essayy 4.docx - When I was thirteen and visiting Liberia I...

When I was thirteen and visiting Liberia, I contracted what
turned out to be yellow fever. I met with the local doctor, but he
couldn’t make a diagnosis simply because he didn't have
access to blood tests and because symptoms such as “My skin
feels like it’s on fire” matched many tropical diseases. Luckily,
my family managed to drive me several hours away to an urban
hospital, where I was treated. Yellow fever shouldn’t be fatal,
but in Africa it often is. I couldn’t believe that such a solvable
issue could be so severe at the time—so I began to explore.
The exploration led me to the African Disease Prevention
Project (ADPP), a non-profit organization associated with several
universities. I decided to create the first high school branch of
the organization; I liked its unique way of approaching health
and social issues. Rather than just raising money and
channeling it through third parties, each branch “adopts” one
village and travels there to provide for its basic needs. As