From Hartsville to Africa

Tears trickled down Amanda Baxley’s cheeks as she spoke about her dream of working in an orphanage for children with AIDS in the heart of Africa as they did on the faces of those who listened. She made the trip home from Charleston where she is in nursing school on a Wednesday night to speak to the members of a small rural church in Darlington County about her mission to help children in Africa and to help raise money to get there.

“I was driving home to Hartsville on I-95 one day to see my parents during one of the very few breaks that we got from school when I suddenly remembered a commercial that I had seen on TV,” Baxley told the church members. “The commercial was for the ONE campaign, a campaign to fight poverty and AIDS in Africa, and had really touched me somewhere in my core that I had never really known existed before. I made a decision then and there, while driving on I-95, that I was going to go to Africa after graduation to volunteer my medical skills for however long that I could.”

The 24-year-old, third semester nursing student at the Medical University of South Carolina, who was born and raised in Hartsville, said after she left Hartsville to attend the College of Charleston, her entire outlook on life changed in an instant when her father was diagnosed with a terminal illness that was not only going to eventually take away his life, but could possibly take her own as well.

Her father has Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare degenerative brain disorder that is incurable and fatal within a few years of onset. Amanda has a 50 percent chance of having the same condition.
“My dad was a family practitioner until he was forced to retire about 2-3 years ago due to the neurodegenerative disorder’s affects on his ability to practice medicine,” Baxley said. “He was the type of medical professional that I hope to be one day. He truly cared about each and every patient to the point that making money became his second reason for being a doctor – never the first. He loved what he did. Being a doctor and helping those that could not help themselves was what he was put on this earth to do.”

Knowing she may not have a long life in which to accomplish her goals, Baxley is wasting no time in setting about the task.

Baxley says she grew up as a typical small-town, “up to no good” teenager. However, her parents set the bar high when it came to how one faces adversity and goes about helping others. A daughter of Hartsville natives Dr. Luke Baxley and Kathy Coker Baxley, the nursing student admires her parents’ courage and has always wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps, which are some big shoes to fill.

Baxley says her father is one of the reasons she is passionate about helping others.

Baxley said, “My dad and I have had a close relationship for most of my life (minus the typical teenage ‘hate your parents’ stage that I went through). I was lucky enough to see the way he cared about people other than himself. Because of my relationship with my father, and the desire to follow in his amazing footsteps, I made the decision to use my medical skills like my father used his – to help those that are unable, no matter what the reason, to help themselves.”

Her mother also uses her skills to help others as the executive director of the Darlington County Free Medical Clinic, which assists people who don’t have insurance or another means of paying for health care receive the care they need. Her father was a volunteer in the Free Medical Clinic and practiced medicine for many years in the same location that is now the site of the Free Medical Clinic in Hartsville.
“As you could probably imagine, this news (about her father’s illness) affected the way that I viewed life itself, as well as affected the way that I lived my life,” Baxley said. “I continued on with my education, although a very changed person, at the College of Charleston and, after four years, graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in biology and a minor in psychology. After graduation, I decided that I wanted to take a year off to decide if my prior plan of going to nursing school was the path that I still wanted to take.”

Baxley got a job on the ninth floor of the Medical University of South Carolina where she worked for about a year.

“About a month before I resigned, I took the GRE and sent in an application to MUSC for their Accelerated Nursing Program,” Baxley said. “This program packs in two and a half years of nursing school into 16 months.”

When Baxley completes the program she will be headed to Africa.

“I remember watching the ONE Campaign’s commercial for the first time. The feeling that came over me was so much more real and deep than the feeling that you usually get during ‘those kind’ of commercials,” Baxley said. “I felt as if helping the African people in their fight against poverty and AIDS was something that I was ‘meant’ to do.”

Baxley said she also remembers the feeling that she got when she first came across the African Impact website.

“I knew, as soon as I looked into the little girl’s eyes on the web page, that this organization was the one that would bring me the kind of experiences that would change my life as well as others’ lives,” Baxley said. “I really have the feeling that this is something I am supposed to do during my life. It is part of ‘the plan.’”

After talking with her mom about it, Baxley said she started doing research on the computer.

“I found an organization that I have pretty much fallen in love with – African Impact. I will be volunteering with this organization when I travel to Africa,” she said.

Baxley’s next step is to find the means to accomplish her “destiny.”

“I feel that in order for me to become the most well-rounded person that I can be, I must venture out of my comfort zone and discover things that will teach me more about life,” Baxley said.

Baxley told members of Black Creek Baptist Church in Dovesville about how she hopes to accomplish her goal.

She told those assembled, “I know you have lots of questions – Why would you want to do something like this….Africa is so dangerous, Who are you going to live with? When are you coming home? When are you leaving? How much does something like this cost?”

The organization she will be working with is African Impact, a volunteer organization based out of Zimbabwe. They operate in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda.

They offer volunteer opportunities ranging from cheetah rehabilitation, lion rehabilitation, wildlife photography and conservation education, ore-school and community project, clinical and medical assistance, and many, many more. Baxley said the organization’s ultimate aim is to “provide a safe and supervised environment within which travelers from abroad are able to make a tangible difference to wildlife and communities on the African continent, leaving them with a great sense of satisfaction and memories to last a lifetime.”

Visit their website to find out more www.africanimpact.com or to find out about the devastating illness and poverty in Africa go to www.one.org.
Baxley said every city/country in the world has poverty, but nothing compares to the poverty and disease state Africa is in where most Africans live on less than $2 per day, 200 million per day go without any food at all, and in this year alone, at least a million will die of malaria and at least two million will die of AIDS.

African Impact provides the African people with medically trained individuals that are able to provide them with adequate education and medications that can make them healthier people, Baxley said.

Baxley plans to leave in February for her journey to this country of poverty and disease to offer her assistance, to leave her own mark in this world.
“I will graduate from the Accelerated BSN Program at MUSC in December of this year,” she said. “I am planning on spending the rest of December and the month of January studying for the NCLEX, taking the NCLEX, and moving to Nashville, Tenn. After doing all of this, I hope to leave for Zambia at the beginning of February 2009.”

The cost of Baxley’s trip for everything except free-time activities is about $4,500. This includes vaccinations and prophylactic medications, airfare, lodging and three meals a day.

Baxley began raising the money for her trip at the end of January of this year.

Baxley drew upon her hobby of making earrings. She purchases beads to make the earrings and sells them for between $3 and $7. To date, she has earned about $2,000 toward her trip.

“I need to be able to pay the total amount by the beginning of December,” she said.

The members of Black Creek Baptist Church who listened to her passionate plea for help for the people in Africa brought plastic bags filled with old jewelry for Baxley to use in making her earrings, took up an offering and collected about $325 and purchased earrings.

Baxley asked them to keep her and the people of Africa in their prayers.

If you would like to make
a contribution, contact Amanda at 858-0644. The earrings can be seen at the Free Medical Clinic, 203 Grove St., Darlington.