3 Fellow Report: 3-month This report focuses on the specifics of your fellowship experience thus far. The following questions are meant to help you evaluate your first three months in Africa. Your comments will also be used to assess partner organizations, site placements, stipends, and overall logistics. The information you include may be shared with the Board of Directors and future Fellows. We may use your comments to give feedback to partner organizations as well. Please indicate when information is not to be shared outside of PiAf and rest assured that we will honor your request. Feel free to attach relevant anecdotes, photos, or other documentation to supplement the required responses. Deadlines for this report are as follows: If you began your fellowship in Your report is due June September 30 July October 31 August November 30 September December 31 October January 31 Please complete this report in Microsoft Word and email it back to [email protected]. Confirmation will be sent to you upon receipt. Your Personal Information Organization: Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation – Lesotho (Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative) City, Country: Maseru, Lesotho Fellowship start date: August 1, 2011 Anticipated fellowship end date: June 28, 2012 Your Work 1. What is your job title? Outreach Coordinator 2. What are your primary responsibilities? Please list your job duties as you would on a résumé. Implemented HIV/AIDS care training for health providers - Managed $70,000 of a UNICEF grant that targeted education for nurses who care for adolescents living with HIV - Liaised with DHMT (District Health Management Team) staff, local school staff and/or representatives from Ministries of Education and of Health - Organized and directed the trainings schedule - Documented and measured the effectiveness of the trainings within their respective districts Coordinating Teen Club (support/education group for adolescent patients), Caregiver Days, and Camp Mamohato - worked with both Baylor and Sentabale staff (a local organization) to develop curriculum for Baylor’s Teen Club - Planned curriculum and recruit campers (ages 10-18) for summer sleep away camp in Jan (and winter camp in June/July) - Engaged teens in activities during both Teen Club and Camp 1 3 - Mentored and assisted local staff members who will sustain Teen Club 3. Describe a representative day at work. Here is the sketch of a typical day at the office. 7:30 AM Leave house for work 7:50-8:00 AM Morning prayer and announcements 8:00-10:00 AM Emails, calls, faxes to district officials, businesses, NGOs for organizational purposes 10:00 AM-12:00 PM Internet research for curriculum development, Teen Club ideas, etc. 12:00-1:00 PM Lunch 1:30-2:00 PM Meeting with Teen Club staff, partner organizations, etc. 2:00-4:00 PM Around town for quotations from local businesses, meetings with local officials, etc. 4:00-4:30 PM Emails, contacts, etc. To be sure, this schedule is a rough outline—there will be many days where you will be on outreach with an entirely different schedule. I am also starting to shadow in the Clinic, and I hope to shadow at the newly opened hospital (next to the Baylor COE). 4. Please describe in greater detail 1-2 specific projects you have undertaken or accomplishments you have made so far. Funding determines most of the projects with which you will be involved. That being said, the needs of the clinic/outreach sites and your own passions, interests, and skills will influence these projects. Past fellows conducted several testing events throughout the country. Currently, another organization has funding to do these events, so I have not been as involved with HIV testing. There will be, however, more funds available to conduct testing in some of the districts, and I will be involved with these events. For this half of the year, UNICEF has given money to implement HIV Adolescent Care Trainings in five of Lesotho’s districts. Adolescent HIV Training: Thaba-Tseka Unfortunately many health facilities have limited capacity to care for adolescents, and health professionals have many questions regarding the care of such patients. Baylor Children’s Clinical Center of Excellence has developed this training with both the help of funding from UNICEF and contributions from its local and international partners. The purpose of the training is to provide participants with knowledge and skills to better address the comprehensive biological, psychological, and social needs of young people living with HIV in Lesotho. Preparing for a workshop involves a great deal of logistics. The first point of contact in any district is the district public health nurse (DPHN). As Baylor’s point person for the Adolescent HIV trainings, I spoke weekly with the local public health nurse (DPHN). At times, it probably seemed as if I was pestering her, but it is important to confirm attendance with the public health nurse to secure dates and confirm attendance. I arranged for the meals, lodging, and materials for the workshop, which involves acquiring quotations from suppliers, requesting funds from Baylor, and confirming payments. While the workshop was a success, it was not without disappointments. Ten participants were missing from the workshop due to poor communication between the public health nurse and local staff, more still were late on the first day of training for similar reasons. I am told, however, that travel problems, starting late on the first day due to people arriving late, some not showing up, etc. are typical problems for these sort of events. The end of the training was rewarding for two reasons. First and foremost, participants showed an average of 28 percent improvement between their pre-tests and post-tests. Second, the hotel manager held a small impromptu party for our participants on the last night. It was really enjoyable because I was able to get a better idea of the nurses lives in rural health centers. In many ways, it sounded like working on an oilrig or something. Nurses get two weeks at the health center followed by one week of relaxation, and many nurses stated that often they are the only nurse at their health center. 2 3 At the end of the workshop, I produced a report for the purpose of measuring impact. Though small, this is an important step as many trainings have neither mechanisms for measurement nor funding for follow-up. Still, doctors notice those participants who implement the strategies from trainings into their clinical practice. 5. On average, how many hours per week do you work? Teen Club happens on Saturdays, and I have assisted at several Teen Clubs. The average work week is approximately 50 hours. On most office days, I start the day just before 8 AM and leave at around 5 PM. Teen Club usually lasts from 7:30 AM until 3 PM. Camp training and actual camp (for the younger and older teens) all last about a week, and start around 6:30am and finish around 9pm (for camp, you would sleep over for the week in the bunks with the medical team). 6. What is your office environment like? Please comment on the size and structure of the office(s) where you do most of your work. The Baylor COE (Center of Excellence) is a two-story clinic in Botsabelo around the outskirts of the main city center. The clinic is on the ground floor—it has a reception area, exam rooms, pharmacy and triage/lab/storage rooms. The second floor is the administration office. Most of your meetings will occur in the boardroom. Hopefully, you will take the opportunity to listen to some of the lectures given on a Fridays by Baylor’s doctors. These occur on the second floor in the classroom. I share an office with PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) Lee and mostly use my personal computer. Occasionally, you will need access to one of Baylor’s computers (talk to John about getting an ID) for viewing patients’ EMRs or files on the general or md drives. Lee is always willing to share the computer, and computers in the doctors’ offices are usually available. Doctors spend most of their time in the clinic, but there are days that they spend working in their office called “admin days.” The end of this year marks the conclusion of the PAC (Pediatric AIDS Corps) program, and most of the foreign doctors (majority American) will have departed. More African medical officers have started at Baylor; they will likely comprise a majority of physicians when you arrive. Currently, there are three former PAC doctors (all American), about seven medical officers, and about thirty other staff (nurses, social workers, administrators, receptionists, translators, drivers etc). 7. To whom do you report? (Please specify name & title of all applicable persons.) I report to Dr. Lineo Thahane (P’97) for approval on project ideas and progress. I glean most practical guidance from the staff with whom I work more closely on specific projects. For example, for Teen Club related events, Lee, the current Peace Corps Volunteer, and Dr. Teresa Fritts are the focal persons; for the Adolescent HIV Trainings, I work closely with Dr. Knowledge Chipango, director of the SCS team; for testing events, I work with ‘M’e Esther and ‘M’e Kenoakae (nurses). 8. Do you receive adequate direction/support to perform your job? While it may seem in your initial weeks that you do not have much to do at Baylor, you will quickly receive request from other staff members, which might include planning an event, writing a proposal, spearheading a project, etc. Additionally, you will likely inherit some duties from Lee (the PCV and Teen Club Coordinator)—she will likely be here when you arrive, and I will outline those responsibilities in the handover notes.