For a group of student pharmacists and faculty from East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy, two weeks in rural Malawi became much more than an international service trip.

The trip became a living example of pharmacy's power to transform lives through collaboration, compassion and community.

In May 2026, the students joined an interprofessional team that included a medical student and a public health student from ETSU, partnering with Butterfly Collaborative and its Malawian healthcare team to provide care for some of the country's most vulnerable children and families.

Over two weeks, the team served more than 2,000 children during a large-scale outreach event, followed by specialized care for 650 families of children with disabilities.

Together, the interprofessional team provided nutrition screenings, deworming treatments, point-of-care laboratory testing, routine childhood immunizations, human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations, HIV screenings, comprehensive medical evaluations and medications. Caregivers also received cervical cancer screenings and treatment.

"Our college has a mission to develop transformative, collaborative pharmacists who provide healthcare focusing on rural and underserved communities, and this partnership with Butterfly Collaborative in Malawi does just that," said Dr. Emily Flores, associate professor of pharmacy practice, who served as lead on the outreach project and co-lead on the Butterfly Collaborative interprofessional team.

Flores has taken ETSU students to Malawi five times as part of Gatton’s Global Health program, with the next trip scheduled for May 2027.

Each day brought a new challenge as students helped establish a field clinic and pharmacy in a different village before stepping into patient care roles that matched their level of training. Whether assisting with pharmacy services, patient screenings or health education, they learned the importance of flexibility, teamwork and cultural humility.

The experience extended well beyond direct patient care.

Throughout the past year, eight Gatton student pharmacists have participated in research projects with Butterfly Collaborative focused on improving health outcomes for orphaned and vulnerable children in southern Malawi. Their work has explored topics including nutrition, antimicrobial stewardship and population health, resulting in five research poster presentations and four manuscripts currently in development.

The partnership continues year-round, combining service, education and research to improve health while providing meaningful learning opportunities for ETSU students.

Although separated by thousands of miles, Flores noted surprising similarities between Malawi and Appalachia.

"Malawi is a beautiful and welcoming country, much like Appalachia," Flores said. "We both have health needs, and we both benefit from pharmacists and the entire team working together at a high level to identify and address those health needs with local solutions. While the local solutions needed may be different as we fight undernutrition in Malawi and overnutrition in Appalachia, the heart and strength of the communities to make a difference is the same."

Flores said she looks forward to returning to Malawi with future students while continuing collaborative research with Malawian colleagues.

"What an amazing opportunity, and what a platform to learn, grow and serve," Flores said. "Even while dealing with significant nutrition challenges and health concerns, the children of Malawi are so beautiful, creative and industrious and will be the next generation of leaders."

ETSU Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy is one of the university's five health sciences schools that comprise Tennessee's largest public Academic Health Sciences Center. ETSU prepares future health professionals through an interprofessional model that brings together students and faculty from multiple disciplines to learn with, from and about one another.

Learn more at etsu.edu/pharmacy.