Finding aid for African village

Dr. Wendy Norman’s clothes still smelled of Africa on Thursday, even though she had been back in the U.S. for 24 hours. She was reluctant to wash away the scents of the village, because the memories they held were precious.

“I wanted to retain the smell of the dirt and the village,” she said. “They were such a huge reminder.”

Just a few days earlier, Norman had been tending to ailing patients in Zimbabwe with an Orange County-based humanitarian group called the Ndebele Art Project. The organization organizes trips to the Zimbabwean village of Jabulani. Due to a chaotic economy and political instability, the village lacks the funds to treat even the most preventable sicknesses.

That is why the project will sponsor a fundraiser at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Memphis at the Santora Restaurant in Santa Ana, 201 N. Broadway.

The fundraiser will begin with a dinner, followed by music from Dennis Owens of the Goodfoot, an optional poker tournament, and a silent auction with merchandise from local businesses. The bar services will be open until 1 a.m. The Memphis Restaurant will donate a portion of the night’s profits to the project.

The people of Zimbabwe are desperately in need of resources, said Todd Puchalski, who traveled to Zimbabwe with Norman.

“I was really surprised at how clean the environment was, yet how sick they were,” he said. “They simply don’t have resources.”

Norman first traveled to Africa with the project in November. “It seemed like most of the people suffered from either malnutrition problems, dehydration, combined with bacterial and viral infections,” she said.

This trip to Zimbabwe was Norman’s second. The people have responded well to the treatments, she said.

“Overall, Victoria Falls area is doing better. I was happy to see that they had put on weight,” she said.

According to project member Mire Molnar, the follow-up visits to Zimbabwe are equally important as the first.

“Norman has amazing commitment,” she said. “She follows through.”

During this past trip, Norman brought about 100 pounds of nutritional supplements, vitamins, dehydration mixes and other natural products. Perhaps even more importantly, Norman brought a wealth of information to the villagers, many of whom held erroneous notions about the human body.

According to Norman and Puchalski, the people often deprived diarrhea patients of water because they assumed that the diarrhea was caused by excessive water in the system. However, the project offered various classes to teach the people how to care for treatable ailments.

“They really have a desire to prevent a lot of their illness,” Puchalski said. “And we held a couple of classes. Even though some of them already knew this information, they were still eager to learn.”

According to Molnar, the trip has changed how she sees things in the U.S.

“You just want to come back and make something of your experiences,” she said.

If You Go

When: 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday

WHERE: Memphis at the Santora restaurant, 201 N Broadway, Santa Ana

Admission Cost: free

Why: Part of the night’s proceeds will go to supplying medical aid to a village in Zimbabwe

INFORMATION: call www.napafrica.org or call 877-627-2777