Volunteer Name: Gabriel Warren
Title: Strategic Advisor
Sector: Research & Admin Expansion
Projects: Peptok YSSL Merger & Phase 3
Achievements: Malaria Solidarity
- Why -
I used to search for ethical volunteering options in West Africa and the furthest I would get is the google search page. I didn't understand how a geographical region with the poorest health indicators in the world didn't have an abundance of volunteer positions to help big organizations like the UN, USAID, Doctors Without Borders, and the like. With all these factors on my mind in 2009, I set out on a volunteering odyssey and somehow stumbled upon this West African Medical Missions thing.
- How -
In high school I loved adventures and high thrills. So when I traveled to Portland, OR to pursue a degree in molecular/microbiology, my thirst for excitement kept me atop Mt Hood more than in the classroom. After chalking up the West Coast as my favorite life lesson, I jumped back into the classroom at the University of Minnesota. There what started with neuroscience ended with anthropology, and public health elegantly wove them together. The analytical precision and theoretical applications of neuroscience was my new thrill, until I met anthropology. Learning to understand the western biomedical model began to diminish the importance of glial cells when contrasting their value to global health disparities and inequalities. Soon after my global health epiphany, I was entrenched in deciphering the epistemologies of global health in relation to the western biomedical model. Ever since than I've been stuck at the lab bench with a great view of the ocean.
- What -
Projects
Mental Health Access
Program Coordination
Clinical Research
Peptok
Partners
NETHIPS
Wellbody Alliance
National HIV Secretariat
Radar Media Development
The Collective
SL Mental Health Coalition
Kissy Psychiatric Hospital
Tulane Research Center
University of Sierra Leone
Media
Gabriel's Album
YouTube
Biggest Accomplishment
Tracking HIV Patients During Pre-ART Care
I'd been involved in a multitude of qualitative and quantitative clinical research projects in the US but nothing could prepare me for strengthening a research project in a resource poor setting. The challenges were immense but the accomplishment of getting to be an author on a research paper proved to be worthwhile.
28%
of young people in SL have comprehensive knowledge of HIV prevention
Data from - Sierra Leone's National Health Sector Strategic Plan 2010 - 2015