This week has been highly educational and productive for the Ukweli team. The team members went into both rural and urban communities within Makeni and were grateful enough to have sit down interviews with around 200 women. The women of the communities shared their experiences and knowledge of cervical cancer, its causes, HPV, and the incoming HPV vaccine.

 

As of now, around 130 interviews have been translated into English and transcribed. The team is working diligently to complete the remaining transcriptions. However, there will need to be an additional number of interviews recorded, around 30, as one of the audio recorders stopped working as the files were being uploaded, and yesterday’s work got deleted.

 

The team has seen substantial strides in their ability to efficiently finish the vast amount of work needing to be done– their ability to work together has improved dramatically throughout their time in Sierra Leone. Conducting these interviews has allowed the team to really learn about the Sierra Leone culture and appreciate the beautiful geography within each community. The team also continues to express gratitude for the support of their translators, Alieu and Wara, as these interviews would not have been possible without their assistance. They are giving us their best efforts and are just as passionate about this research as we are, and this doesn’t go unnoticed.