit organizations.

Lionberger is particularly grateful for the individual efforts through which her non-profit organization is developing. Katie Wargo '02 has been essential in coordinating all on-campus activities in association with Bridge to Community Health, and Leroy Nesbitt, senior advisor for Institutional Diversity, is doing all of the incorporation work for Lionberger's organization, just to name a few.

"My faith in Middlebury has expanded exponentially as a result of this project," Lionberger commented. She is excited to return to Oaxaca next summer to continue researching and working in communities, with the help of Amigos de las Americas and other programs.

"I've never worked so hard in my life," Lionberger said of her experience in Oaxaca, "but I've also never accomplished so much." Given the remarkable connections Lionberger has already cultivated in the field of international medicine before graduating, Bridge to Community Health is a thriving organization with a promising future.