Growing up, Anne Alaniz, M.D., considered childbirth a matter of life and death.

In the rural village in Malawi where she spent her childhood, women sometimes left for the hospital and never returned. By the age of 10, Alaniz had been taught how to care for her younger siblings in case her mother died during delivery.

Today, as a UMKC-trained gynecologic oncologist practicing in Houston, Texas, Alaniz is working to change that reality for the women and children of Malawi through Pothawira International, a healthcare organization she founded with deep roots in Kansas City. And she has the support of other UMKC School of Medicine doctors, especially alumna and faculty member Stacey Algren (B.A. ’00/M.D. ’01).

A Path Paved by Education

“Watching my dad, the inspiration to become a physician started there,” Alaniz said. “My dad worked in the medical field as a clinical officer, which would be like the equivalent of maybe a nurse practitioner here. But over there, they basically function like family-practice doctors, because in Malawi the doctor patient ratio is like one to 50,000.”

That inspiration turned into action after a chance meeting with a U.S. emergency room physician, Donna Ivey, who had come on a mission trip to Malawi, located in southeastern Africa. Ivey offered to bring Alaniz to the United States to complete high school and pursue a medical career.

“She brought me a little bit early so I could do one year of high school here and live with her while I kind of adjusted to what was a huge transition from growing up in a small little village where electricity, running water and plumbing was not existent, to coming to what was the first world country,” Alaniz said.

During that year, Alaniz also observed Ivey in the ER, gaining her first exposure to healthcare in the United States.

“I witnessed what was like the miracle of medicine in the United States,” Alaniz said. “I couldn’t believe there were medications, they would put chest compressions and bring people back from the dead. It was nothing I'd ever seen before.”

An Epiphany That Defined a Mission

While attending Dallas Baptist University as a pre-med student, Alaniz remembers returning to Malawi during a break in school to visit family and join her dad in the clinic again, this time observing through new eyes.

Alaniz remembers the patient that changed everything for her during this visit. A mother had walked 10 to 15 miles to the clinic with her 5-year-old suffering from dehydration after drinking contaminated water, but there was nothing the medical team could do.

“Watching a 5-year-old die from dehydration was unbelievably devastating to me,” Alaniz said. “And then I watched my dad take the baby and put it on the mother's back. And she now had to walk 10 to 15 miles back home with a dead baby on her back. I remember that baby was my epiphany.”

After that trip, Alaniz said she entered medical school with a clear goal: to build a healthcare center for women and children in Malawi.

Building a Dream

During medical school at The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, Alaniz and a group of medical school friends raised $3,000 through a garage sale and a donor match, which was enough to purchase the property that would eventually become Pothawira, which means “safe haven” in Chichewa, the native language of Malawi.

But it was during 2008, her third year of residency at UMKC when a moment of serendipity helped propel the project forward. While completing a C-section on a patient, the attending doctor asked Alaniz what she wanted to do after residency.

“I have this property in Malawi, and I would love to start implementing a children's healthcare center there some day,’” Alaniz remembers telling the doctor.  

The patient’s husband was in the room and happened to be involved with Global Orphan Projects, which is based in Kansas City and establishes clinics and homes for orphaned children in countries such as Haiti and Malawi. He spoke with Alaniz after the surgery, and from there helped connect her with partners who could help bring the clinic to life.

With support from Global Orphan Project and additional donors, Pothawira took root within six months of this chance encounter. First with a school, orphan homes and an outpatient clinic, and a few years later, Pothawira added a birthing center. Construction of a surgical center is now underway.

“One of the things that we realized is that while we were able to offer these women routine deliveries, when an emergency happens and they need a C-section, there was no place to send them except this tiny, little district hospital where they have a very small operating room, no cautery and no electricity,” Alaniz said.

The addition of the surgical center will be transformative for the Salima district of Malawi, which has a population of 560,000 and only one operating room. When construction of the surgical center is complete, the district will have four ORs.

Support Rooted at UMKC

Pothawira’s growth has not happened in isolation. From the earliest days, Alaniz’s vision has been supported by a network of UMKC-trained physicians, including Algren, who trained Alaniz during her OB/GYN residency.

While at UMKC, Alaniz regularly shared her long-term vision for improving women’s health in Malawi with Algren and other faculty members. That openness led to years of continued support. Since 2017, Algren has volunteered with Pothawira almost every other year, traveling to Malawi for approximately two weeks at a time to provide obstetric and gynecologic surgical care.

During those trips, Algren and the team work from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. most days, typically performing as many as 70 surgeries under extreme conditions, often with limited supplies, inconsistent electricity and shortages of basic resources.

“Sometimes we have to be creative,” Algren said. “We don't have the instruments or supplies we need. So we end up maybe stretching ourselves a little bit more to do cases that we would send to somebody else here, just because there is nobody else.”

On multiple occasions, blood shortages became so severe that Algren donated her own blood so patients could undergo surgery — then operated on them herself.

“To literally give, and then two hours later, operate, and you see your blood hanging, going into the patient — that's kind of weird,” Algren said. “That's wild.”

Taking the Mission to New Heights

That steadfast commitment extends beyond the walls of the clinic, even to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Each year, Alaniz leads a fundraising climb of Africa’s highest peak to support Pothawira’s growth. This year’s climb helped fund the construction of the new surgical center.

Among the climbers were Algren, Mary Thaxton, a former UMKC resident and classmate of Alaniz, and Jimmy Sandham, a former Pothawira orphan who came to the United States for high school and college.

Sandham recently earned his bachelor’s in healthcare administration and is headed back to Malawi in March to become the new surgery center’s manager.

“Jimmy was also given the gift of education, and that's why education is really important for us,” Alaniz said. “Somebody gave me the gift of education, so if there's anything that I can do other than just provide care, it is educating children of Malawi so they can be my successors.”

Although Alaniz visits Malawi two to three times a year, she has made education and training a priority to ensure care continues when visiting teams are not present.

“Now that we have more space, we're really going to ramp up the educational piece and try to teach them to be able to do the surgeries themselves,” Alaniz said. “Because ultimately, the goal is even when we're not there, we want them to be able to do it.”

As a gynecological oncologist, Alaniz has also been enhancing the clinic’s overall efforts toward women’s healthcare with increased oncology treatments, cervical cancer screenings, preventative vaccinations for cervical cancer, maternal care and more.

“Taking care of women while they’re younger and in their reproductive years so they get to live longer and get to continue taking care of their children is what we’re striving for,” Alaniz said. “I want our orphanage to close because women are living longer and can take care their own children, because children should grow up with their family in their home.”

Since establishing a medical presence in the country, Pothawira has already contributed to a dramatic improvement on the life expectancy in Malawi. According to the World Health Organization, the life expectancy has increased by nearly 18 years since 2000, from an expectancy of approximately 45 to 63 years.

Knowing the impact this work is having on this country has been rewarding for both Alaniz and Algren and has reminded them of their original purpose as physicians.

“It kind of renews your passion in medicine because it can get a little daunting practicing today,” Algren said. “And there, we just treat people.”

Alaniz also remains thankful for the connections she made in Kansas City and the impact it has had on Pothawira.

“I'm forever grateful for my experience in Kansas City with UMKC,” Alaniz said. “I'm definitely a product of them. And being able to go out into the world and participate in this way has been really incredible.”