After a long flight, we landed in Freetown tired yet excited for the days to come. Once we obtained our visas and made our way through the rest of the airport, we met with Khanjan, Eric, and World Hope faculty. They helped us load our bags as we prepared to head into Makeni. As we waited for the rest of our group to pack, Sierra Leone, for many, had already come alive. After three short hours, all of the teams arrived in Makeni by 9:30 p.m. We were all welcomed into our new home for the next three weeks: The Makambo Village Resort. They had prepared dinner for us which was composed of rice, beans, dark leafy greens, and a special, spicy garnish.
This year, SicklED has continued working on our point-of-care sickle cell screening device, developed an informational flipbook draft for usage by PHU nurses, and are looking at ways to create systemic change in Sierra Leone’s sickle cell protocol. During fieldwork, we hope to accomplish a variety of goals. For our research aspect, we will investigate the current medical infrastructure of Sierra Leone to understand our device’s feasibility to be sustainable as well as identify gaps in sickle cell protocol within the system. For our educational component, we are hoping to receive feedback from PHUs and healthcare professionals on our sickle cell informational flipbook. In addition, since this is the first trip to Sierra Leone with our current medical device, we are looking to gain both feedback and more stakeholders with proof of concept. With all of this information, we can then start to develop a detailed model for exactly how SicklED’s lateral flow test will fit into Sierra Leone’s medical framework.
We are using the first day in Sierra Leone to organize
our schedules and confirm plans with stakeholders. We have meetings set throughout the next few weeks with nurses, SHAFS (an advocacy group), and other stakeholders. Through interviews, we are hoping to come home with a better understanding of Sierra Leone’s educational needs and the structure of its healthcare system. Around 4:00 p.m., we met with one of our main contacts here in Makeni to continue making plans and develop a framework for the rest of fieldwork. Joe Sesay met us at World Hope International to flesh out some of our plans. He proposed a variety of activities, including a certificate system for healthcare tutors, meetings with healthcare officials, and more. Professor Mehta told us we had to wrap up our conversation as we neared dinner. We said thanks and goodbyes to Joe and loaded into the land cruisers once more to head back to Makambo.
After dinner, we had our first meeting with Professor Mehta. We talked about some of the plans Joe had proposed, as well as our own, and attempted to work towards a strong plan for fieldwork.
