New Leadership
in Justice
Historic
Contributions
Recognized
‘City
of
Roses’
Erika Preuitt to
oversee community
corrections
Fort Vancouver
honors its African
American roots
See Local News, page 3
See story, page 2
Volume XLVIII • Number 35
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • September 18, 2019
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Angola Medical Clinic has Portland Roots
OHSU physician, students contribute to global community
four or five patients a day, while Dr. Alisha saw 30 or 40,”
he said. “It was very exciting. We had a full waiting room
and people outside the door.”
Butler, a fourth-year medical student at the University
of California Irvine, was visiting Portland a couple of years
ago when she and Hervey went to hear Moreland-Capuia
speak at OHSU, and the pair built “a really meaningful con-
nection” with her and, years later, accepted her offer to go
to Angola.
In the more than five years since the Good Samaritan
Health Care clinic opened in Cacuaco, outside the capi-
tal of Angola, it has seen between 800 and 1,100 patients
annually, according to Daniel Capuia, Moreland-Capuia’s
husband and her co-founder of the Capuia Foundation, a
fundraising arm for the nonprofit clinic.
The couple met when they were students at Jefferson
High School. Alisha is an Oregon native, and Daniel’s fam-
ily left Angola for Oregon in the mid-1970s because of un-
ending war.
Angola gained its independence from Portugal in 1975,
but then the country erupted in a civil war that didn’t end
until 2002. It was then that Daniel’s father, Estevao Capuia,
was urged to go back home and help rebuild his country. He
c ontinued on p age 4
photos courtesy of the c apuia f oundation
Dr. Alisha Moreland-Capuia, executive director of Oregon Health and Science University’s Avel Gordly Center
for Healing and assistant professor of psychiatry at the OHSU School of Medicine, opens the gates to her Good
Samaritan Health Care Center in Angola, joined by patients and clinic personnel. The Portland native and other
members of the Capuia family founded the non-profit clinic.
b everly c orbell
t he p ortland o bserver
Monique Hedmann just had an experience she’ll never
forget. She and two other medical students of color were
able to join a mission this summer to bring hope and medi-
cal care to a beloved global community by spending time at
a health care center established by a Portland-based founda-
tion in Angola, on the southwestern coast of Africa.
The catalyst that led to the international visit was Dr. Al-
isha Moreland-Capuia, executive director of Oregon Health
and Science University’s Avel Gordly Center for Healing
and assistant professor of psychiatry at the OHSU School
of Medicine.
Moreland-Capuia, who is described as a physician,
scholar, educator and orator at OHSU, is known for the
voice she gives to increasing access to quality health care
here at home and for people in Africa. She gives speeches
about her foundation and work in Angola, and it was after
by
hearing her speak, at different times, that the three students
from Oregon and California felt moved to get involved to
the point that Moreland-Capuia became a close advisor to
all three.
“During my first year of medical school Dr. Alisha spoke
to my class and she has been such a mentor,” Hedmann
said. “To do this with her, it’s amazing, a dream come true.”
Although they were in Africa for only a week, the expe-
rience was profound for Hedmann and the other students,
Kelley Butler and Shane Hervey.
“I found new confidence in myself as a black woman in
Africa — it was an all-encompassing hug,” Butler said. “I
came back with self assuredness as a black woman and a
future physician; it was so involved and so personal.”
Hervey, a third-year medical student at OHSU, said his
first international experience made a distinct impression on
him.
“We were in the clinic from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and I saw
Nurse Joana Ribeira-Alves (left) meets with Dr. Alisha
Moreland-Capuia of Portland at the nonprofit Good
Samaritan Health Center in Angola started by the
Portland-based Capuia Foundation. Ribeira-Alves has
been with the clinic since it opened five years ago.