Sometimes good stories must be told. Here’s one.

Lonnie Hackett entered Bowdoin College in the Fall of 2010 with a clear path to a promising future. The Bangor native was a top student and a fine athlete, excelling in both football and track. He planned to enter medical school after graduation and pursue a career in sports medicine. Then his life took a surprising turn.

He spent the summer after his first year at Bowdoin in Zambia working with the Communities Without Borders program. During that time he decided to do what he could to help ease the HIV/AIDS epidemic so he met with Zambian government officials and contacted area schools. He then spent the remainder of the summer leading HIV/AIDS education courses for hundreds of students with support from school staff.

That experience inspired Lonnie to launch Healthy Kids/Brighter Future (HK/BF) while he was still a student at Bowdoin. HK/BF exists to improve the health and learning of at risk children through training a teacher health corps and making local schools a point of access to primary healthcare and health information.

“There is a gap in providing health services to kids in Zambia in the 5-15 age group,” he explains. “And the best way to access health services is through the schools.” A group of teachers in each of HK/BF’s partner schools is trained to meet basic health needs, such as de-worming and vitamin supplementation.

Moreover, HK/BF helps links schools to health clinics, which serve students who need greater health care.

Lonnie stresses that the program is run from the ground up. “We lead from behind. I am the only American working with HK/BF in Zambia, and I stay in the background,” he says. “ It’s essential to get buy-in from the local community to ensure long-term sustainability.”

Lonnie is currently spending some time in the United States after having finished his second full year of overseeing HK/BF in Zambia. This past year, HK/BF worked with 52 schools, trained 112 teachers as school health workers, and served 15,000 children. Over 90 percent of the schools reported an increase in attendance and there has been a 60 percent reduction in schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasitic worms. Moreover, focus groups conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health reveal an improvement in the overall health of the students, among other findings.

“People wondered whether the communities would accept HK/BF involvement in the schools and whether the teachers would actually do the work,” says Lonnie, “The answer to both questions is a resounding ‘Yes!’”

As to the future, HK/BF plans to add three new communities in Zambia and to reach 25,000 additional children. “In Zambia, about half the people are under 15 years old. We have to reach the young people while they are in school. We are trying to create a model which can be scaled nationally,” says Lonnie. The model could then be applied to poorer nations worldwide

Funding for HK/BF has come from Rotary International, Rotary clubs (in the U.S. and around the world), foundations and individual donors.

Lonnie has put his medical school plans on hold, although he’s considering spending a year at Oxford studying health policy. “I wake up every day knowing what I want to do that day,” he says. “I want to keep this program growing and expanding around the world.”

Not a bad goal, Lonnie. Not bad at all.

Lonnie will be giving a talk at Bowdoin at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 2 at the Kresge Auditorium in the Visual Arts Center at Bowdoin College. For further information on Healthy Kids/Brighter Future go to www.healthykidsbrighterfuture.org.

David Treadwell, a Brunswick writer, welcomes commentary or suggestions for future “Just a Little Old” columns at [email protected].