No Problem Exists in a Vacuum
A colleague made a fascinating comment during a meeting the other day. Deep in my post-Taco Thursday food coma, I did not process his words until long after. “Under staffing is protective in one sense: [they] do not have the resources to pay everyone if the facility was fully staffed.” This blew me away (once […]
Challenging the barriers to health care by challenging our values
When settling into a new country, one must go through a process, if you may, in order to adapt to his or her new surroundings. Moves aren’t easy, but as humans we’re wired to acclimate to our surroundings for survival. It’s been two months since I started my fellowship here in Uganda, and it’s been […]
Health and Technology, 1 app at a time.
7 weeks before I was scheduled to leave my former job and embark on my Global Health Corp Fellowship, I undertook a seemingly impossible task: to have students at my Health Sciences University, with no prior programming and/or systems design experience, design a mobile app. But deep inside me, I knew we would never pull […]
Power of African Mothers
Most of the times we forget the role of African women in global health. I have come to believe that they are the solution we need to avert the rampant problems we are facing. In December, 2004, I was diagnosed with Nephritis, pending surgery at one of the major hospitals in Lilongwe district. I was […]
Ordinary Man’s Holiday
A holiday in Malawi is a time for some families to spend quality time together. Sometimes expecting such holidays turns into a process that involves saving and planning special events, intended to make the day special. Some of the holidays include Christmas, Easter and Mother’s day. I come from a family that has never seen […]
Lesson I learned from the community!
So, I always thought of my fellowship with MASS Design Group as a means for me to fulfill my desire to contribute to Global Health, because… well, we build hospitals! And who doesn’t see how hospitals contribute to the well being of communities, especially in countries like Rwanda? However, this one morning, while I was […]