Since the late 1980s, students and faculty from Duke University School of Medicine have volunteered time in rural Fremont, NC. The monthly People’s Clinic of Fremont provides free medical care to people from Wayne County and the surrounding areas who are  otherwise unable to afford health care. The philosophy of the clinic is guided by the idea that the community provides for, and makes decisions about, its own well-being. Duke is proud to be a part of the Fremont community’s efforts to address the difficulties it faces as a medically underserved community bearing the brunt of this nation’s health inequalities due to limited economic opportunities, racial injustice and labor conditions seen by many as exploitative.

A yearly educational health fair in Fremont has traditionally been organized by Duke students and the Fremont community. However, due to a variety of circumstances the fair has not occurred for the last several years. In a fall 2004 meeting of Duke undergraduates and medical students with the Fremont community, community members indicated they would like to work with us to reinstate it this year. Therefore, the production of educational demonstrations and exhibits for the health fair has been adopted as a major organizational goal for this year by both the medical school’s Rural Health Coalition and the undergraduate Rural Health Clinics for Humanity group. Medical students are working with the undergraduates to develop educational projects in several specific health areas identified by Fremont community members as of interest and importance. These projects present an opportunity for teaching and mentoring younger, medically inclined students that is rare before residency. The health fair will be held April 2^nd, 2005 in a public park in Fremont and will be advertised in Wayne and surrounding counties.