Page 4
September 18, 2019
Angola Medical Clinic
has Portland Roots
c ontinued froM f ront
had previously been a supervisor of
veterinary services at a veterinary
hospital.
But before he went, Estevao
Capuia visited his son and daugh-
ter-in-law in Washington D.C.,
where Moreland-Capuia was
working toward her medical degree
at George Washington University
School of Medicine at the time.
The three sat at a kitchen table and
agreed that the most pressing needs
in Angola were the development of
agriculture, education and health
care, but couldn’t agree on which
should come first. His daughter-in-
law, not surprisingly, said a health
clinic should come first, but no
consensus was reached.
The elder Capuia then visited
Angola for a month, but while he
was there he had an accident that
resulted in an open fracture of his
finger. He went to a government
hospital, just to learn that they had
no supplies or antibiotics, which af-
ter a 10-hour search, he was finally
able to secure. That was enough to
change his mind.
“When he got back to DC, he
had an emergency procedure,”
Moreland-Capuia said. “Then he
sat at the same table and said, ‘Re-
member our conversation? I think
you’re right about a clinic.’ ”
The clinic is a reality now, but
it wasn’t easy to get off the ground
because the Capuia family didn’t
want to risk outside influence or
the possibility of corruption, even
ruling out help from the Interna-
tional Monetary Fund and the Eu-
ropean Union.
“So 18 of us formed a founda-
tion,” said Moreland-Capuia. “We
didn’t want NGOs (non-govern-
photo by b everly c orbell /t he p ortland o bserver
Daniel Capuia (second from left) and his wife Dr. Alisah Moreland-Capuia (center), founders of the
Portland-based Capuia Foundation, gather with the three future doctors who joined them in Africa
this summer where they got valuable experience at a nonprofit medical clinic started by the Capuia
family. Monique Hedmann (far left) and Shane Hervey and Kelley Butler (right) are the medical
students pictured.
photo courtesy
of the c apuia f oundation
The exterior of the newly-built
healthcare clinic in Angola
founded by Portland physician
Dr. Alisha Moreland-Capuia
and her family-based Capuia
Foundation. This past summer,
Dr. Moreland-Capuia brought
three medical students from
Oregon and California to the
African country to spend a
week at the clinic treating
patients as part of their
training as future doctors.
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mental organizations) or the gov-
ernment involved. We wanted it to
be a family affair.”
Moreland-Capuia said that 99
percent of funding goes straight
to the clinic, which employs one
physician, Dr. Andre Miranda, two
nurses, one medical technician and
one midwife.
“The clinic was literally built
one window at a time, one door at
a time, and everyone with the last
name Capuia made a contribu-
tion, whatever they could,” More-
land-Capuia said.
It wasn’t just a matter of putting
up a building, though.
“We definitely built this with the
community; we didn’t just impose
it,” she said. “We had to do infra-
structure — water and lights —
and all the employees are Angolan,
to help build the local economy.
We’re proud of the model.”
Moreland-Capuia is also proud
of the three students. Both Butler
and Hedmann have master’s de-
grees in public health, and Her-
vey is thinking about going into
pediatrics. But moreover, they are
now ambassadors for the clinic in
Angola.
“The inaugural group,” she
said. “They can open up to others
and we will set up rotation (for fu-
ture med school students) through
OHSU.”
The Capuias also describe some
of their motivations behind the
clinic on a video on the clinic’s
website, where Daniel Capuia talks
about the turmoil in the country be-
fore his family left.
“It was chaos — there were
bombings everywhere,” he said.
“The Cubans were there and the
Soviet Union was there and there
was no way to stay. We had to flee.”
Daniel Capuia knows the path
ahead will not be easy.
“Sometimes you have to look
back to see where you come from.
If you want to make a change,
make a difference, that’s the route
you have to take,” he said in the
video.
When the clinic first opened,
about 40 percent of patients could
not afford an exam, he said.
“It’s now up to 90 percent,” he
said. “My father was adamant —
they will never be turned away if
they can’t afford it.”
The clinic is the only full-ser-
vice clinic in an area with a pop-
ulation of 550,000, he said, a stag-
gering statistic. “It’s a lot of work,
a lot of time and effort,” he said.
“But it’s ‘heart work’ because we
can see lives being changed and
being affected.”
Creating the clinic has even
wider implications for Angola,
Moreland-Capuia said in the video,
and the government has recognized
that this model for health care is
one the entire country can benefit
from.
“We are the catalyst for a large
transformative movement that we
believe is happening in Angola,”
she said.
To learn more about the Good
Samaritan Health Care Clinic and
the Capuia Foundation and to do-
nate to the effort, visit the website
TheCapuiaFoundation.org.