Under a Baobab Tree

What an amazing week at work - I just returned to Accra after spending the week in some of the most remote areas in Ghana.  The MoTeCH team and I went around to rural health outreach clinics to sign up pregnant women and children under 5 for the MoTeCH service.  By the end of the week, we had registered around 700 women and kids - all via inputting the basic personal and health data into a simple mobile phone.  It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.  The clinics are held anywhere the community gathers - most of the ones I attended were literally under the local baobab tree.  The nurse would drive up on a motorcycle, benches would appear, a baby scale would be hung by one of the branches of the tree and the next thing you know, women and children are showing up from all over the village.  Each baby has it's own "sack" to be weighed in.  The babies are hung on the hook on the scale in the tree and their weight is charted in a health book the mom is responsible for.  That's the only health record the kids have and by the time a child is 5 or so, those little books are in pretty shabby condition.  Vaccinations, vitamin A, dewormers and basic health information was given out.  There were a few newborns and this constituted their first "well baby" check since the first check at birth.  Amazing. 

I totally enjoyed being out in the villages, watching how the moms interact, how the toddlers kept themselves amused with dirt and a pair of flip-flops and how old men hung out under the tree, ready to help with whatever was needed.  Some babies had "medicine" around their necks - little pouches of various concotions or skins that were the local, traditional medicine for one ailment or another.  Kids peed wherever they needed to, moms sat around on benches waiting for the nurses to log the kids' information in their health book and get it back to them, nurses shamed mothers for the condition of the books, goats bleated and men plowed the fields nearby and generally it was just life....under the baobab tree.  I just kept thinking how very different a child health clinic would look in the US - stressed moms who needed to get back to work, big strollers and well-packed diaper bags, toys and a sterile, confidential environment for receiving health care. 

Despite missing the kids desperately, it was a really great week at work and reminded me of exactly why I am here. 

A rural health clinic under the baobab treeA baby being weighed

100% Ghana

My dear friend, Colleen, arrived here on Thursday night.  We are showing her Ghana - 100%.  We woke her up early Friday morning to drive about 5 hours to Axim Beach on the western coast, near Cote d'Ivoire. The kids, pups, Colleen and I had a good (albeit not very relaxing - kids and dogs on a trip are fun, but NOT relaxing) time playing on the beach in between rain storms and watching World Cup matches.  We got an early start back to Accra on Monday.  The police seemed to be out in force for both directions of the drive - there were roadblocks frequently and I was pulled over a total of 6 times - mostly, it was harmless and I even had some fun bantering with the cops, but one stop took about half an hour of negotiating with a Commander on a power trip before he gave me back my license and let me go!  Less than 45 miles outside of Accra, we found that the overpass had been flooded and the road was closed.  I assessed the situation:  2 kids, 2 dogs, fairly remote location, 1 liter of water, a handful of nuts, about 4 hours until dark and cars rapidly parking every which way, with ours soon to be blocked in on the highway.  We got back in the car, turned around and drove another hour back to a resort I knew of and decided to wait out the road closure there - in the safety of a beach front room, good food and an abundance of drinking water.  After much mixed information the following morning, we finally got on the road to Accra and had a long, hot, traffic-filled drive back.  I must say that all 6 of us (dogs included) did a great job - no barking (me or the dogs), no biting (the kids or the dogs) and general making the best of the situation all the way around.  Colleen didn't even ask to be taken straight to the airport for the next flight home - that's a true friend :)

MoTeCH is in full swing right now, launching our pilot project in the Upper East and everyone working double time.  The kids, Colleen and I are flying up there tomorrow for a durbar (community entry celebration) and for me to monitor the work and generally trouble shoot as the inevitable "launch issues" arise.  The kids are hoping to show Colleen that the crocodiles really are friendly and I hope to get her out to a few rural health clinics (Colleen is a Physician's Assistant in the US) to get a slice of the "real" Africa.  Then, the kids are back in Accra a few days before saying goodbye and heading back to the US with Colleen as chaperone.  They will no doubt be totally worn out (as will I) by the time they board that flight. 

Tonight is a big Ghana World Cup Game - they are the last real chance of an African team making it to the next round.  Everyone here is rooting for them and it is sure to be an exciting evening all over Ghana!  Another 100% Ghanaian experience for us all!

Article About MoTeCH

This article on MoTeCH, the project I'm managing in Ghana (i.e. the reason we're here!), was relased yesterday and gives a great summary of the work. 

http://mobileactive.org/motech-new-approach-health-care

Link to Project Website

Grameen recently revamped its website and a more thorough overview of the project I'm managing is now available. 

Check it out as well as the other amazing work Grameen does around the world.........  http://www.grameenfoundation.applab.org/section/ghana-health-worker-project

What are you doing?

I realize I haven't written much about my actual work here. I'm the Project Manager for a Grameen Foundation project called MoTech http://www.grameenfoundation.org/what_we_do/technology_programs/ict_innovation/community_health/

It's a Gates-funded project designed to figure out ways we can use mobile phones to help women get better information about prenatal care & help health workers enter & access better information about the moms and newborns they are serving.

Using technology, such as mobile phones, is becoming the next wave of ways organizations are trying to address some of the major issues related to poverty. Cool work - I'm excited to be a part of it.