In July of 2010, nurse and co-founder of the non-profit Health Gives Hope, Amber Kaufman, was invited to an elders meeting by the village elders of Bora, Ethiopia. During the six-mile mountainous hike up to the village, her fellow staff member said he had never heard of a woman being invited to the elder’s meeting, and a Caucasian woman at that. Kaufman walked into the hut to twenty-five men sitting around the fire looking at her, questioning her attendance.
Kaufman recalls, “I asked them what they thought the problem was in their village, asking them about their issue before I said what I thought it was. And they kept telling me that their women, their mothers, were dying at childbirth. I looked at them and I said I would like to build them a health center and provide them medical care. That it was a monumental moment, they were all standing up saying ‘hidota’ and that’s how the clinical was named, the Hidota Health Center, it means hope in their language.”
Currently, Kaufman is the co-founder of Health Gives Hope and a Hyde Park resident. Health Gives Hope is a non-profit organization currently running a maternal and child health center in Ethiopia .
Kaufman need motivation for her three degrees in nursing and that came at a young age. At twelve, her younger sister was born and sparked her interest in nursing. While in the hospital after her sister’s birth, Kaufman had first hand exposure from the nursing staff at the hospital.
“She brought me back to the nursery to show me what she was doing, measuring her and all that good stuff, and I loved it.” After that Kaufman was sold, “I was like this is what I want to do and I didn’t change from it.”
At 33-years-old, Kaufman has a nursing degree from Purdue University, her first master’s degree as a nurse practitioner from the University of Central Florida and is currently working for a master’s in global public health through online courses from the University of London.
Now Kaufman always puts her skills to practice. Twice a year, she makes the trip to Bora, Ethiopia where the Hidota Health Center is located.
Adventurous from a young age and “always on the go,” Kaufman did not shrink from the challenge because she wanted to give back by leading a medical mission. The original trip was in March of 2009 to Uganda. Kaufman loved it and planned a return trip with a medical team. As riots broke out in Uganda, the team had complications with airfare and Uganda was no longer possible. However, instead of cancelling, Kaufman and the organization decided to see if they could take the team somewhere else.
“I had a medical team, supplies, everything. We had a friend we knew and we asked her could you put together a trip for a medical team,” Kaufman said. “So that’s what started our trips to Ethiopia.”
The organization, among others, includes Kaufman’s husband, Jerry Kaufman, and her long time friend Daniel Clark. Each team must include a certain number of medical people, including at least one other nurse practitioner. Above all, team members must have the interest and willingness to serve.
Like her first experience with nursing, after her first visit to Bora, Kaufman knew working in the area would become a life-long pursuit.
“We had done a clinic during the day and I was up there with the team, sitting around the fire and it hit me like a ton of bricks, this is what I want to. It was that moment of looking around and realizing I’ve never felt more driven,” Kaufman said,
Every April and November, Kaufman leads team to the clinic for about ten days and stays a week longer herself. The team stays at a hotel for a couple nights in the next biggest city.
The hotel recently acquired Wi-Fi much to Kaufman’s delight who said, “I about fell off my chair.”
While staying in the village, the team stays in the village’s huts sleeping on straw with sleeping bags. No showers for three days, it is a true experience and that includes the food too. It has become a tradition on the last night of their stay to buy a goat or a sheep from a local to roast. Meat is a big deal because it is expensive and rarely eaten in Bora, Kaufman explained. They only eat meat once a year on an important religious holiday, and now when Kaufman’s team comes.
“I’ve learned I like sheep better,” Kaufman laughed.
The drive for helping people is a passion for Kaufman and is ever present in her life. Before working in Ethiopia, Kaufman and again Daniel Clark and her husband worked in Russia. Russia wasn’t initially on Kaufman’s list of places to go, she chanced upon the opportunity, but she was “hooked” from day one and fell in love with both the country and the people. When working in Russia, Kaufman visited three to four times visiting different cites and even “had some fun in Moscow.”
In Russia, once girls age out of the orphanage system, they often do not have the skills to enter society. Kaufman said, “They were given bus money to the nearest city and it’s like good luck. The organization focused on helping them transition.”
Though she hasn’t spent as much time in Russia as Ethiopia, Kaufman remembers the impact the children made on her.
“There was this orphanage that we would visit and the one year we went I met this little girl, and I just loved her, played with her all day long. She was about three or four then. I didn’t have any interaction between the year but the next year, I went back, she recognized me. She came running up and for me that was a huge because it showed how much that it did matter that we were there,” Kaufman said,
Whether she’s in Ethiopia or Russia, Kaufman has a zeal for her work. Clark can testify to this, “What stands out to me is how passionate she is about the project, she puts that project first, she’s tireless, she puts that project before herself.”
She actually met her husband of ten years at Clark’s wedding and six months later she was engaged. Her husband is also a partner in the non-profit. And for the record, she asked him to dance.
Described as driven, fun and dedicated, Kaufman works to better the organization on the daily. Whether it’s applying for grants or decided how to spend household expenses, Kaufman’s motivation to continue her non-profit work is ever present.
Kaufman said, “It’s such a part of my life now I’m not sure what it changed.”
Kaufman has hopes of staying in Chicago to be close to her family near by in Indiana, but nothing is for certain with both wife and husband finishing degrees. Kaufman jokes she will have a degree from the University of London without having ever been on campus, though you may spot her working out in Henry Crown. The one unwavering element to her life is the Hidota Health Center. Even if a new job opportunity arises, Kaufman says she will not give up the work she does in Ethiopia.
Amber Kaufman may hit the Hyde Park circuit as any other nurse, wife or student but to many, she is so much more; she heals, she gives and she cares as a leader.