Dr Allain If fih gives back to St Mary

HIGHATE, St Mary;

Among the health professionals engaged in last Saturday's health fair at the Highgate Health Centre in St Mary was Dr Allain Iffih, a specialist in family medicine, who was taking part for the fourth time in five years.

Iffih, who lives and works in Massachusetts in the United States, was here as part of the Florida chapter of United Friends of Highgate, which is based in Fort Lauderdale, almost 2,000 kilometres away from her hometown. She was quick to point to Rural Express that she was not lost, but was, in fact, in Highgate for this event each year by design.

"This is where I came when I was little - to this health centre," she shared.

The St Mary native remembers well those days and is happy to be back there in a position to help others. Though far removed from Jamaica in terms of distance, she is still at home, if even for only a day.

"I work in a community health centre where I take care of the underserved. I do presentations on medical-health topics. That's just what I do, what I like to do. So for me, it's not a huge transition because it's pretty bad there, too - same kind of issues, lack of access, no money," she explained.

"The challenges are the same, and it's just a matter of knowing how things work in this particular health centre. But the problems, they are kind of similar. So if I have questions, I just ask one of the doctors what they would do. I know what I would do if I were in my usual position, so I ask them, but it doesn't feel that very different."

But getting back to Highgate for Iffih was a lesson in dogged determination once she heard about the project. Even when she was miles away in Michigan, as someone who spent her childhood years in the community, she was insistent on giving back. So she joined the Florida chapter and undertook the registration process, as dictated by the local Ministry of Health, in order to qualify to work in Jamaica, for less than 24 hours each year, and is extremely proud of her achievement.

"Every year, I do my one-day stint because I'm from here. I heard about the health fair and I said, 'Great!' I always wanted to do it. So me just call them up and say, 'I want to help,' and this is how I came in. I just like to do it."