Reflections on the concluded GHC Africa Retreat

16th January 2010 was an important day for Global Health Corps (GHC)! This was the day GHC organized its first retreat since the organization was founded. GHC has fellows working in Africa and the USA, and it was the African retreat that was organized first since the majority of the fellows are working in Africa, i.e Rwanda (8 fellows), Tanzania (6 fellows) and Malawi (2 fellows).

It was thoughtfulness and foresightedness of the leaders of GHC to have this retreat take place! First of all, we had spent six months in our placements. A lot had taken place in terms of our adjustment and integration to the work environment and the partner organizations. How we faced the work challenges in our first months and the approaches we took to overcome those challenges was essential and had to be shared not only with other fellows but also the GHC leaders so that it would help them refocus their mission.

Cross-sites sharing came out as an important approach for the fellows to share the challenges from different societal settings and different work environments and ethics. The approaches to health problems in Rwanda are different from those in Malawi or in Tanzania and it was vital to understand the cultural, political and social setting of these problems and how home-made or borrowed solutions are used to address these health challenges.

It was quite refreshing how huge mounds of problems became very manageable after sharing ideas, approaches and solutions from other fellows who had experienced same problems or gone through same situations. Equally humbling was the fact some challenges became insignificant in respect of what the other fellows were facing!

I couldn’t come to imagine setting in motion the Expert Client project of CHAI in malawi and managing the challenges involved, understanding the health management information systems  of a remote island off the coast of Dar es Salaam, getting involved in organizing and running a new and important multi-country infectious diseases surveillance organization that would be the epitome of an africa-led rapid response to infectious disease outbreak, understanding the intricacies involved in Government-Donor supply chain of  central medical stores nor was I in position to solve issues related to cooperatives that support the important work carried out by Community Health Workers!

By sharing all the above challenges, every fellow came out of the retreat with a new focus and a new way of approaching problems. The retreat set a platform for teams (pairs) to find constructive moments to reflect on their work and how their contribution has impacted on health care delivery in their respective GHC partner organization. The same platform made it possible for the fellows to set new individual and team goals and the integration of the borrowed good practices in their refocussed vision.

And the retreat was closed with a GHC Hiking For Health of Bisoke Volcano Mountain (12175ft) of Rwanda. For, in order to  promote global health issues, one needs a health body?!

On the way up the Bisoke Volcano

On the way down Bisoke Volcano.