Donor Profile: Debby Rempis

The connections Debby Rempis has to Indiana University School of Medicine’s work in Kenya through AMPATH are long and deep.

In the early days of the partnership, Rempis’ father, Charles Test, MD, provided medical journals to Moi University School of Medicine. Later, he provided the money to dig a 400-foot water well at a rural health center in Mosoriot. It meant mothers no longer had to carry water for their own childbirth.

Andrew and Debby Rempis

Later, Rempis’ mother, Sarah “Sally” Test, was instrumental in supporting the creation of a program that provides educational and recreational activities to children receiving medical care. Now known as the Sally Test Child Life Program, it was the first initiative of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa.

Her parents’ support of and belief in IU’s work in Kenya carried over to Debby, who has made annual financial gifts to AMPATH for years. But she also wanted to ensure that legacy of her parents continued. So, in 2020, Rempis and her husband Andrew decided to establish a bequest that would sustain the Sally Test Child Life Program for many years to come.

“I was very surprised that they (her parents) hadn’t left a bequest when they died to keep things going. So, I thought well maybe that’s a message to us—our generation,” Rempis said. “I wanted to do what I could to ensure that the Sally Test Child Life program continued.”

The process, she found, was easy. She worked with her family’s attorney and the development staff at the IU Center for Global Health and IU School of Medicine to create the bequest. “I just feel like I have been so blessed in life that I really want to give back,” she said.

Rempis appreciates AMPATH’s history in fighting the HIV-AIDS epidemic, its mission to build the health care system in Kenya and how Kenyans are leading the effort themselves, and that AMPATH even looks beyond health care to improve lives. “It just seems to keep growing and getting better and better and better,” she said.

Rempis is also thrilled that her own children—Alexander and David—are AMPATH supporters. And Alex even took his own two daughters to visit the program their great-grandmother founded and that their grandmother’s gift will sustain for many years to come.