How I Joined the Movement for Global Health Equity

One year ago , I was saying goodbye to family and friends and boarding a plane to Zambia. With 3 weeks left in the fellowship, I’ve been doing a lot of reflection on where I’m going next. But to fully appreciate where I’m going, I think it’s import to reflect on where I’ve been and how I got here. So here goes…

In early 2012 I saw an ad in GOOD Online Magazine that read, “Are you under 30? Do you want to work in Africa?” I answered each question aloud, albeit with a hint of skepticism, saying “Yes? Yes?” I ended up clicking through to the Global Health Corps (GHC) website and found myself slipping out of my lunchtime hyperlink coma and into a fantasy world filled with invigorating phrases like “field work,” “getting my hands dirty,” and “real impact.”

Five months later, those phrases became reality as I bumped along a dirt road to a rural health center in Zambia. Veiled in a thin layer of red dust, my colleagues at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) and I spent nearly five weeks traveling throughout four rural districts to deploy Zambia’s national electronic health record system, known as SmartCare. Through this system, the goal of improving the quality of care for all Zambians is within reach. In particular, the goal of ensuring that HIV-positive women have access to the treatments they need in order to prevent their children from being born with HIV and to ensure that those same mothers can be healthy enough to raise their children.

I have been working as a GHC fellow in the Strategic Information and Evaluation unit of the EGPAF/Zambia office along with my Zambian co-fellow and friend, Mwitwa Chileshe. EGPAF partners with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Zambian Ministry of Health and Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health, and other non-governmental organizations to implement and evaluate Zambia’s national electronic health record system. My day-to-day work with SmartCare and the Global Health Initiative’s Saving Mothers Giving Life project is a perfect example of the way EGPAF deploys innovative solutions and strategic partnerships to address gaps in health care quality for HIV-positive mothers, children, and communities.

As I returned home to the urban comforts of Lusaka, exhausted and a little home sick, my eyes were drawn to a note taped to my wall, simply labeled “reminder.” The October 3, 2010 note reads: “It’s enough to deal with this disease. And then I have to deal with this stupid system. The whole thing is broken.” These are exact words from a phone conversation with my father who called to tell me he had been diagnosed with cancer. While I’d been studying the health care system with a powerful research lens, it wasn’t until I heard my father’s voice break as he described his ongoing battle with this broken system that I truly understood the purpose of my work.
On the surface, the challenges my father faces navigating the U.S. health care system are quite different from the daily challenges faced by HIV-positive mothers in rural Zambian villages. But, at the core, they are surprisingly similar. Both recognize that the system meant to serve them is broken. Both maintain hope that a better system will serve the generation that follows. And both have voices that should be heard, understood, and taken seriously by everyone working on these issues. Everywhere I go, I keep that note with me as a reminder of why I get up in the morning and why I do the work that I do.

The lessons I’ve learned during my GHC fellowship will continue to guide my actions and decisions long after I board the flight back home to the United States: Practice compassion daily, listen more than talk, and never stop pushing against the status quo that keeps women and children everywhere from reaching their full potential. I know that I will look back on that single click and think of all the inspiring people out there I’ve yet to meet as I take those next steps on my journey towards global health equity.

*A version of this post was published on the Huffington Post Global Motherhood Blog on April 19, 2013