During the EBK meeting from the day before, we learned about Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) and Focus1000 and their overall potential as partners. Today, we had a meeting scheduled with one of CHAMPS’s most valuable players as we continue to discuss the strategy we had from the day before. In the morning, we prepared by starting to develop the materials associated with our five strategies; whether they were educational or procedural, the team worked on organizing and assembling various resources.
When our contact arrived, they had organized a few other interviews and meetings with some of the other teams. As we stood by, the team began to see the true potential these strategies could have in the coming years. We developed our long term picture, the ideal future we envision for Sierra Leone and its management of sickle cell disease. Restructuring our threads of inquiry was crucial to discovering how we could look to make impact while our device is still in the development stage. While we are continuing to sort out the chemistry in the states, our team needs to continue trying to alter the systems here in Sierra Leone.
Our meeting with the CHAMPS contact was by far the best conversation we had throughout all of fieldwork. With our specific questions and their more insightful answers, we were able to gain decade’s-worth of information and contacts. In addition, we gained great perspectives on our strategy and how they should come alive. Our number one recommendation was to travel out to Kono to meet with SCCAN, among other NGOs that are making incredible efforts to further sickle cell management. Kono had apparently been the heart of Sickle Cell work and advocacy for quite some time, meaning we would be able to collect additional leads, approvals, and recommendations as we refine and begin carrying out these strategies. A few of our current contacts also work out of Kono, meaning we would get to see some of the developments they have made in recent years. She also recommended various doctors and initiatives that would be useful in progressing our project. After our meeting, we used the advice from the CHAMPS contact and made a slideshow outlining the various approaches. We will be busy in the coming days developing material to prepare for meetings with various new contacts, and specifically, our trip to Kono.
To finish up the day we made a stop by the tailor and checked in on our clothes.They showed us what they had put together before adding the final touches like zippers and buttons. We were impressed and so excited to see how they had all turned out.