Dear readers,
There aren’t many good replacements for first-hand experience, and that’s exactly what 27-year-old Julianna Shinnick has with regard to epilepsy. Shinnick suffered from the illness as a child without the ability to keep it under control with medication. For Shinnick, a 2010 Northampton High School graduate, a change came in the form of brain surgery when she was 19. The result gave her far more energy than she was used to, and she hasn’t had a seizure since.
She decided to use her experience to help people in the African country of Tanzania. There, in a community called Mahenge, people suffer from epilepsy at higher than average rates. Shinnick has joined with Father Placid Kindata, a Catholic priest, to help provide working skills to those who struggle with the disease and try to change societal prejudices against that population. She was so impressed with the work Kindata had been doing that she wanted to be a part of it.
Writer Steve Pfarrer spoke with both of these advocates when Kindata visited Shinnick in Northampton earlier this month. Theirs is a fascinating and important story as they work to raise money as well as spend time increasing regular access to medicine for people with epilepsy. For Shinnick, academic work led her into action, and to travel herself to Tanzania, allowing her to forge relationships with others completing the advocacy work. Be sure to check out the website openmindmicrofinance.org for more information and to donate to this worthy cause.
This week we also welcome a new author to Hampshire Life, though not to the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Naila Moreira joins our rotating list of writers who participate in our Friday Takeaway feature. Moreira, a science writing teacher and poet, often writes about environmental topics, and has a great piece this week about using art to combat anxiety over looming climate change. Watch for her in future Hampshire Life editions moving forward.
— Dave Eisenstadter