- Give three compelling examples of how cultural issues affect your project.
Culture is the backbone of our project. If we can’t attack this issue by the head, we can’t accomplish our goal of increasing autism awareness and ultimately providing a screening tool that can be used widespread across Sierra Leone and Subsaharan Africa. This has been a challenging endeavor mainly due to lack of funding or motive to research the causes, characteristics, and implication of autism–let alone knowing how best to treat it. There have only been a little over 100 research papers written on Autism, juxtaposed against Europe + USA’s combined total of about ~19,000 papers. Western diagnostic tools cannot simply be “refined” and implicated in Sub-saharan nations like Sierra Leone due to inescapable cultural and economic barriers entwined in the tests themselves. An example of this non-translational roadblock is one test where they assess the child’s behavior at an environmentally controlled “birthday party”. Sierra Leoneans do not celebrate their birthday this way, meaning they also do not have birthday materials like decorations and a cake at their immediate disposal–thus, rendering this portion of the screen non-viable and externally invalid.
On top of this, one of the main presumptions that are halting the progression of the nation’s Autism care is cultural–the belief that Autism, and mental health in general, is the result of karma, demon possession, and other religious/superstitious phenomena. This idea is so prevalent that building owners are refusing to rent out their spaces for the Sierra Leone Autistic Society, the only school that functions to treat and educate those with Autism. Teachers often mistreat students with Autism under the false pretense that they are to blame for their condition. One of our main goals as a team is to educate the populace on the true causes of Autism in a “culturally appropriate” way. It is quite difficult, to say the least, to change a belief system that is so deeply ingrained in a society where information does not travel seamlessly, nor quickly. Not only do we need to create a culturally relative diagnostic tool, we need to find a way to spread this tool, and educate people on how to use it. We must first get people to understand that this is not anyone’s fault or the result of a demon possession in order for them to realize that their child can be treated and nourished so that they may have a fulfilling life. Only then, can we have a true solution to this issue–one that spreads like a wildfire.
- Have you experienced or observed any of these social situations at home? Describe atleast three such situations.
I come from Indonesia, a third world country in which quality healthcare is unevenly distributed amongst the population and mental health is treated as an afterthought–if thought about at all. Even when growing up in the US, my parents didn’t acknowledge any health-related issue that was not obviously and immediately harmful–and when they did, our minimal healthcare coverage would not suffice. Those with severe illnesses are thus usually treated as hopeless cases that cannot be helped due to lack of awareness and access. In addition, my parents are highly religious and unfortunately lack an extensive educational background. Mental illness is not even acknowledged as an illness–and is especially not as concerning as a physical illness. To a lesser extent, they also hold similar superstitious beliefs in that people who do bad, deserve bad and thus receive bad. The blame falls on someone, oftentimes on the victim or their parents “wrongdoing”. In this way I relate a lot to my project, as growing up I felt that my anxiety was my fault and I can get rid of it by being a ‘good girl’. This is not the way to think about illness and is impeding treatment and preventing others from living up to their potential.
- Give three examples of cultural practices that can be leveraged to address community / market problems.
As described previously, we must dispel the cultural ideas of demon possession, karma, etc. as causes of Autism. Somehow, we must disseminate this information through large and dispersed areas in order to make our screening tool a self-sustaining system with a very far reach. We can perhaps do this by working with what they already know–perhaps using their already deeply ingrained beliefs to allow them to understand Autism in a language they already know. We can somehow collaborate with their religious leaders in spreading accurate autism awareness. It’s clear we must do heavy research on the cultural facets prevalent in Sierra leone, and try to empathize and understand the way they think and what they value.