Travel

July 30th and 31st 2018: Fieldwork in Makeni

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The first two days in Sierra Leone we worked in World Hope International’s conference room developing a game plan for our venture and what it will take to get it on the ground. At first it was difficult for us to understand the different healthcare sectors and people that are present in Makeni (CHC, PHU, CHO, NIC, CHW). Our translator, Hasan, helped us a lot by drawing out the chains that follow who is in charge of who, and how they interact with each other.

Hasan and Sage working out Makeni healthcare system pathways on poster paper.

The mushroom team that is traveling us have been doing construction outside and gathering the materials needed to build from nearby markets. We are often quite jealous that they get to be exploring and working outside, because the past two days we have worked all day in the conference room.

This is the conference room we have been working in. It is air conditioned which we are incredibly grateful for!

Pictured left to right: Isabel, Marc and Rachel (the 3 members of the mushroom team), Jwara (current employee in SL for mushroom team), Naakesh and Sage.

Documents we have been working on in the conference room:

-Employment contracts for two people

-Job duties for hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, CHWs, PHUs, CHOs and CHCs for working with an Ukweli product

-Training protocols for hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, CHWs, PHUs, CHOs and CHCs

-End user selling plans

-Quality control instructions for test strips

The resort we are staying at is really great, a lot nicer than we all expected it to be. The six of us all share a bed with one other person. The rooms also include a desk, dresser, mosquito net, shower, sink and toilet.

Heres what the hotel compound look like. The houses with the red/pink roofs have four rooms in them, and all of the students are living in house 5.

Summer 2016: Arriving in Sierra Leone

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May 12, 2016 | Summer 2016 Penn State Team

Before arrival, many important preparations were taken care of in order to aid in our research on the ground. Once the chemical protocol for our strips was finalized, we stamped 500 of our own test strips and taped filter paper to popsicle sticks. We will use this as a supplemental experiment to testing the community response to the introduction of test strips. Furthermore, we have ten parameter test strips that will be used as an additional supplemental study to gather data for future work. For our primary study we have 10,000 OEM test strip. We created and brought material for our trainings and experimentation and prepared 3 binders with a set of each.

Today we met at World Hope International Headquarters in Makeni, in the Bombali District. We waited for more information on future meetings and assignments for where our experiments will take place and who will help us complete them. We had the opportunity to talk to Hassan, the Supervisor of Social Mobilization. He explained his background, which included overseeing the national burial team needed to combat the Ebola crisis. He did this by educating different members of Sierra Leonean communities, including the leaders of “secret societies” –closed groups within the communities– so that they could use their influence to re-guide traditional burial practices and ultimately reduce the spread of Ebola. Hassan will be helping us identify places that we can begin our venture as well as providing us a more in depth understanding of Sierra Leonean cultures, traditions, and social structure.

Aside from the happenings of our venture, our personal day involved waking up around 7:30 and having a breakfast of mango, eggs, sausage, and really yummy bread at 8:00. Next, we loaded up in the back of a World Hope International van and headed to the headquarters of World Hope International. We waited and then had the opportunity to speak with Hassan, then, around 6, headed off to a restaurant for dinner.