Our final true day in Sierra Leone had arrived in a flash. We knew we had to make this day count to the best of our ability. Early in the morning, our team traveled to the DHMT for the In Charge meeting that was to be held throughout the day. Thanks to the DMO, we […]
Sierra Leone 2024
Day 16: Monkeying Around
After a busy two weeks, the teams all took a day off of work to take a day trip to Freetown. Excited for the day ahead all the teams piled, bright and early, into the vans and started our journey to Freetown. The drive into Freetown was long but beautiful. As we drove into the […]
Day 15: SicklED in Action
The past few days have been leading up to today’s meeting with the DMO. To start the day, we organized our final thoughts and materials for the presentation. During the meeting, we presented the poster and flipbook to the DMO. He provided specific directions to tailor the poster to his preferences. Additionally, a member […]
Days 13-14: A Weekend in the Office and Trip to the River
After a busy week consisting of successful meetings, we had a day at World Hope to catch up on paperwork and update our materials. Amelie, Addy, and Nicole spent the morning preparing interview questions for the video we plan to make in collaboration with SHAFS. The rest of the team worked on polishing materials needed […]
Day 12: A Momentous Occasion
With our eggs in a row, we set out to fully prepare for our meeting with the CMO. In order to get some momentum, we began drafting a document that outlines the roles and responsibilities of SicklED versus the roles and responsibilities of our implementing partner. If the meeting goes well and the CMO is […]
Day 11: SicklED Crashes a Workshop
After our expeditions to Freetown and Kono, we had two crucial meetings that had the potential to shape the rest of fieldwork. Unbeknownst to us, there was to be a large medical conference right here in Makeni, featuring some of the most prominent figures in noncommunicable disease work for all of Sierra Leone. With some […]
Day 10: An Inspiring Trip to Kono
Bright and early, the team met up at 7 am, grabbed some hard boiled eggs, and hit the road. Today we traveled to Kono to catch up with SCCAN, an advocacy group that has developed a screening and counseling program. We also visted to Koidu Hospital which is run by Partners in Health. With big rolling […]
Day 9: Into the Capital
With an extremely early start to the morning, four of us made our grand journey to Freetown. With two main meetings in place, one with the largest Sickle Cell advocacy group in Sierra Leone and the other with a representative of one of the most financed programs for healthcare, we were set to have one […]
Days 7-8: Preparation for Freetown
The past few days we have been delving into articles, asking questions, and focusing our efforts on developing an end to end system that unifies advocacy groups, academic institutions, and health care clinics. As we have mentioned in previous blogs, our 5 point strategy focuses on policy, development of a continuing educational course for nurses […]
Day 6: A day of new connections
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, […]