Gilbert L’Italien

A chance encounter at my local church led to a conversation that would change everything.

Bryan Nurnberger, president of a nonprofit called SimplySmiles told our congregation about its work to eradicate the scourge of parasitic worms within a rural, underserved population of indigenous people in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

As an experienced epidemiologist, it was clear to me that this was a grave threat to the health of the children they cared for. Intestinal parasites can rob children of nutrition and stunt their cognitive and physical development.

I spoke with Bryan about my background and provided ideas on how to address the problem. Bryan was very receptive and soon I found myself spending a week in the field in Mexico, assessing the feasibility of an intervention, and developing a plan to treat 3,000 villagers and test a sample of children ages 2-12 for evidence of parasitic worms.

It’s taken a year of planning and three years of implementation, but the results have been dramatic! With biannual treatment, education, and construction of hygienic facilities, we were able to reduce the prevalence of infection by more than half. The local nurse has reported that the children’s health had been greatly improved, and she’s not seeing as many children presenting with symptoms like anemia and abdominal pain.

I was deeply gratified to know that I could leverage my public health skills and training in concert with the SimplySmiles organization to help impoverished children. I return every year, and am rewarded by seeing so many happy, beautiful children and by knowing that I played a role in making this a reality.

Experienced, older adults are skilled and passionate about causes that add to societal good and frankly very tough! Mostly unimpeded by family responsibilities, we can accept hardships, physical or otherwise, to achieve our goals. Together with young people who share these goals, we make an extremely effective force for good!