By Admin1 (admin) on Monday, May 26, 2003 - 9:00 pm: Edit Post |
The American Princess of the Savannah: A Video Documentary about Peace Corps Volunteer Phyllis Jansyn in Africa
The American Princess of the Savannah: A Video Documentary about Peace Corps Volunteer Phyllis Jansyn in Africa
This woman lives in a village that is in its dark ages, communication wise, unlike her "luxurious" home town. It takes a two days drive by bush taxi over a torturous dirt road from the nearest airport and hospital. The village has no pipe-borne water, no electricity and no telephone.
Its hard African Savannah climatic conditions make life in the village difficult for indigenes and visitors alike. Added to this, hygienic conditions are disturbingly hard. Multicultural groupings are constantly at loggerheads. Worse still, 90 percent of the population in that locality suffers from parasitic infections. All this reinforces poverty, as people are not strong enough to work.
When Phyllis Jansyn, a former American Peace Corps Volunteer, was dropped off in Djohong, a village of the Adamawa Province referred to as the Cameroon Midlands because of its geographic location, she felt as a retired nurse she could do something.
Since 1992, she has been battling the parasites that cause the misery, as a Fellow of Health in Housing (A World Health Organization Collaborating Center at the State University of New York at Buffalo) and as a Principal Investigator with The Earthwatch Institute. Her efforts are also a unifying force to conflict prone cultural traditions and religions beliefs.
Phyllis Jansyn's determination has supplemented isolated governmental efforts in combating parasitic infections.
It is our wish to make Phyllis Jansyn's tireless efforts and expectations in eliminating the debilitating parasites known. Her efforts have made grateful people call her "The American Princess of the Savannah."