When I arrived in Sierra Leone I immediately realized how detrimental the spread of misinformation has been to the country during this outbreak, especially when over half the population is illiterate and vulnerable to such misinformation. Rumors ranging from health workers injecting citizens with the Ebola Virus Disease, to chlorine causing cancer and even that Ebola isn’t real made me understand the need for massive sensitizations that disseminate accurate information in the local communities. Within the first three weeks I was able to meet with community stakeholders in Lungi and orchestrate an Ebola Sensitization. WAMMSL community health advocates and I worked diligently to bring the Mahera and Tulun community members together and educate them on Ebola, proper hand-washing, how to use of PPE and we even performed a short drama addressing Ebola stigmatization. This was done in ‘’Krio’’, as well as translated into the local language “Temne”, by a WAMMSL team leader. I was super excited about having another source of clarity on site!
More than anything I believe that they will have an impact on the country because we are driving individuals to seek health care at their peripheral health units, empowering these same people to educate themselves on various health issues and will eventually bring a national level of awareness to the need for more on the ground health teams/sensitizations throughout the country. People can begin to understand the reality of the situation, take the right precautions to keep themselves and their families healthy and in turn empower their own community.
After becoming acquainted with one of WAMM’s executive members, I did my own research on the organization via their website (www.westafricanmedicalmissions.org), and I really identified with their mission and how they operate. It may sound odd but WAMM chose me. A few things captivated/sealed the deal for me from the start: WAMMs implementation of the Young Scholars Program in Sierra Leone, the organizations passion for cultivating young leaders and not to mention the co-founder was one of the most humbled persons I think I had ever met. I was empowered beforehand knowing that I could be mentoring and positively impacting the lives of Sierra Leones future leaders. So here I am, I made it manifest!
I’ve been engaged in the health and non-profit sector as a Global Health Volunteer with WAMM but back at home I work in the design/retail and service industries. I have enjoyed getting back into the health field and seeing the many facets of global health. It has been a beautiful learning experience being able to jump right into the work here and I feel like one of the best ways to learn something new is to explore the thick of it. I have been involved in the Cholera Project, another project still in the works for a national scale up of the distribution of health inclusive messages for PWDs, rolling out WAMMs Marketing Plan, researching infectious disease control systems, developing the WAMMSL design team, the government sector and so much more.
I have been involved in the following since my arrival:
At first some of the goals that I aimed for seemed like they would take a while to reach due to the fact that I had only been here for a few weeks. Here you have to meet people one on one to build relationships and partnerships and that can be trying at times, on top of the fact that I stand out amongst the majority of people. Not to mention that mostly everyone has a relaxed approach to planning and time management. I would often feel like my deadlines and meeting were all tentative. But as time passed everything came together very well and my initial goal of sensitizing in Lungi was met in a timely manner.
I love meeting new people! I believe that social mobilization starts with building a strong relationship with the local community members. It is very important to engage people and make them feel like you are right there with them to address real health issues and problems within their community. Connecting and communicating with other people is enjoyable for me and it often proves to be effective when the exchange is shared positively. My method…..jump right in and build, build, build.
Tag(s): Media
