Brazzaville!!!!I can’t believe I am finally here! After weeks and months of applications and planning and finally a twenty-two hour journey from Johnson City in Tennessee, I have arrived and I am ready to do some public health. Driving into town from the airport, the driver with the World Health Organization, the Organization  with whom I would be working with during my  three  month stay, showed some of the remarkable places in town.  He pointed out the President’s residence, the ministry of defense and biggest market in the area known as Marche Makelekele. “Marche” means market in French which is the widely used language in Congo Brazzaville. I completed a  three month intensive course in French about four years ago and as a result I am able to understand the language. However, I have difficulty speaking because I have been out of practice for those four years. Right across from Brazzaville was Kinshasa. The two capital cities are separated by a huge river known as Djoue. Congo Brazzaville is a small country located in Central Africa. It houses the African Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO).  This is my internship affiliate organization.

My duties as an intern involves, primarily, monitoring and evaluation of country compliance to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) as well as production of tobacco control country report cards. The WHO FCTC is the first negotiated treaty under the auspices of the WHO and a regulatory strategy to address additive substances. It focuses on cutting off the demand and supply of tobacco products within countries. However, apart from the above mentioned duties, I also get to do rotations in other departments in order to get a well-rounded field experience.

Having arrived on a weekend, I had the opportunity to rest and recharge my batteries in order to be ready for my first week as an intern. On Monday morning, I was at the office bright and early. I got introduced to my supervisor, Dr Nivo Ramanandraiben and my preceptor, Dr Ahmed E. Ogwell Ouma. My preceptor is the Regional Advisor on Tobacco Control. I also met other members of the Tobacco Control Team. I was briefed on my duties and by Tuesday, I set to work by trying to understand and extract the information in the FCTC Parties Reports. Countries that have acceded to, ratified and agreed to implement the articles of the FCTC are known as Parties. The agreement to implement these articles is known as entry into force.  These Parties are expected to produce implementation reports two years and five years after entry into force. In the African region, 41 out of the 46 countries in the region have entered into force. Each Party report is 47 pages long and that would be keeping me busy for the next two weeks.

I am very fortunate to be given an opportunity to intern with the Tobacco Control Unit of the WHO for the next twelve weeks and want to thank Hope Through Healing Hands and the Niswonger Foundation for their scholarship support.   I will keep everyone “posted” so be on the lookout for my next blog report.  In the meantime, here is where you can find me.