The trouble with incentives
“You know, we do not come because [another organization] gives us money to attend meetings,” a health worker told me bluntly as I waited for the health center’s workers to trickle into Millennium Villages Project’s monthly one-hour quality improvement meeting. Part of the area that Uganda’s Millennium Villages Project serves is saturated with NGOs: Elizabeth […]
What happens at the end? Millennium Villages Project & the MDGs
My organization is shutting down at the end of this year. The world’s also supposed to meet the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the end of this year. I work at Millennium Villages Project (MVP), started by economist and UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Millennium Development Goals Jeffrey Sachs to demonstrate that rural […]
Professional Development: Exercising My Green Thumb
One of the benefits of being a Global Health Corps fellow is the ability to pursue professional development opportunities outside of our normal scope of work. Across the fellow class, professional goals and interests take many shapes and forms and, therefore, our respective professional development endeavors often look very different. Some fellows travel for conferences, […]
“I think she is hot for a black girl…Oh, that’s sooo gay…Stop acting like a girl” – Let’s have an adult conversation about “micro-aggressions”
Everyday, we overlook the little manifestations of our own prejudices that leave us oblivious to committing little, white transgressions or “micro-aggressions.” It may sound harmless when we say, “I think she is hot for a black girl…Oh, that’s so gay…Stop acting like a girl.” Or when you are a foreigner living and/or traveling abroad and […]
“Invest in the future: Defeat malaria” – Using Bicycles to Combat Malaria
Malaria continues to be the most serious mosquito-borne disease in the world today with the greatest burden occurring across sub-Saharan Africa. In this region alone, it is estimated that more than 250 million cases are recorded and nearly one million deaths each year (Kelly-Hope and Mckenzie, 2009). In Zambia, the burden of malaria was estimated […]
A journey to achieving a dream!
Throughout my childhood I dreamed of being a medical doctor and being able to save the lives of people suffering from diseases. I had a special interest in cardiology, hoping to become a heart surgeon. I was encouraged by my parents and teachers, and told that all it takes is hard work and determination to […]
Let’s Talk About Sex
“S…E…X…” I read the letters aloud as I scrawl them across the poster paper taped to the wall behind me, and the room erupts with a cacophony of laughter. I am standing in S.O.U.L. Foundation’s weekly Youth Mentorship Programme, which brings university and secondary student leaders together with younger students, providing them with a safe space […]
Sharing Your Narrative Out of Respect for Those You Serve
Zainab Salbi took the stage at Chelsea Piers in New York City with such poise and grace. With light streaming in the large windows, I sat with the rest of the 2014-2015 class of Global Health Corps fellows in awe – drawn to her experience as she spoke with honesty and humility. Her words had […]
Minding the Gap
As a child, I remember carrying around my favorite Disney characters’ story books, like Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. I carried them not because I wanted to read, but to look at the pictures of the beautiful princesses in their pretty dresses and shoes. I am now an adult and I still find reading books a […]
Improving Patient Care, One Employee at a Time
Recently, my fellow GHC cohorts in Malawi launched the #health2me photo campaign to promote global health and GHC in Malawi, and to encourage people to think beyond traditional understandings of health. As I considered what health meant to me – well-being, happiness, self-sufficiency, peace of mind, and so on – I settled on the idea […]