Danielle Shows Kindness and makes a Difference
Profile of Danielle Butin
Obstacles in life can lead to a better understanding of how caring people can helps others who are in a great need. Danielle Butin shows how sometimes life experiences play a role in your life that leads you to help those people all around the world who are less fortunate than you. Danielle makes a life change for many people, including herself, by following her dream to help people.
Danielle took a trip to Africa at age 47 in June 2007, when times were rough in her life. She and her husband had recently gotten divorced. They had three kids ages 9, 13 and 15. She was also recently laid off from her job as an executive for a health care company (Farquhar 62). She decided to go to Africa to get away and start anew. When she was there, living in the atmosphere the local people were living in, she heard from the doctors many times about how they did not have enough supplies to take care of very sick people. Back in the United States they would have all the supplies they would ever need.
While Danielle was on her way home from Africa she was pondering what she could do to help people in Africa. When school started for her children in September, she decided to get involved and help the people she saw suffering in Africa. She remembered the words of a doctor in Uganda when she asked him about a little boy who came to him with an open sore on his foot. He told her that there were not enough supplies so he wrapped a surgical glove around the little boy’s foot. The glove was all they had and was probably used but washed several times before it became this little boy’s bandage (Dominus 1). She then decided to join a non-profitable organization called Partners in Health of Boston. They send medical provisions to developing nations (Farquhar 64).
Soon Danielle decided to start up her own organization after being involved with Partners in Health. She figured with the experience in her medical career and the things she saw in Africa, she could start her own foundation. She started by calling friends and former colleagues with experience in the medical field (Bernardo). She had 15 people say they would help her and be on the board of directors of her foundation. She decided that her organization would be sending unused and outdated health equipment to other countries in need. In October 2007, Danielle started her foundation called Afya which stands for “good health” in Swahili (Farquhar 64).
The Afya foundation sends unused and outdated equipment to other countries in need. There are specific laws in the United States that has a limit on how long a medical facility can keep equipment that is out of date. They must be discarded, even if they have never been used. For a hospital setting, where there is a surgery happening, if the surgical team lays out bandages, gauze or syringes and they are not even opened they will have to be thrown away. Just in the surgical rooms 2,000 tons of supplies are thrown out each year, which is 200 million dollars worth of supplies (Farquhar 62). This means that more adults and children in Africa can have a bed or chair to lay or sit on when they go see the doctor instead of on the ground. This also means that they have more supplies and more ways to keep things sterile.
Danielle was very interested in helping Africa along with Africa’s culture. She took up teaching at Columbia University in New York City. She taught her students African dancing and drumming which was part of the African culture. Danielle always dreamed of going back to Africa and after she did, she continued to teach her kids how to help the African people. Danielle also works in the Occupational Therapy Department at Columbia University where she not only helps people in her community but reaches out to encourage others to help people in Africa (Afya). She has her own private practice with comprehensive assessment and treatment for older adults and care givers (Afya).
After spending time in Africa, Danielle decided that there were many more people who needed help. From 2007 when she started her organization till this article in March 2010 her foundation “Afya has successfully shipped more than 700,000 tons of medical supplies to countries such as Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Tanzania” said by Amelia R. Farquhar a writer in FamilyCircle magazine (67). Afya started small but over time they are helping more and more people every year. While working in all of the different countries, Afya has been able to have more people willing to volunteer to help needy people.
Afya has made much progress with the help from all the volunteers that work with Danielle to collect the supplies and ship them all to doctors in Africa who are willing to help the sick African people. “I can’t emphasize enough how remarkable the commitment has been, and how it makes implicit sense. It offers up an opportunity to match resources and needs ideally,” said by Danielle Butin (Bernardo). From October 2007, when the foundation was founded, up until now, Afya have over 450 volunteers including 10 medical school interns (Farquhar 62).
With her success in the Afya foundation, Danielle and Oprah are very similar minus the publicity. They both put so much time and effort into their charity and help the best they can. As many people know, Oprah has had received many different types of awards for helping people through charities. Not many people know about Danielle’s awards. She has received national recognition and awards by leadership in educational health programs (Afya foundation, 2007). If you have ever seen Oprah Winfrey’s show you can better understand how Danielle is helping so many people with her foundation.
In Danielle’s life she has encountered some difficult times but she has found a way to focus her energy on how to help other people around the world using volunteer help. So many people go through hard situations and cannot find the kindness it takes to do what Danielle has been doing. She founded her own foundation and organized medical equipment to send all around the world to people in need through a non-profitable organization.
Work Cited
Butin, Danielle. “AFYA Foundation.” Biography (2007). 4Feb.2011 http://www.afyafoundation.org/butinbio.html
Danielle has been dedicated with helping out at Columbia University with the Occupational Therapy Department. Along with working at the University and helping with Afya she runs her own private practice which she specializes in comprehension assessments and treatment for both caregivers and older adults. Danielle has been national by recognized and given awards. She has received leadership awards for development of educational health programs and materials.
Bernardo, Mary L. “Angels in Medicine.” Danielle Butin: Following Her Signpost to Improving Global Healthcare. (11 Apr. 2008). 4 Feb. 2011. http://www.medangel.org/afya/afya011.shtml
Danielle started a foundation called Afya which began about a year after she took a trip to Africa. She realized how many people suffer not only from lack of food but from the lack of medical supplies. She started her foundation in October 2007. She sent the first 40-foot locker full of medical supplies on March 13, 2008 while working along with Partners in Health. Along with having her own foundation and helping out at Partners in Health Danielle also worked at the Columbia University and taught a class about African American dance and drumming. It was always her dream to go to Africa, this comes true when she went on her life changing trip.
Dominus, Susan. “The New York Times.” Unused Hospital Supplies Get Second Chance Overseas. (24 Mar. 2008) 4 Feb. 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/nyregion/24bigcity.html?_r=3
Danielle talked to many people trying to get her foundation started. She wanted to give children beds to lay on instead of the floor when they go to the doctor. The doctors needed more supplies to keep people alive and keep more supplies sterile. Having perfectly safe equipment but not using it before it goes out of date should not mean we have to throw it away. That is just what Danielle is trying to fix. She is giving outdated, but still sterile and sealed equipment and supplies, to people who desperately need it.
Farquhar Amelia R. “Global Good Health.” FamilyCircle. Mar 2011: 62-68. Print.
Sometimes unexpected things happen and that is just what happened to Danielle Butin. She experienced a devoice from her husband. Together they had three children ages 9,13 and 15. She decided to help people by she started her own foundation. At this time she has 450 volunteers of all ages including 10 medical school interns who also help the Afya foundation. She started out by helping just Africa and extended to Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. 700,000 tons of medical supplies have been sent to help those in these areas. Danielle has gone through some difficult times and she has decided to turn things around and help people in need.
Allan, TJ. “Danielle Butin foundation at work.” Photo. FamilyCircle 2011. 13, Feb.2011. http://www.familycircle.com/family-fun/volunteering/afya/?page=3.
