A group of physical therapy students is exemplifying what it means to be men and women for others by sharing their knowledge with the global community.

Sixteen graduate students in their fifth year of physical therapy school at Saint Louis University volunteered to create public health posters that will hang in a clinic in Ekori, a village in southern Nigeria. The project was spearheaded by Janet Oberle, SLU assistant director of Athletics for Sport Administration and Compliance, who will deliver the posters to Ekori this March.

Oberle’s involvement in Ekori began a few years ago when a friend from college, who had previously traveled to Nigeria with Doctors Without Borders, asked Oberle to accompany her on a trip to Ekori. There, Oberle witnessed firsthand the deplorable conditions of the village’s clinic, which she says serves 2,500 to 3,000 people.

“It had no running water or electricity,” Oberle said. “You work through the entire day until you can’t anymore because there’s no more light. It has such a lack of access to basic aspects of healthcare.”

This March, Oberle will travel again to Ekori with a group of pharmacists and clinicians from Springfield, ILL. She was asked to provide health education for the clinic.
“The people [at the clinic] recognized they weren’t able to deal with public education because they were so overwhelmed with seeing patients,” she said.
Oberle said she was unsure how to provide health education, so she sought help from Kim Levenhagen, a physical therapy instructor at SLU. Levenhagen teaches a graduate-level communication course in which students learn about teaching patients the benefits of physical therapy, healthcare, exercise and wellness of health.

She thought Oberle’s project would tie in perfectly with the course, so she asked for volunteers from the class to create educational posters about the prevention of health conditions that typically affect people in Ekori.

“I thought it would be a real-life application for the students,” Levenhagen said. “It’s more meaningful than a case study on a piece of paper. Physical therapy doesn’t stop in the clinic.”

Sixteen students responded with an interest in the project. Among them was Maureen McFadden, who said she volunteered because she never had the opportunity to a go on a mission trip, and thought the project would give her a chance to “become involved in a different way.”

Also among the volunteers was Gozie Ndolo, who has a more personal connection with the project because her mother grew up in a neighboring village of Ekori. Ndolo said her mother was very excited about the project and is going to send copies of the posters to the village in which she was raised.

Ndolo said she feels that the project is meaningful to her because she is able to put into practice what it means to be an allied health professional.

“Our education is all for a purpose—it’s not about a high-paying job … it’s about using our knowledge to help others,” she said.

The students worked in pairs, creating eight posters detailing different health conditions, such as fever, goiter and malaria. To make the posters appropriate and relatable for the people of Ekori, the students had to learn more about the village. They participated in several think-sessions and meetings with Oberle, who shared her experiences in Nigeria.

Also assisting in this aspect of the project was Ndolo, who gathered a group of her Nigerian friends from St. Louis to model for pictures for the posters. Ndolo’s mother also spoke to the students about growing up in Nigeria. Her involvement, says Levenhagen, made the project more personal for the students.

Levenhagen confirmed that the end product was “awesome.” She commends the volunteers for the hard work they achieved on a tight schedule. They had a little over a month to complete the posters, but their dedication and commitment to the project was inspiring.

“The level of energy and enthusiasm of the students was remarkable,” Levenhagen said. “It was really fun to work with them. I am very proud of them.”
In the meantime, the students are eagerly awaiting Oberle’s return from Nigeria.

“We’re really excited to see pictures. Hopefully we’ll see some smiling faces looking at our posters,” McFadden said.
Levenhagen said she would love to continue to offer her students some opportunities to participate in similar projects in the future.

“I’m always trying to find ways in which I can embrace students’ learning in a more realistic way for them to help the community and to make them realize that their capacity for learning is great,” she said.

Oberle encourages the SLU community to get involved in global projects, as well. “Not everyone’s going to get on a plane and go to Nigeria, but you can do something,” she said. “Never minimize the something you can do.”