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​Doctor's program is good medicine for children

 

 

 

Posted: Monday, August 23, 2004 12:00 am "What are you?"A genius."Where do you come from?"Kings and queens."What's your job?"Nation building."If you don't know the answer, what do you do?"Ask for help."If someone else doesn't know the answer, what do you do?"Each one teach one.By JULIE SWIDWAH-P Staff WriterBENTON HARBOR -- With that familiar opening litany, Dr. Don Tynes prepares his young charges to listen, focus and learn.The youngsters now are ready to review the functions of cranial nerves one through 12, the chambers of the heart, the sections of the stomach and the anatomy of the eye, nose, ears and throat.But the Benton Harbor children are learning much more than anatomy and physiology. They're learning to love themselves and their community. And they don't need their lab coats and stethoscopes to tell you their favorite doc has a huge heart."This helps me learn about doctor stuff, and it helps me want to care for others," said 11-year-old Ronesia King. "I want to be a nurse. He's taught me I can be anything I want to be if I put my mind to it."Ronesia has attended about 10 sessions of Tynes' Future Doctors-Future Leaders program at the Boys & Girls Club of Benton Harbor. The doctor tries to meet at least once a week with "his kids."A doctor of internal medicine and pediatrics at Intercare Health Network in Benton Harbor, Tynes is determined to heal more than physical ailments."I believe it makes no sense to move to a good community. Instead, why not make the community you live in a good one?" he said. With that in mind, he volunteers his lunch time once a week to work with the children.The foundation of his program is self-esteem."I saw that a lot of children in Benton Harbor had low self-esteem. I had to first give them a new vision of self that will hopefully transform them. I had to help them believe they can make it, they can achieve. Only then are they really ready to learn," Tynes said.Born and raised in Harlem, New York, Tynes graduated from Lewis D. Brandeis High School in 1976. He graduated from Wayne State University's School of Medicine, where he and another doctor began a program for children 15 years ago.That program, titled Reach out to Youth for the Future of Doctors and Leaders of Tomorrow, still exists and has exposed 4,000 children to medicine and science, Tynes said. He moved to Benton Harbor in 2000."I knew people here. I felt like this was a place that needed help. I believe one little drop in the desert can do a lot," said Tynes, a self-proclaimed workaholic. "My hope is that I can be a catalyst in this community to trigger self-esteem. I'm not much of a planner. I'm more of a doer. I see a need and I just 'do.' The Lord has blessed me to be able to do these programs."Kyra Strange, 13, has been a member of Future Doctors-Future Leaders for about a year."We get to go places and show people our talent. At first I wanted to be a lawyer, but now I want to be a doctor. The most important thing I've learned is how to check the heart, and about our bodies."Jada Garrett is also 13, and joined Future Doctors a year ago."I can do blood pressures!" she boasts.She also knows her parents' blood pressure should be 120/80, and points out that the systolic number involves squeezing and the diastolic number involves relaxing.She knows she should eat three meals a day, sleep eight hours a night, should exercise and should not smoke."And too much chocolate can give you diarrhea," Jada said. "And we learn to watch our hygiene, like take a shower every day and brush and floss."For information about Future Doctors-Future Leaders, call the Boys & Girls Club of Benton Harbor, 926-8766.