By Alyssa Zamora
DGHI Communications Specialist
On my last day in Africa, I had the unique privilege and honor of visiting four of our global health fieldwork students in the field. Duke undergraduates Audrey Hu, Alex Kluge, Ally Santini and Grace Zhou are working at the Naama Millennium Preparatory School in a rural Ugandan village, where they are teaching primary school children about health, nutrition, the human body and also English. They are also conducting various service and global health research projects focused on water purification, HIV education, malnutrition and a girl’s club and women’s group. While students are directly interacting with the Naama community for several of these projects, others are designed to bring practical knowledge and skills to the children and then indirectly spreading the message to their families and the larger community.
Most of the projects are a continuation of the work already started by other Duke students who have been coming to Naama since the summer of 2008. A translator who has worked with each student group so far told me today that the students are not seen as foreigners in the community because of this continuous presence each summer. People know that Duke is very much a part of this community, and they have come to welcome the partnership. Last summer, Duke students organized and hosted a health fair that attracted 1,000 community members who were able to to receive health information and get tested for HIV. It was so well-received that this year’s students plan to expand the event to two days and double attendance at this month’s annual event.
Two teachers at the school, George and Stanley, also told me today that they are so grateful for the Duke students because they bring ideas, talent, a passion for helping the community, knowledge about global health, and a more interactive way of teaching.
This message was echoed by everyone I met throughout the day, and they asked me to bring this message back to Duke. It goes something like this: “Thank you for sending the Duke students. Thank you to Christopher Kigongo (a Ugandan Physician now at Duke Hospital who founded the Naama Millennium Preparatory School) for having the vision to create such a partnership. We have learned so much from the Duke students; for example, how to clean their water and take better care of ourselves, the importance of HIV testing and mosquito nets, and an overall education about important health issues we face every day.”
Back in Durham, it’s easy to forget that our students are making an impact where they work around the world because we tend to focus on what the students gain from the field experience. But with guidance from Duke faculty members, such as Kigongo and Sumi Ariely, DGHI assistant professor of the practice of global health, the Naama Health Collaboration is successful because it builds on its previous work from year to year and both parties are learning a great deal from one another.
