Category: Uncategorized

I am more than half way through my internship with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Cape Point, The Gambia. UNFPA does amazing work in the areas of family planning, sexual and reproductive health (SRH), gender-related issues (e.g., early marriage, FGM, GBV) and HIV prevention. They are currently working to accomplish the objectives of their Strategic Plan 2017-21. During my first few weeks, I participated in a sensitization campaign for obstetric fistulas on International Day to End Obstetric Fistula. UNFPA went to the Bundung Maternal and Child Health Hospital, a public hospital under the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and Sinchu Baliya Health Post, both facilities that garner a large population of pregnant women attending antenatal care (ANC) visits. During the event, messages regarding symptoms and treatment options for fistulas were delivered in three local languages (Wolof, Mandinka, and Fula) to accommodate for the group present.

Due to the lack of available data on fistulas in Gambia, UNFPA is hoping that the sensitization campaign will produce a fistula count of women who have the condition. By lifting the stigma and encouraging women to sympathize with affected women, hopefully more women will seek treatment and get registered through the fistula count camp. One of the most valuable lessons that I have been lucky enough to learn is how to deliver culturally sensitive messages and cater to the communities you are trying to serve.

This observation was made at a weekly male engagement clinic that Bundung MCH Hospital initiated back in 2012. The session is a discussion style program with men whose wives (or significant other) attended an ANC visit that week. These men are contacted via SMS and/or phone calls and encouraged to attend the clinic. Men who accompany their wives to ANC visits are given priority and allowed to bypass the long visit lines as incentive for their participation. Bundung’s investment in male involvement has inspired UNFPA to pilot similar programs in other organization supported facilities across The Gambia. I am currently co-writing a concept note that implements a pilot project strengthening Bundung’s male clinic and eventually developing a standardized programme to be applied to other health facilities.

Additionally, since UNFPA works through Implementing Partners (IPs), I have been able to observe the operation of these organizations, including the challenges they encounter in fulfilling their goals. There are so many organizations in Gambia that are working to empower women and girls, including Think Young Women, a mentorship programme that is one of UNFPA’s Youth and Adolescent IPs. During the next couple weeks, I will be diligently laying the foundation for the pilot male clinic initiative and going on four-day upcountry visits to the more rural facilities. Since Bundung is a public hospital that began with funding, it will be an opportunity to compare rural vs. urban facilities and ways that male clinic would be incorporated while considering the existent financial situation of the facility. I’m a little sad that the weeks are going by so fast, but I feel a deep sense of gratitude for all the exposure I’ve been getting. Can’t wait to share more experiences!

-Fanny

As a 25-year-old, I naturally have not thought much about my retirement, much less where I would live if I ever were to retire. My practicum experience has forced me to think deeply about what it means to be retired and to be a contributing member of society, but it’s become complicated with the concept of immigration. I’m currently working on a study funded by the National Geographic Society to explore the impact American and Canadian immigrant retirees might have in Latin America. We are specifically studying how waves of retiree migration in two colonial cities are simultaneously changing healthcare systems, land uses and real estate practices, and social dynamics. It has only been a week and half in the field and the work is even more complex than I anticipated.

Our first city is Cuenca, Ecuador—a UNESCO world heritage site located in the Andes in Southern Ecuador. There are estimates that anywhere between 8,000-10,000 retired expats are living in Cuenca, potentially making up about 1% of the population. Before arriving to Cuenca, I had the assumption that this small retired expat population had high financial and social capital that contributed to major changes in housing (and displacement) through price inflation in the past decade. To an extent, there is some truth there. However, our preliminary data are portraying a complicated story affected by a growing population of returning (or deported) Ecuadorians from the U.S.A. and Europe, and Venezuelan refugees. These three types of migrants (Ecuadorians, Venezuelans, retired expats) have provoked conjoined public sentiments about immigration and how they are all affecting life in Cuenca. No stakeholder really seems to agree on much except that at least one of these immigrant groups is partially responsible for the sustained economic struggle.

My feelings about this topic are muddled by my background as a Venezuelan American, who is frequently hearing xenophobic remarks about Venezuelans immigrating to Ecuador to steal jobs, commit crimes against natives, and overuse social services. It is always disorienting to think that these comments are heard all over the world against neighboring groups of people. Not surprisingly, this project has become fairly political the deeper we dive into it and how the results compare to our second stop: San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. We will find out soon.

-Karla

One of my biggest motivations in pursuing a public health career and degree is the opportunity to contribute to the existing efforts across the country to improve maternal, infant, and child health in the nation. MAZA has afforded me this opportunity with this summer practicum. MAZA is a social enterprise that provides safe, accessible, affordable and reliable transportation for urgent and emergency health care needs in remote rural areas of Ghana, with a focus on pregnant women and sick infant. They lease motorized tricycles to local drivers at a discounted price in exchange for their being on call for urgent/emergency health care transportation twice a week. For the other five days of the week, the drivers use the tricycles as taxis to earn a living and pay a weekly fee to MAZA. After two years, they own the tricycles outright. MAZA’s service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through a toll-free number or by direct contact with the local drivers.

MAZA has been in the Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo District for a year now and has provided transportation during emergency/urgent health care needs for over 200 passengers since. My practicum is a field assessment focused on exploring the geographical limits of MAZA’s intervention in the Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo District. My first week in the Northern Region was spent in the field in Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo collecting location data of MAZA drivers and passengers to investigate the distance between drivers commute to pick up passengers and take them to a health care center during emergencies. Working in this part of Ghana – rural, open, bright, unlike what I’m used to in the capital city of Accra – has been nothing short of exciting.

Little did I know there are communities in this part of the country, that have existed for decades, are now divided by superficial international border lines delineating Ghana from Togo. There are literally families living in the same community with one family’s house in Togo and the other in Ghana. Wild right? That’s one of the most fascinating things I’ve encountered here. As such, there are families technically living in Togo that have benefited from MAZA’s services because they are a part of a community that is also Ghanaian and visit the health facilities in Ghana.

This week, I go back to the rural areas for the second part of the project – community assessment. Looking forward to sharing those experiences with you all.

 

-Edith