Read More - FGHL Blog: Courtney Massaro - Religion & Haiti
Haiti—or at least what I’ve seen of it—is a very religious country. Although religion in Haiti may make people think of Voodoo—which is certainly still practiced—I however, have seen it mainly in the Christian incarnation. A significant number of the buses and trucks, as well as the stores around Cayes have Christian Bible verses/words on them/names, and there are churches (of various denominations) all over the city. Women at the maternity often pray and sing through their labor/contractions, and many of the women—immediately after giving birth—say a prayer in thanks to Jesus. Two nights ago—at 3am—one of the laboring women started signing a song talking about “needing God”. Shortly after she started singing other people picked up the song and began to sing as well. For a good 5 minutes I’d say there were 15+ people singing this song (beautifully I might add), and then after the song faded they each started praying their own prayers. I seemed to be the only one who was astonished that everyone seemed to know the song and wanted to sing it, and that no one else thought it an inappropriate time (3am) to belt out a song and then start to pray loudly. I mention this story only because it was—for me—an incredibly unique experience, which gave me a better appreciation for the norms and beliefs of some (most, possibly) of my patients.
Read More - FGHL Blog: Sarakay and Courtney - Last Report from South Africa
Courtney and I had the unique experience of helping a family in Mshenguville relocate their home. Mshenguville is an informal settlement within Munsieville, and the houses there are built on a hill. The houses at the bottom of the hill are in a flood-prone area with poor sewage facilities, and the families in these homes recently got permission from the local municipality to relocate to a different street near Mshenguville and move out of the flooded area. Mshenguville is sometimes referred to as a squatter’s camp because people come to the area to settle, claim an area of land, and build houses out of any available material. Because Mshenguville is an informal settlement, there is no government assistance in providing houses and resources for the community. The government simply gave the families permission to move and would not be providing new houses for the families, so anyone that wanted to move would have to do so on his or her own.
Read More - FGHL Blog: Elizabeth Harris - The Samaria Clinic
Susan is a RN midwife and like her private clinic colleagues acts more as a family nurse practitioner. She assesses and diagnoses and prescribes medication or other treatments and now refers out for deliveries and more complicated cases.
Read More - FGHL Blog: Courtney Massaro - Maternity Ward Work in Haiti
Last week I started working nights. I work three nights, then have three off. I’ve decided that despite the fact that I’m not a huge fan of the night shift, that this is the way that I can be the most useful to the Maternity staff. During the day there is an overabundance of staff: 3-4 nurses, 1-2 interns, and 6 (or so) nursing students from the nursing school associated with HIC. At night however, there’s one intern and 1-3 nurses. As a result, at night I’m actually able to not only use my skills as a provider, but decrease the patient burden that each provider has—thus (I hope) improving the care those women/infants receive.
Read More - FGHL Blog: Nuo Xu - Farewell to American Samoa
Sadly, I am leaving this wonderful island tonight. I cannot imagine how the time has flown by so fast. The last week was intense; activities included inputting and analyzing the data we collected, preparing for the presentation, organizing the workshop for stress management, and saying goodbye to my dear friends on the island.
Read More - FGHL Blog: Nuo Xu - Daily Life
The past two weeks were full of activities. I conducted a series interviews with the people to obtain a better understanding of the culture and guidelines for my research, including professionals in stress and mental health, as well as people who work at healthy food promotion, obesity control, agriculture, and other various areas. After summarizing my findings, I did a presentation to inform my fellows working at land grant, American Samoa Community College, to get the staff involved with this program. The relation between stress and obesity is a novel concept to most of them. Even in Samoan language, there is not a direct word for stress, and they do not conceive of the tremendous influence of stress on health. Therefore, it is of great significance for land grant to incorporate this stress management program for the American Samoa Community College’s Wellness Center when it officially opens later this year.
Read More - FGHL Blog: Nuo Xu - American Samoa
Equipped with the knowledge of public health learned from my college and an enthusiastic heart, I came to American Samoa, the southern territory of the USA nearly three weeks ago. There are so much differences here, culture, family structure, work regulations, personal habits, traditional ceremonies, views of the world, just to name a few. Fa’asamoa, which means the Samoan way to do things, influences every corner in this place. In addition, the natural beauty is pristine and fabulous. However, behind the gorgeous attractions, there are tremendous public health problems here.

FGHL Blog: Courtney Massaro - First Report from Haiti

Hurricane Sandy and I Arrive

Oct 26 2012

Read More - FGHL Blog: Courtney Massaro - First Report from Haiti
Hello. My name is Courtney and I’m a Certified-Nurse Midwife and Family Nurse Practitioner who arrived in Haiti on Monday (the 22nd). I’m working and living in a town called Les Cayes (or just Cayes for short), which is in the south of the county about a 4-hour drive from Port-au-Prince. I’m working at the Hospital of the Immaculate Conception (HIC), which is the main public hospital for Les Cayes (and for a significant portion of the surrounding areas).
Read More - FGHL Blog: Elizabeth Harris - Background and First Blog from Kenya
With the assistance of VIGH staff and faculty, I was introduced to a VU School of Nursing alumna, Poppy Buchanan. Poppy among other pursuits and after extensive world travels established a 501(c) 3 called Burning Bush Inc. (BB). Since inception BB has supported local community efforts in the Kabaru area of central Kenya. The organization has supported establishment of a private maternity hospital in Ndathi and support of the WAKA Maternity Hospital and establishment of the WAKA Continuing Education Center in Nyeri. Additionally, BB has provided grants to establish micro-lending organization in the Kabaru location. Since my interest is rural family practice, the opportunities to work with BB grant recipients seemed to offer me a wonderful opportunity to begin to realize a long-held vision of working in Africa. More on Burning Bush later.
Read More - FGHL Blog: Sarakay and Courtney - Gardening for the Community
Greetings from rain-soaked Munsieville! Over the last two weeks, several storms have doused the Gauteng province, but the rain is necessary to turn the landscape green again and help usher in spring. While the intensity of the thunderstorms is unlike anything I have previously experienced, I am not letting the rain put a damper on my work in Munsieville.

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