05 August 2013
It’s a little early to be adding to the blog, I know, but everything changes so quickly when you are starting a new job, living in a new place, and surrounded by new people. So, I thought I would take advantage of my fully charged computer, and my first electricity blackout at the office, and capture the experience live.
There are many wonderful aspects to being a GHC fellow – I will focus on two for now. First, the co-fellow partnership, and second, the one week crossover / orientation period with the former co-fellows. I firmly believe that a key contributing factor in the success of GHC fellows is the privilege and opportunity to be a part of a co-fellow partnership. For the US fellows, this unique partnership allows us to learn quickly and gives us a chance to make an impact in just one year’s time. I have been in Malawi two weeks, and I would maybe know and understand about 20% of what I do now if I did not have my Malawian co-fellow, Kondwani, by my side. Kondwani has worked for the Malawi Ministry of Health as an environmental health officer for over eight years. His knowledge about national health issues, the geography of Malawi, and the Ministry’s programs has helped me imagine how Dignitas functions in cooperation with the Malawi government. Like all USAID-funded projects, the ultimate long-term goal is to build national capacity, and gradually shift program control over to the Malawian government.
A second critically important aspect in preparation for my work here was the orientation with previous GHC fellows. As GHC fellows, we have a rare opportunity to play two roles. We are within organizations and NGOs in Africa and the US, but we are also a part of the GHC program and community. We are included in all our partner organization’s activities, but we play a second role as a sort-of bystander or observer when necessary. This was evident last week, as we learned from the previous co-fellows, Grace and Melissa. This rare double role gives us the chance to push discussions and ask certain questions which may not be acceptable if you were just starting a job as a regular employee. This is special, because many people in the partner organization recognize, and fully embrace our double role. Kondwani and I are just two weeks in, and we are already being challenged to come in open-minded, and use our skills and backgrounds to expand and improve upon the existing systems. I think we would be hesitant to embrace these requests and our double role, if we didn’t have the encouragement from the past co-fellows.
