By Parkwat Walkyes, YES Nigeria '12 Alumnus

As alumni of the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study program, we are expected to impact our communities through community service, volunteerism, and as many other means as possible. Since returning to my home country of Nigeria, I have been busy finishing my last year of high school and volunteering in the community. More recently, however, I was able to carry out a community project to diagnose malaria and treat children in Nigeria's Jing community of Plateau State.

The idea for the project occurred to me while at home. My mom is a Nurse at a local clinic, so she brought home some malaria diagnostic kits to test us for malaria. Within a few minutes, she had tested us for malaria, and we knew our status. I discussed with my family members the idea of buying the malaria test kits and medicine, and we decided to go ahead with it. We then identified a community that would benefit from such a project and came up with the Jing community. 

On July 28, 2013, we carried out the project. The community leaders were able to mobilize the community, and there was quite a large turnout. About 70 children came, along with their mothers. We were able to diagnose children ranging from 6 months to 8 years old for malaria. Around 48 children were diagnosed with the disease, and we administered medicines to those children. We also gave some health-related guidance to a mother whose daughter was malnourished. 

The community leaders and the parents of the children were very grateful for the kind gestures and encouraged others to emulate the project. I would love to continue impacting my community in the best possible way I can, and in the future, I hope to be a medical doctor.