UC's Health Sciences Library Presents Photo Exhibit by Jon Hughes

Through the Amazonas Project, third- and fourth-year medical residents may fulfill an elective option in the rainforest of Amazonas, Brazil. This elective provides the opportunity to travel down the Amazon River for two weeks on a houseboat. The houseboat serves as both touring vessel and home base as the group goes from village to village. At each village the multidisciplinary team sets up a temporary clinic for the care of both adults and children from the local villages.

“My responsibility was to visually document the project,” Hughes says. In April 2004 Hughes spent two and one-half weeks in the Amazonas area of Brazil with 20 other Americans, including a significant number of attending physicians and registered nurses, primarily from the Cincinnati and Wilmington areas. This ninth trip to the Amazon for the UC International Health Brazil Project was sponsored by the UC Department of Family Medicine.

“We traveled by boat stopping at towns and villages on the headwaters, rivers and lakes, of the Amazon,” says Hughes. “The objective of the project was to provide medical care in and around the municipality of Beruri, on the Purus River, and its 88 villages and clusters of extended families. Some of us traveled to more remote villages that often proved to be the most gratifying experiences.”

More than 2,200 patients were seen during the one-day clinics. On one eventful and extraordinarily hot day, April 26, 2004, more than 660 patients were seen. The 30 photographs in this exhibition are a vivid portrayal of that altruistic effort.

The Amazonas Project began in 1995. Keith B. Holten, MD, and Sandy Riegler, MD, were the Brazil site co-coordinators. Dr. Holten is an associate professor of clinical family medicine and the medical director of the family health center. Dr. Riegler is an assistant professor of clinical medicine. Drs. Holten and Riegler will return from their current trip to Brazil just in time for the reception and gallery talk.

“The natural beauty of Brazil and its people and the camaraderie of my colleagues made this an extraordinary experience,” says Hughes. “I can only hope that these images provide a glimpse of that experience.”

Exhibition Dates: May 1 through June 12, 2005
Reception and Gallery Talk May 15, 2–4 p.m.

Location: UC Health Sciences Library, Medical Sciences Building E level, Room 680

Hours: Call (513) 558-5627 for daily hours of opening

Directions: The Medical Sciences Building is at the corner of Eden and Albert Sabin Way. Enter the building either from the Sabin entrance, or park in the Eden Garage and take the pedestrian walkway into the building. Follow the signs to E-680 (Library Computer Lab). For more information, call (513) 558-8310

About the

medical residency options

Dr. Keith Holten wins award

More about Jon Hughes’ exhibits:

Amazonas

Cuba