Born to Indian and Filipino immigrants, raised in the "prairie town" environs of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and educated for 10 years at a French immersion school, Anita Bahl wanted nothing more than to see the world and help those in need.
Her first step was moving to Hawaii.
"I’d seen Hawaii on TV, and it looked like a beautiful, exotic location," Bahl said. "I eventually moved here together with a couple of friends. The thought was, ‘Let’s go see how it is!’ I wanted to go to all the big cities — New York, Chicago, Los Angeles …"
Bahl bounced around for a couple of years, finding employment as a nurse in Honolulu, San Francisco and Seattle before returning to Hawaii for good in 2008.
It was only after settling in Hawaii that Bahl found the doors to the world truly open.
Through her peers at the Queen’s Medical Center, where she works as a surgical nurse, Bahl learned about the Aloha Medical Mission, a volunteer organization that sends health professionals to impoverished areas within the Asia-Pacific region.
At the invitation of AMM President Bradley Wong, Bahl joined a 10-day medical mission to the Philippines in 2009.
"I was really interested because I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and adapt to different surroundings," Bahl said. "I had no idea what to expect. I went into it pretty much blind."
Bahl said she was immediately struck not just by the lack of sterile conditions and the paucity of basic medical supplies in the areas she served, but also by the resourcefulness of the local practitioners with whom she worked and the gratitude of those she served.
Working long hours to chip away at the seemingly endless lines of patients in need, Bahl helped doctors as they corrected hernias and cleft palates, performed circumcisions and attended to many other surgical needs that would otherwise go unmet.
"After that I was hooked," Bahl said. "The feeling of being able to help people in ways that could potentially change their lives for the better — it just draws you in."
Since that first trip to the Philippines, Bahl has undertaken an average of two or three medical missions each year — all at her own expense — to places including Cambodia, Nepal and the Dominican Republic.
Bahl said the return home can be jarring as she confronts the abundance of everyday life in the developed, consumer-driven West.
"Working with the Aloha Medical Mission makes be very grateful for what I have," Bahl said. "If I can help other people, even for a short time, I will."
Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.
