“They were reusing latex gloves, the hospital linens were hanging outside to dry, and flies flying around the surgery rooms.”
– Anna Hammernik

How would you feel if you went to your doctor’s office and there were flies buzzing around the exam room, chipped paint on the walls and the staff was reusing gloves?

This is a harsh reality for some patients, and The Carefree Foundation is working to improve inadequate health care facilities so that fewer people receive medical care in an unfit atmosphere.

The Carefree Foundation is a non-profit organization with the mission to improve health care for underserved populations around the world. Carefree does numerous things to achieve this goal, including providing supplies and medical and surgical care, restoring clinics and training workers to use medical equipment.

“I saw a profound need in improvement in care in the free facilities,” said Douglas Burka, 26, president and founder of The Carefree Foundation. Burka is a general surgery resident at the Saint Barnabas Medical Center in New Jersey.

Established in October 2003, Carefree’s center of operations is located in Washington D.C., and there are chapters all over the United States. Carefree is supported by its chapters, corporate sponsors, individual donors and fundraisers like the Marine Corps Marathon.

“We have about 60 to 70 volunteers in positions, and probably about 200 to 300 volunteers across the country,” said Burka.

The Carefree Foundation’s Vice President of Public Relations Anna Hammernik, 29, is a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the academic support director for the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee.

The demographics of those involved in the foundation are what makes Carefree unique compared with other non-profit health organizations, she said.

“Very young, very bright people trying to make a change,” said Hammernik.

When Carefree was starting up, they knew they wanted to have their first big project in a Third World country.

At that time, Hammernik was teaching in the Third World, in what she calls “very rural” Adwa, a community in northern Ethiopia. Hammernik was teaching through a program called Teachers for Africa and the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help.

Burka said he met Hammernik through a friend of a friend.

“Anna became one of our best contacts over there … she did a knock-up job in Ethiopia,” Burka said.

Carefree’s started their first big mission in Ethiopia, Project African Vision, which was completed in November 2004.

Millions of people are blind in Saharan African, and many of these cases are because of cataracts. About 80 percent of their blindness is treatable or preventable.

Carefree completed 171 surgeries and 41 laser procedures on cataracts, and hundreds of people received office visits and medical evaluations. The Carefree team plans to go back and complete phase two of this project at a date yet to be announced.

Hammernik said that she was shocked at some of the unsanitary conditions she observed in the types of clinics Carefree aims to restore.

“They were reusing latex gloves, the hospital linens were hanging outside to dry, and flies flying around the surgery rooms,” Hammernik said.

Another problem in some clinics, Hammernik said, is that while they may be equipped with the right tools, employees there do not know how to use them. Sometimes, parts break and they do not have replacements.

“Huge companies donate equipment, but the recipients don’t know how to use them,” she said. Carefree provides these types of clinics with parts and trains the staff on how to use everything.

Carefree has at least two big projects planned to begin within the next year.

Hammernik said that they want to help restore clinics destroyed by Hurricane Katrina once they find those they want to restore and can organize a team to go down there.

In July of 2006, Carefree will begin work on Project Guyana. The health of the people of Guyana lags behind most other South American countries, and Carefree’s goal is to improve Guyana’s surgical care.

“There are tons of ways students can get involved in the organization,” Burka said. “The easiest way would be to start a chapter at the university.”

Setting up and running a chapter means adhering to the guidelines on Carefree’s Web site, which includes mandatory fundraising and community service projects every year. The community service projects usually involve local clinic restorations, which often take a few years to complete.

Those interested in getting involved in Carefree may also volunteer at the national level by contacting Managing Director Olivia Goumbri.

Students may also get involved in international projects. Burka said that usually Carefree only takes medical students on these projects, but the foundation may open up opportunities to students interested in public health. Burka said it is most likely this will be possible for Project Guyana.

Those who do not want to directly participate in Carefree’s projects may help support the foundation by running in the Marine Corps Marathon. The next marathon takes place Oct. 29, 2006, in Washington, D.C.

“If students want to be involved in health care without being a doctor or a nurse, this is a way to be involved,” Hammernik said.

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