The First 180 Days
One of the assigned readings for our Quarter 1 retreat was an excerpt from the book The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels by Michael Watkins. The premise of the book is that, as a new employee or leader of an organization, you have 90 days to prove yourself […]
GHC Welcomes Its Fifth Class of Fellows!
Today, we officially launched the fifth class of Global Health Corps Fellows at our 2013 Training Institute at Yale University! We’re so excited to welcome this global cohort of emerging leaders and celebrate a major milestone in Global Health Corps’ growth as an organization. Since 2009, Global Health Corps has grown over 450% and placed […]
Simple Hope
A one and a half hour trip going on four hours Time is ticking Reports are due, proposals to send, meeting delayed Onlookers gaze at the muzungo as she waits for her driver by the road She’s out of place, no other foreigners here Alas, picked up by her friendly chauffeur with a warm smile […]
‘Lest You Forget Why’
One day, my 4 year old nephew asked my sister, ‘why did they call you Stella?’, she replied, ‘I guess because it’s a beautiful name, why did they call you Timothy?’ She asked him in return. In his response, Timothy said, ‘ I don’t know why, but I wish they gave me a different name; […]
Malawi in Crisis: How did it run out of essential medicines?
Malawi currently faces several major challenges with its health care system. Delivery of care is rather poor. The techniques and prescriptions are rather antiquated. There are few properly trained health workers and skilled clinicians; and there not enough institutions to educate them than. In my opinion, the most pressing is the shortage of essential medicines, […]
Diagnosing Bukeye
I just finished reading the chapter of Jeffrey Sachs’ book, The End of Poverty, in which he discusses the idea of “clinical economics,” and his ideas resonated deeply with the reactions I’ve been having to my immersion in the rural community of Bukeye, Burundi. The essence of “clinical economics” is the idea that the world of […]
Why am I here?
Many times I have dreamed of running away, running away to a dream land. When I watched movies I saw people living easy lives, owning things that most people in Malawi dream of having, for instance expensive and recent cars, beautiful apartments, good nutrition, and interesting towns with attractive buildings. When I look at the […]
Why do we need to empower women?
Women constitute the largest population of the world. In other words they are the most important component of every society. In most parts of Malawi especially in rural areas, women are the ones that do most of the work to feed their families. They work in gardens and other critical activities such as raising children […]
A city boy gone rural
One of the good things that this fellowship did is allow me to leave Buja, the main city of Burundi, to go live and work in a rural zone. From a city boy point of view, all I knew about the rural zones of Burundi was what I use to see while going on a […]
Embracing Self-care while at Your GHC Placement
As Global Health Corps fellows we are placed in critical roles at our placement site, which can place a huge burden on the mind and body. Imagine taking overachieving and compassionate people who have mastered every challenge imaginable (the amount of Phi Beta Kappa recipients, college graduates with Latin letters, multiple degree earners, entrepreneurs, athletes, […]