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Friday October 10, 2008

Local doctor brings reality of refugee camp to San Francisco

by amanda pazornik
staff writer

In 2002, Dr. Matthew Spitzer arrived at a Sierra Leone refugee camp to find its conditions horrific, its displaced inhabitants suffering from hunger and malaria.

Within a few weeks, an influx of Liberian refugees entered that same camp, where two full latrines threatened contamination, and temporary tents made from sticks and plastic sheeting housed nearly 70 people each for months at a time. Eventually, the wells dried up.

“All of a sudden, there were 8,000 Liberians with nothing but a bag or sack,” recalled Spitzer, 40, president of the Doctors Without Borders board of directors. “There was no money to take care of the new people, and the local town would not pay for wood or supplies.

“People didn’t have the ability to build because there wasn’t enough food to do heavy work. Issues of sanitation, disease, overcrowding and simple human decency were all present there.”

In response to the catastrophic scene, Spitzer and his medical team built a makeshift health clinic where they treated both adults and children, preventing many deaths.

Spitzer, a family doctor in San Francisco, and other representatives from Doctors Without Borders will speak at 7 p.m. Oct. 17 at Fort Mason’s Cowell Theater in San Francisco to share their experiences working overseas for the international humanitarian aid group.

The panel discussion coincides with “A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City,” taking place Oct. 15 to 19 at Little Marina Green Park in San Francisco (www.refugeecamp.org). The exhibit will place visitors in a simulated camp with emergency housing, a food distribution tent, health clinic, water pump, vaccination tent, therapeutic feeding center and cholera treatment center.

“We want people to really take the time to walk through [the exhibit] and get a sense of the reality in the field,” Spitzer said. “It’s a chance for people to talk with our volunteers who have incredible experience working in other countries. It can be a really moving experience for people.”

The independent nature of Doctors Without Borders and its freedom from the government’s control originally drew Spitzer to the organization nine years ago. Today the group assists people threatened by violence, neglect and catastrophe in more than 60 countries worldwide.

Spitzer’s interest in volunteering and different cultures flourished while studying at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York. He debated joining the Peace Corps, but decided Doctors Without Borders was a better fit.

While Spitzer acknowledged that his Jewish faith didn’t drive him to join the organization, he said the idea of tikkun olam helped shape him and the way he thinks about the problems he sees.

“For me, there is a real part of Judaism that’s about social justice and recognizing the need to be socially responsible,” said Spitzer, who was born in New York City and grew up in New Jersey. “They’re obviously not uniquely Jewish, but a part of that came through family and a cultural reality of the Jewish tradition I grew up with.”

When he’s not in the field with Doctors Without Borders, Spitzer works at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic in the Tenderloin, providing medical care to some of San Francisco’s most destitute residents. He also oversees the medical care and support at St. Anthony Farm, a residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation program in Petaluma, and teaches at U.C. Berkeley for the UCSF-Berkeley joint medical program.

Before embarking on a career in medicine, Spitzer was

a student at Yale University, where he majored in philosophy. Following graduation, he worked at several U.N. offices, meeting people from all over the world.

Spitzer entered medical school and completed a family practice residency at San Francisco General Hospital, where he spent a lot of time working in the refugee clinic. He later applied at Doctors Without Borders and, in 1999, had his first experience in the field establishing clinical services and training village doctors in a remote area of China.

In 2006 he was elected to the board of directors, and two years later was appointed president.

“There are some people who use medicine for academic interest,” Spitzer said, “or others who use their careers in medicine as a means to an end.

“For me, I have a sense of social commitment that there are needs out there, and I’m someone who can get there and provide assistance.”

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