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8/6/2019 A Doctor's Quest
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BY GRETCHEN WENNERCalifornian staff writer
e-mail: [email protected]
Theyve vowed to restore theiragencys credibility with an
outsideinvestigation.
On Wednesday, First 5 Kern com-missioners will get a chance to
hiretheir examiners though their choic-es are limited and all have
ties to theinvolved parties.
That and other meaty items willplace the oversight commissions
per-formance center stage.
County supervisors and others willbe watching to see if the
nine-membergroup, which controls local distribu-tion of millions of
dollars of statetobacco-tax money, can morph fromrubber stamp to
watchdog.
The meeting will be the commis-sions first since supervisors
Nov. 14backed off from their own investiga-tion and a possible
restructuring of thegroup.
Such options had been discussed inthe wake of a Californian
investigationinto a contract between First 5 andformer researchers
at Cal State Bak-ersfield.
Receipts revealed some question-able spending and, at best, lax
over-sight of taxpayer money.
Over several years, $3 million fromFirst 5 Kern was paid to
researchers at
Cal State to evaluate whether First 5money given to local
programs wastruly helping ready young children forschool.
Some of that $3 million, instead,bought furniture, computers
that cantnow be located and helped pay a carlease for Ken Nyberg,
the head CalState researcher.
Now, new researchers at Cal Statehave said the data Nyberg and
histeam collected is seriously flawed.
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392-5777 or 1-800-953-5353
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C A L L U S
Christmas chopping
At Lawrences Brite Valley Tree Farm justwest of Tehachapi, a
cheery crew of
Lawrence family members hands out apair of long-handled
tree-cutting saws,and a few straightforward instructions.
Explore the tree farm in WednesdaysHome & Garden
section.
C O M I N G W E D N E S D A YI N D E X
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COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Bowl matchupsannounced todayUSCs quest for a third-straight
appearance
in the national title game was
derailed Saturday by a UCLA
quarterback who didnt
know he was starting
until three days
before the game. The
Trojans loss paves
the way for a Michigan-
Ohio State rematch or an
Ohio State-Florida matchup
for the national championship
Jan. 8. The final BCS standings and bowl
pairings will be announced today.
MONEY
Tax breaks awaitCongress returnWhen they return this week to
Washington,
D.C., to wrap up their work for the year,
lawmakers will take one last shot at
reviving billions of dollars in tax breaks that
expired 11 months ago. Everyone from
parents with children in college to
businesses conducting research and
development will take a hit if Congress
cant work it out.
Page A11
CULTURE CLASH
Womens beach volleyballs skimpy
standard uniform is raising eyebrows in
conservative
Muslim
Qatar, which
is hosting the
Asian Games
to bolster its
bid to bring
the 2016
Summer
Olympics to
the Middle
East. In a
region where
women
traditionally cover up, the bikinis worn by
the Japanese so small the country name
had to be abbreviated were a shock. Of
the 16 Muslim nations at the games, only
Iraq has a womens beach volleyball team.
SP O RT S F I NAL
High 59Low 33
Air quality: Unhealthy, 137
Complete weather, B8
W E A T H E R
B Y E M I L Y H A G E D O R N I C A L I F O R N I A N S T A F F
W R I T E R
e-mail: [email protected]
Dr. Abdul Barre is scheduled to see a woman about a mole. Later,
he may see some-
one else with a sore throat and cough. Or an aching knee.
These everyday cases fill his days in Bakersfield, but his
thoughts are with a hospitalhalf a world away.
Please turn to QUE
ST / A6
CASEY CHRISTIE / THE CALIFORNIAN
Dr. Abdul Barre is surrounded by medical supplies he is having
shipped to Ethiopia to be used at the hospital heopened there
several years ago. Barre works at Kaiser Permanente in Bakersfield
for a few months out of the yearto save money, and then he goes to
work in the hospital in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia.
A DOCTORS QUEST
Former Ethiopian refugee Abdul Barre became a successful
Bakersfield doctor
who gave up everything to return and help his disease-ravaged
nation
First 5on roadto repairimage
Please turn to FIRST 5 / A3
Panel may hire examinersin wake of investigationthat questioned
contract
BY JENNIFER LOVEN
The Associated Press
President Bush has walked afine line between embrac-ing the
mission of a biparti-san, high-profile advisory
panel on Iraq and maintainingenough distance not to be bound
byall or even most of its upcomingrecommendations.
This week, the congressionallychartered Iraq Study Group
willpresent Bush with its suggestionsfor a new way forward in
the
increasingly messy and unpopularwar. Hopes went sky-high that
thecommission has devised a winningprescription for the
beleagueredU.S. effort, now well into its fourthyear with violence
not abating.
Expectations rose in part becausetwo of Washingtons most
respectedgraybeards lead the group: Bushfamily loyalist James A.
Baker III, aformer secretary of state; and for-mer Democratic Rep.
Lee Hamilton,
co-chairman of the Sept. 11 commis-sion that produced a
gold-standardreport on fighting terrorism.
Aware the study group could rec-ommend some bitter
prescriptions,the White House has indicated it willtake the advice
seriously but notaccept it automatically. The presi-dent says the
report will be only oneof many things to consider, and heinsists
that American troops shouldstay in Iraq until the country cantake
care of itself.
Pressure growing on Bush for new strategy
Please turn to BU
SH / A3
UCLADERAILSUSCS TITLEBID, C1
UCLADERAILSUSCS TITLEBID, C1
The very ordinariness of Barres day-to-day life as afamily
practice physician at Kaiser Permanente onStockdale Highway makes
him think of home evenmore, he says. The most serious conditions
Barre seeshere during his annual three-month sojourn are in
sharpcontrast to those he tends to the rest of the year: awoman
with failing kidneys but no dialysis services, aman suffering a
heart attack but no cardiologists to helphim.
Barre could stay in the comfortable confines of theUnited
States, but he chooses differently.
You ask yourself, Whats your role in this world?Barre, 48, says.
I feel like that society needed me.
Sometimes, patients here tell him to prescribe what-ever he
wants because my insurance will cover it.Where hes from, one day in
the hospital costs $9. An X-ray: $5. A blood test: $2.
Each sum is a fortune beyond the reach of most of
hispatients.
This is a land of plenty, he says of America.It was this bastion
of riches he escaped to in a grueling
journey from his homeland Ethiopia.
BAKERSFIELDCHRISTIAN NEWCHAMPS, C1
BAKERSFIELDCHRISTIAN NEWCHAMPS, C1
Analysis: War in Iraq
ITwo days before he re-signed from the Pentagon,Defense
Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld sent to the WhiteHouse a classified memo recommending a
majoradjustment in Iraq strategy, Page A13
IA triple car bombing struck afood market in a predominantly
Shiite area in central Baghdad onSaturday, killing at least
51 people, Page A18
INSIDE
Uniforms testMuslim mores
SUNDAY DECEMBER 3, 2006
BC EDGED OUT IN SOCALFOOTBALL FINAL,, C1
SEARCH 422 NEW JOBS, H1INSIDE: PARADE SPECIAL PHOTO ISSUE
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8/6/2019 A Doctor's Quest
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I n a family that included 13 sib-lings, Barre grew up in
DireDawa, Ethiopia. Hanging around
his older brothers doctors office
and being raised in a family that
pushed higher education, Barre
chose medicine early on.
Life was difficult but not impossi-ble, even as feudal wars
ragedacross the country between about adozen groups jockeying for
powerin the late-1970s and early-1980s,after Emperor Haile Selassie
wasoverthrown in 1974. In his place,Mengistu Hailemariams
Derguetook up rule, under a Marxistregime, Barre said, and tried
tosolidify its reign by killing rebels.
He remembers seeing posses ofmen perched along sidewalks
withmenacing stares and carryingKalashnikov assault rifles,
hand-me-downs from the Soviet Unionand Cuba.
Lawlessness had overtaken thecountry, yet citizens tried to
keepon with their lives.
You dont have a choice, Barresaid. You have to go on living.
That is, until the fear of stayingoutweighs the fear of
leaving.
A friend, Munir Barre doesntremember his last name traveledfrom
the capital of Addis Ababa tosee Barre in Dire Dawa. Barreshometown
was much like Bakers-field. Dusty and surrounded bymountains, Dire
Dawa is seen bymany Ethiopians as a pit stopbetween larger
cities.
The 22-year-old childhoodfriends walked through town on aSunday
afternoon in 1980, on theirway to another friends house.
We were just talking about howthings were changing in the
coun-try and how scary things werebecoming, Barre said.
Some of the plain-clothed, gun-toting men approached Barre
andMunir. They searched the friendsand found Munirs notebook,
whichhad the addresses of Americanfriends in it.
They asked ridiculous questions
like, Do you work for the CIA?Barre said.The two communist cadre
mem-
bers told Barre and Munir to followthem.
These are ruthless people, hesaid. They can shoot you in
thestreet.
College-aged people mostlymen were common victims of thegroup.
Since before Selassies over-throw, college students rallied
forreform and pleaded with Selassie tohelp alleviate the effects of
the1973-74 drought. They rallied againfor the Dergue to relinquish
power.
The two young men were broughtto several small buildings
thatmade up the cadres compound.
Meanwhile, news of Barresarrest had traveled to his family,which
was trying to find a way toget them out.
Barre and Munir talked in theircell while they waited for
eitherdeath or reprieve. Barre wasnt tor-tured, but it happened to
others,usually at night when the cadremen got drunk, he said.
He broke down, Barre said of
Munir. It was like he knew he wasdying.
Around 11 p.m., a cadre youthleader from Barres neighborhood,who
Barres family had found,came and vouched for Barres non-involvement
in an oppositiongroup. He was released.
Dont worry, Barre told Munir.We will be back for you in
themorning. The next step was find-ing a cadre leader from
Munirsneighborhood in Addis Ababa toconfirm that Munir wasnt a
reac-tionary.
But that didnt happen.Munir, in his red shirt and
khakis, was shot in the head andthrown in Barres front yard
duringthe night. Munirs family couldnt
touch his body; no one could per thecadres rules. Usually,
bodies wereleft in the open for about a day toscare residents
before the cadresdisposed of them, Barre said.
I knew I had to get out, or theycould come for me next.
Freedom was 200 miles away in
the country of Djibouti, across
an arm of the Danakil Desert that
locals call the Benka, which in
Somali means an open expanse.
The first task was to find a guide, or
issa, one of the nomads who take
livestock through the desert.Since the Dergue took over, the
nomads had a lucrative side busi-ness human trafficking. With
nomountains or trees and only flatland stretching out to the
horizon,city dwellers were often swallowedup by the Benka.
Barre met his guide in a rela-tives home early the next
morning.
You have to be careful withword of mouth because if the
gov-ernment knew you were planning
this, you could easily get in trou-ble, he said.
Barre had to dress the part: san-dals, an undershirt and a
skirt-likebottom that tied at the waist.
Finding an honest guide was alsoimportant. Guides were known
torape women and leave people in themiddle of the desert to die if
notgiven what they wanted.
It was pure bravado that mademe do this, he said. Desperationis
whats going to get you out.
Barre didnt think about his fami-ly and possessions when he
wasleaving, he said. He was too scaredto think.
With one camel, bread and sugarfor tea that the guide would
makefrom shrubs found along the way,
the men set out that evening.Barre soon understood the mean-
ing behind many nomadic prac-tices.
A6 THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2006
BackgroundUnique among African coun-tries, the ancient
Ethiopianmonarchy maintained its free-dom from colonial rule with
theexception of the 1936-41Italian occupation during WorldWar II.
In 1974, a military junta,the Dergue, deposed EmperorHaile Selassie
(who had ruledsince 1930) and established asocialist state. Torn by
bloody
coups, uprisings, widespreaddrought and massive refugeeproblems,
the regime was finallytoppled in 1991 by a coalition ofrebel
forces, the Ethiopian Peo-ple's Revolutionary DemocraticFront . A
constitution was adopt-ed in 1994, and Ethiopia's first
multiparty elections were held in 1995. A border war with
Eritrea late in the1990s ended with a peace treaty in December
2000. Final demarcation ofthe boundary is currently on hold due to
Ethiopian objections to an interna-tional commission's finding
requiring it to surrender territory consideredsensitive to
Ethiopia.
Population: 74,777,981
Median age
I Total: 17.8 years
IMale: 17.7 yearsIFemale: 17.9 years*Population growth rateI2.31
percent*IBirth rate: 37.98 births/1,000 population*IDeath rate:
14.86 deaths/1,000 population*INet migration rate: 0
migrant(s)/1,000 populationNote: Repatriation of Ethiopian refugees
residing in Sudan is expected tocontinue for several years; some
Sudanese, Somali, and Eritrean refugees,who fled to Ethiopia from
the fighting or famine in their own countries, con-tinue to return
to their homes.*
Sex ratioIAt birth: 1.03 male(s)/femaleIUnder 15 years: 1.01
male(s)/femaleI15-64 years: 1 male(s)/femaleI65 years and over:
0.83 male(s)/femaleITotal population: 1 male(s)/female*Infant
mortality rateITotal: 93.62 deaths/1,000 live birthsIMale: 103.43
deaths/1,000 live birthsIFemale: 83.51 deaths/1,000 live
births*Life expectancy at birthITotal population: 49.03 yearsIMale:
47.86 yearsIFemale: 50.24 years*Total fertility rateI5.22 children
born/woman*HIV/AIDS-adult prevalence rateI4.4 percent**IHIV/AIDS
people liv ing with HIV/AIDS: 1.5 million**IHIV/AIDS deaths:
120,000**Major infectious diseasesDegree of risk: very high
IFood or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal
diarrhea,hepatitis A, typhoid fever, and hepatitis E
IVectorborne diseases: malaria and cutaneous leishmaniasis are
highrisks in some locations
IRespiratory disease: meningococcal meningitisIAnimal contact
disease: rabiesIWater contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)
*2006 estimate **2003 estimate
Source: The CIA World Factbook 2006
On the Web:
www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/et.html
Dr. Barres 200-mile trek fromDire Dawa toDikhil
Goba
Addis
Ababa
Djibouti
Dir
Dawa
Berbera
Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Gulf of
Aden
Africa
100 mi.
KebriDehar
Jima
THE CALIFORNIAN
HENRY A. BARRIOS/ THE CALIFORNIAN
In Bakersfield for several months of the year, Barre is a doctor
at Kaiser Permanente, saving up money to live the rest of the year
in Ethiopia. Afterfleeing Ethiopia and coming to the United States
as a refugee, he put himself through medical school. He returned to
his country, saw the need for ahospital and built one in his
hometown of Dire Dawa, where he works part of the year.
You ask yourself, Whats your role in this world? I feel like
that society needed me.Dr. Abdul Barre, Ethiopian
refugee-turned-American citizen and doctor who funds a hospital and
orphanage
in his native Dire Dawa by working several months a year as a
physician at Kaiser Permanente
Continued from A1
ETHIOPIA PRIMER
KIP TULIN / SPECIAL TO THE CALIFORNIAN
Barre conducts twice-a-day hospital rounds with his medical
team. In a country with few medical resources,
Ethiopian physicians must rely more on a patients history and
physical exam than in countries with easilyavailable tests, said
Dr. Kip Tulin, a Kaiser Permanente pediatrician who visted Barre in
Dire Dawa. The patientin the photo was ultimately diagnosed with
coronary artery disease, Tulin said. A few weeks after
Tulinreturned to the United States, he was told the patient had
died.
Please turn to QUE
ST / A7
KIP TULIN /SPECIAL TO THE CALIFORNIAN
Dr. Abdul Barre is in his office at Bilal Hospital in Dire Dawa,
Ethiopia.Completed in 2003, the facility has 40 beds, one surgeon
and full-timepediatrics, family practice, obstetrics and gynecology
departments.
QUEST: After friends slaying, man says I knew I had to get
out
-
8/6/2019 A Doctor's Quest
3/3
You need a stick, Barreremembers the guide telling him ontheir
first day. Nomads would walkwith a stick across their shoulderswith
their arms draped over it, likea scarecrow. City folk often
lookedat this practice as rustic, uncivi-lized.
No, Im not a country man likeyou, Barre replied. By the
thirdday, he said, my hands wereswollen from hanging all day as
hewalked.
His feet became raw from walk-ing over 30 miles a dayin
sandals.
The guide put him atop thecamel, but his bare skin soonchafed
against the camels coarsehairs.
I would rather walk, he said.Night was the only escape from
the heat, but thats when the hyenasand wild pigs came out.
By the time the men stopped torest, Barre was too exhausted
tocare, he said.
We will have a little bit of fire,the guide told him. The camel
willknow that theres something, andhell make noise, and well
wakeup.
They were awakened a coupletimes by hyenas, Barre said. You
just throw a rock or something andthen go back to sleep.
The guide had the water holesmapped out in his mind from yearsof
experience. Still, there was noguarantee water would be therewhen
they reached the spots.
We were passing an elderly ladywho was dying of thirst, and
shesaid, Can you give me water? andwe had a little bit, Barre
remem-bers. And he (the guide) said nobecause its either her or us
whodie because I dont know whereanother water hole will be.
So we left her there I dontthink she would have lasted in
theheat.
As the men came closer to theDjibouti border, many of
Barresconcerns lessened.
On the fifth day the last day Barre suffered diarrhea from
thebrackish water they had lucked out
in finding.
The men reached the bordertown of Dikhil in Djibouti, andBarre
rested in the refugee campthat sprouted across the border.
The only thing I could think ofwith the thirst, sickness it
wasnot water, he said. All I wantedwas a Coke.
He (the guide) left me at the out-skirts and went into town
andbought a big Coke.
The guide also took a trip to Dji-bouti City to find Barres
sister,Neima, who paid the guide 1,000birr ($115) and picked up
Barre.
For the next 15 months, Barrewas a parasite. Refugees couldntget
jobs. A lot of other people whodidnt have family members
werebegging to survive.
Barre joined several other
refugees, waiting in line at the localOffice of the United
Nations HighCommissioner for Refugees, a U.N.agency that ensures
refugees findsafe passage into another country.Barre registered and
waited.
With two weeks notice inDecember 1981, he was told he wasgoing
to California, randomlyassigned to the Archdiocese of
LosAngeles.
Barre was flown with only $20 inhis pocket from his sister and a
cou-ple hundred dollars from the dio-cese to New York City, where
allthe refugees were given wintercoats. From there, he was flown
toLos Angeles.
Barre, whos Muslim, wasntmandated to become Catholic orattend
mass. The archdioceseshelp was purely humanitarian, hesaid.
A friend of a friend, who was alsoa refugee, picked him up from
theairport, and the diocese set him upwith a job as a parking
attendant atLos Angeles International Airport.
By February, he started classesat Santa Monica College as a
pre-med student.
Two years later, he transferred toUniversity of California,
Berkeley,where he got a bachelors degree inbiology. And then U.C.
Davis formedical school.
He met his future wife, Nejah,who also had fled Ethiopia,
atschool. In 1990, they were married.
By his fifth year in the country,Barre had his U.S.
citizenship.
Barre came to Bakersfield in1990 to become a medical res-ident
at Kern Medical Center.From there, he got a job with Bak-ersfields
Kaiser Permanente.
Shortly after graduating, theDergue was overthrown in 1991and
Ethiopia became democratic.Barre went back for the first timein
1992.
It was unspeakable, he said.
Kids everywhere, begging its
worse than when you left.Barre searched for his oldfriends. You
learn the way theydied, and it was HIV, he said.
But more than scaring him, ithardened his resolve to move backto
Ethiopia and open a hospital.
By this time he was chief of fami-ly practice at Kaiser. His
twoyoung daughters were in school.His wife was a medical
technolo-gist at Good Samaritan and Bakers-field Memorial
hospitals.
But why am I in the comfort-able United States? Barre
askedhimself.
Going back to Dire Dawa everyother year after his first
visit,Barre set upon the overwhelm-ing task of opening a hospital
in acountry wary of outsiders, evenones who used to live there.
He found affordable equipmentfrom India and China. His moth-
ers land his father died in 1986 would be used for the
hospital.His father-in-law, a civil engineerin Ethiopia, helped
oversee theconstruction while Barre was inthe United States.
He raised $1 million for the hos-pital, half of which was his
life sav-ings.
In 1999, his family moved to DireDawa. Barre first built a home
forhis mother, since he used her landfor the hospital. As funds
were run-ning short he realized he couldntfinish his own home, so
the wholefamily moved in together.
Completed in 2003, the hospital called Bilal Hospital after
anEthiopian slave who became thefirst black Islamic convert
wasofficially dedicated in 2004.
The hospital has 40 beds, onesurgeon, full-time pediatrics,
fami-ly practice, obstetrics and gynecol-ogy departments. It also
dispersesfree AIDS medicine. About 100people come through Bilals
doorseach day, he said.
The hospital is probably theonly modern one in Dire Dawa,said
Fitsum Hailu, senior secondsecretary in the economic affairsoffice
at the Ethiopian Embassy inWashington, D.C.
Bilal Hospital has been givingvaluable services to our people
inDire Dawa ... and southeasternparts of the country, Hailu saidvia
e-mail.
Made of concrete, the grey-andblue-painted hospital has
threefloors with balconies off mostpatient rooms.
Shortly after the hospitalopened, two Bakersfield Kaiserdoctors
visited and worked in thehospital for two weeks.
Considering that Bilal cantafford much high-tech equipment,
like most other hospitals in theThird World, diagnoses are
usuallybased off gut instinct, said Dr.David Harmon, physician
incharge at the East Hills Kaiserfacility.
Its entirely eye-balling, hesaid. You just do what you can
forthe patient. Youre not thinkingabout lawsuits.
One man came in with shoulderpain, which was probably a
heartattack, Harmon said. There are nostress tests or even
cardiologists,so all they could do was make himcomfortable. This
gentleman end-ed up dying.
Conservation of resources is alsokey, said Dr. Kip Tulin, a
Kaiserpediatrician. Medicine and timecant be spent on patients
whoprobably wont make it.
Early one morning, an elderlyman was brought to the hospital
with an advanced terminal disease.Dr. Barre had to tell
him,Theres nothing more I can do foryou. Take him home to die,
Tulinsaid. It tears him up. These arethe realities of the Third
World.
Money is also hard to come by.Many patients cant afford the
20birr ($2.50) that is requested to seea physician, Barre said. His
Ameri-can colleagues joke that Barre getspaid in goats and chickens
whichis the case sometimes, he said.
The hospital pays its bills mostlyby the meager income gained
fromthe patients and donations, he said.
Bilal doesnt make enough to payBarre, so he comes back to
Bakers-field to work at Kaiser for a fewmonths of the year, staying
with afellow Ethiopian. He and his familylive off the roughly
$20,000 hebrings back.
Barres wife, Nejah, is also open-ing an orphanage called New
HopeDire Dawa, to help homeless chil-dren.
In a compound donated byBarres father-in-law, the orphan-age is
set to open by the end of the
year. For $20 a month, people cansponsor a child.
The plan is to take as many kidsas possible based on how
manysponsors we can get, Barre said.
In Bakersfield this past Septem-ber, Barre loaded a moving
truck with the donated medicalsupplies he had collected over
the
past few months.Boxes over boxes, crutchesslipped into the
cracks, a fewrolling tables thrown on top, Barrewas determined to
make the equip-ment fit.
In about a month, the contents ofstorage unit 117E at
A-American
Self Storage on Wible Road will behalf a world away, at Bilal
Hospital.
Everything is something youneed, he said, assessing the
pack-ing. Theres not really anything
thats needed more than anythingelse.
His friend Shekib Bekeri, whoalso fled across the desert to
Dji-bouti several years ago, pointed to a
pre-existing tear and exposed stuff-ing in an exam bed, which is
alsomissing a drawer.
Its fine, Barre replied.First in the truck went several
dozen boxes, filled with donatedmedical supplies and medical
text-books. There were also a few boxes
of clothes to help people left home-less by the flood that tore
throughDire Dawa in early August. Theflash flood killed more than
200people and displaced 10,000,according to several
newsaccounts.
Barres home and the hospitalwere spared.
Next into the truck went some
used exam beds, a very heavymechanical exam chair, a
rollingoxygen tank carrier, a circa-1980sgold exercise bike the
flotsamand jetsam of hospital upgradesand technological
advances.
Sweat beaded on Barres baldinghead and streaked down the
patch-
es of grey on his temples. Fromstreet level, all that could be
seen ofBekeri was a bobbing straw hatbehind rows of boxes, as he
movedsome of the packing around tomake room for more.
The two men exchanged sugges-tions in Harari, one of the
roughly100 languagesin Ethiopia.
Throwing some last remainingodds and ends into the back seat
ofthe truck, Barre pulled down themetal door and hopped into
thefront seat.
Hell be back in about ninemonths, collecting more for his
hos-pital and saving up money.
Continued from A6
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2006 THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN A7
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To learn more about donating toBilal Hospital and the
orphanage
New Hope Dire Dawa, [email protected] .
I Send donations forthe hospital to:Dr. Abdul Barre
10724 Arden Villa DriveBakersfield 93311
ISend donations forthe orphanage to:New Hope Dire Dawa Inc.
8200 Stockdale HighwaySuite M-10 #250Bakersfield 93311
HOW TO HELP
IHear Dr. Abdul Barre talkabout his journey and see more
photos from Ethiopia and BilalHospital.
ICheck out The Pulse, EmilyHagedorns blog on health and
med-icine at people.bakersfield.com/blogs/ehagedorn.
On bakersfield.com
QUEST:Manput life savingsin the hospital
KIP TULIN / SPECIAL TO THE CALIFORNIAN
Barre and Dr. David Harmon, physicians with Bakersfields Kaiser
Permanente, stand in front of BilalHospital, the hospital Barre
founded in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia.
Dr. Barre had to
tell him, Theres
nothing more I can
do for you. Take him
home to die. It
tears him up. These
are the realities of
the Third World.Dr. Kip Tulin, a Bakersfield pediatrici-tan
visiting Barres hospital, witnessingBarre tend to an elderly man
who was
brought to the hospital with anadvanced terminal disease
