Ten years ago, Alex Gitungano (SPH‘19) volunteered to accompany a badly burned toddler named Leo from their home country of Burundi to Boston for life-saving medical care. Alex’s leap of faith to leave everyone and everything he knew to care for child he had just met, and his devotion to raising Leo over the tumultuous decade to follow, dramatically changed both their lives.
As the founder and executive director of the Justice Health Initiative (JHI), Alex connects patients with severe and rare medical conditions to healthcare they would otherwise be unable to access or afford in their home countries.