 |
| Ajiri Ikede is recent grad of AV俱乐部 Medical School. |
All for One with Debbie Travis is a different kind of how-to TV show. Instead of a team of experts swooping in to do a home makeover, Canada鈥檚 home decor guru gets community members to pitch in and volunteer.
In August, Ms. Travis arrived聽in North Preston, a rural community home to the oldest black community in Canada. With residents of the community gathered round, she proposed a home renovation project in honor of local unsung hero Rose Fraser, a nurse who works at Halifax鈥檚 North-End Community Health Centre and serves as the community鈥檚 unofficial on-call nurse. In only five days, residents pulled together to repair and redo the Fraser house, even to clean up the yard.
Once in North Preston, however, Ms. Travis added another project to her to-do list: to find a cure for the town鈥檚 insufficient medical services. A doctor visits the town of 4,000 for appointments only聽two hours a week. 鈥淚 may be meddling but I need to do something about this,鈥� says Ms. Travis, who enlists the help of AV俱乐部 students and brings them into the community, ostensibly to pitch in with the reno.
Ajiri Ikede, who spent three days in North Preston with five other Dal students, didn鈥檛 know what to expect. All he was told was to wear old clothes and be prepared to work.
鈥淭he whole idea of working there (in a medical capacity) came to me while I was there,鈥� says Dr. Ikede, 32, a military doctor and recent AV俱乐部 Medical School graduate. 鈥淭hat part was not scripted at all.鈥�
As Dr.聽Ikede suggests聽he might be able to help out, Ms. Travis drops her paintbrush to embrace him. 鈥淭o me, it鈥檚 just makes everything all worthwhile,鈥� she exclaims. 鈥淚t鈥檚 beautiful.鈥�
There is a wrinkle however. Dr. Ikede, who recently moved back to Nova Scotia after working in Ottawa, is only licensed to practice in Ontario. He鈥檚 now applying for his license to practice in Nova Scotia, and once he gets that, hopes to work in North Preston one day a week. He鈥檚 thinking it might be Wednesdays.
鈥淚鈥檓 in a position to help and contribute something,鈥� says Dr. Ikede, who works at the Canadian Forces Health Services Clinic Atlantic (otherwise known as Stadacona Hospital). But he insists the community is helping him too: 鈥淚鈥檓 mandated by the military to keep my skill set as a family physician, so this will definitely help with that.鈥�
Rose Fraser, who was truly oblivious to what the community was up to, says Dr. Ikede's offer is the icing on the cake. She is concerned that limited accessibility to medical care is taking a toll on North Preston, particularly its men who rarely聽visit a doctor and then only "when they're really really sick." And she believes Dr. Ikede, originally from Nigeria,聽can act as a positive role model for聽North Preston's聽young people.
"It is so nice to have my house done over and I truly appreciate it," she says. "But when I heard about what he offered, well, oh my gosh. I thought to myself, if it's doable, it will mean so much to my community."
All for One with Debbie Travis airs Sundays, 9 p.m. on CBC-TV.
VIEW EPISODE: