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Author: Joseph Scarpelli

Joseph is from Boston, Massachusetts, and completed his undergraduate studies at The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he majored in English and Peace and Conflict Studies. He studied abroad at The University of Melbourne. After graduation he taught conversational English in Kagawa, Japan, before working as a fundraising professional for The Jimmy Fund at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. In 2012 Joseph completed his Master's in Public Health from the Boston University School of Public Health, where he studied International Health and Health Program Management. As part of his studies Joseph spent eight months studying public health in the Philippines. He was based in Manila, but conducted research on parasitic diseases and community health financing in rural areas of the country. He also worked as an intern for the World Health Organization Western Pacific Regional Office in the Emergency and Humanitarian Action Unit. His GHC posting was as a Policy Support Officer on a USAID-funded Maternal and Child Health project in Uganda. He is currently based in western Kenya working as a Program Associate on the Innovations team of One Acre Fund. Joseph enjoys travel and hiking and practices yoga and meditation.

The Sounds of (not)Silence

It’s a few days ago and I awake suddenly from a horrifying dream involving screeching baboons fighting each other in the dense forest. It is 5:34am on a Saturday. I am meant to be sleeping in after a long week spent traveling in the field. As I lie there wide awake contemplating how it came […]

It’s Kind of a Funny Story…

Despite what my family and friends back home might gather from email updates chronicling ‘adventures’ in the field, photos of adorable babies, and tales of baboons or elephants along the roadside, every aspect of public health field work isn’t glamorous, exciting, or inspirational. There are most certainly moments of great frustration, pain, anger, and the […]

A Glimpse of Light

On a recent excursion the Land Rover bounced along pothole-ridden gravel roads for over an hour as my head throbbed along with each bump in the midday heat. The meandering road stretched through Kasese District, located on Uganda’s western border; our destination was a small village called Nyakatonzi, abutting the shores of lakes Edward and […]