Building A Sustainable Future For The People Of Ghana Through Community Based Health And Education Projects

As a Ghanaian, I feel compelled to return to Ghana to improve the health system and to improve health access for the most vulnerable populations. An MSPH from The Bloomberg School of Public Health provides an opportunity to academically study my experiences at my internship and work. I will be able to build on the foundation that I have and learn more about the core concepts of public health, health disparities, epidemiology, and other topics. I look forward to learning from professors Dr. William Brieger and his work on social, cultural and political influences on designing appropriate community-based health services to understand how to design more accessible and culturally competent health

We live in a country where all children go to school to gain an education and 25% of them will go onto receive some type of college degree. Compare this to low-income countries, in which children are 16 times as likely to die prior to their fifth birthday (Nickitas, Middaugh & Aries, 2016). Beyond the lens of our smartphones, Facebook friends and Nike sneakers is a world full of desperate people wishing to have enough food to eat for today. Many parts of the world lack sanitation, safe housing, sparse medical care and no medication. The global health issue are everyone’s problems not only for the sake of altruism but, with the increase in global travel for routine business and pleasure, dangerous pathogen are no longer confine by boarders. The Ebola outbreak four years ago, proved the necessity of a global solution to global health issues. The collaborative practice of several world health agencies and economically developed countries along with the use of volunteers, statistical updates, the latest literature and practices kept this outbreak mostly contained to its region of origin and the death toll to approximately 11,000 people (mainly in West Africa) (WHO,

During my numerous trips to Nigeria to visit my extended family, I saw firsthand how international health disparities can affect communities. It is often challenging to make the highest standard of care available to all groups and individuals here, and I became increasingly motivated to devote myself to the mission of reducing health disparities in African countries. People in my family, regardless of societal class, suffered from various illnesses including HIV/AIDS, malaria, and polio because of poor access to quality healthcare services. My goal is to return to underserved communities in the United States and Nigeria after being armed with the training from the University of Michigan School of Information that will allow me make

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is an international organization present in 190 countries (Unicef, n.d.). It is an agency focused on the area of maternal and child health. Recently, the organization is providing fresh water and food for mothers and children, education for mothers and girls, and immunization programs for children (Unicef, n.d.). The advantages for this program are the benefits to the education and health of the women and children, but the disadvantages are ability to retrieve funds all the time, and providing care to everyone. They have to have a focused topic, like they do, in order to start to care for the population. There are many issues in the third world countries that go beyond the abilities of one organization,

The Liberian Government, through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW), the caretaker of the nation’s health services and advocate for children’s health and welfare has prioritized improving its health sector. However, the colossal task of bringing the health system back to pre-civil war years has become a formidable challenge. Besides, the limitation of services to both the rural and urban poor, the health system lacks trained medical personnel, including technicians, nurses and doctors (Bertelsmann Stiftung, BTI. 2016).

Strides for Guinea, Inc. is committed to providing an all-inclusive community-based health education, bringing about environmental improvement and encouraging community self-reliance. Through partnerships with community members, businesses, corporate and private organizations, schools and governmental

Oxfam is upgrading public health through safer access to sustainable and sufficient water sanitation and health services by supporting the development of appropriate pro-poor water and sanitation policies. One example of this is that Oxfam is providing clean water and hygiene kits to survivors of the mudslide in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Oxfam initially plans to help almost 2,000 households that are in concerns over the fact that there is continuous heavy rains, overcrowding and inadequate water and sanitation systems which will leave people extremely vulnerable to outbreaks of cholera and other diseases. Sustainable Development Goal 3 Good Health and Wellbeing: Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages aims to promote the

This case analysis is about the work Doctors Without Borders do for the people with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in the Sub-Saharan country of Swaziland and the story of a boy named Senzo that are in the middle of such a treatment. With a weak immune system because of the HIV virus, tuberculosis and similar diseases could kill him. With the help of this organization and many other similar initiatives, the Millennium Development Goal of decreasing the death rate of children under the age of five by two thirds within the year 2015 is slowly moving in the right direction. (1) Thanks to Doctors Without Borders, Senzo

UNICEF in partnership with Kenya’s Ministry of Health, has taken steps to reduce the number of cases of cholera, by empowering communities to take control of their health by empowering communities to maintain proper hygiene and sanitation in their homes. The awareness campaign has been successful in controlling the cholera outbreak in some parts of the country.

“Amazima provides physicals, HIV testing and counseling, basic hygiene education, malaria prevention, malnutrition rehabilitation, and medical financial assistance for many individuals.” Amazima opened numerous clinics for the residents of Uganda. These clinics provide basic medical care and work together in teaching the people in the area how to care for themselves. Numerous diseases are rearing in Uganda and with these clinics, the number of sick people has diminished greatly. Even though the clinics are not able to treat very serious medical issues, they do refer them to larger hospitals who can meet their needs and give them the medical attention they require. Through these clinics the team of doctors and nurses are able to offer love and hope to people who have never been shown such kindness. Not only do they cure them, but they also leave a positive life changing impact on each person’s life that they are able to treat (“Medical

The World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) was the lead partner in the current study. This organization coordinated managed the implementation of social mobilization and community engagement activities. Additionally, the WHO AFRO office oversaw the deployment of a monitoring and evaluation specialist to the WHO Country Office in Monrovia, Liberia.

Working as a medical professional in a developing country opens one’s eyes to how parts of the world can still lag behind what one assumes to be the ‘status quo’ of community health . Even so, focused efforts of well-meaning professionals can truly make a difference in the lives of communities that are otherwise hard-to-reach. Bangladesh has had its fair share of challenges in the public health sector that are still to be surmounted. That said; recent initiatives in public health have yield astonishing improvements in maternal health, infant mortality rates and general community health awareness. In particular, during my first WHO-sponsored project in which I studied maternal mortality in rural Bangladesh, I surveyed one of the most underdeveloped and underprivileged areas of Bangladesh, called ‘Palash Bari’. What I saw there was nothing short of amazing. A village, where even a basic necessity

Climate change is a major health threat and affects many people around the world. The climate today is changing rapidly and this can be a threat to the livelihood and well being of the Ghanaian population. Ghana is identified as being highly vulnerable to climate change as it plays a significant role in the sanitation system. Climate change is one of the most significant challenges for the 21st century and poses risks to sanitation and water services. 20 As water and climate change are linked to each other, the effects of climate change are first felt through water then through droughts, floods and storms.21 There are three major physical impacts of climate change in Ghana, which includes temperature change, change in rainfall and sea level rise.22 These three physical impacts can destroy water supplies and toilets, which plays a factor on human health.

I have enjoyed taking this class this semester. Even though I hit a few hiccups along the way I pushed through. I think it will help in my future attempt in community development. Many people can benefit by taking this class and learning more about the health issues within a community. The information can also be carried on and used in many other professions. I have shared many of my learning experiences from this class with family and friends and have passed on a lot of knowledge. I honestly feel taking this class in a classroom would have been more educational to me. The use of visuals and hands-on is a way I like to learn and as a result, I would have retained and understood more in this area. Having an experienced professional in the career already attending the class and sharing would have helped me too. Even though I did take this class online and a lot of topics covered in a short amount of time a lot of good information i took in. It does help that I have experienced on some level of the topics that i read about. There’s always room for more growth while learning more about the topic of health in community development. Things are always changing, growing, and expanding, including new Technology. I have just started the beginning of what all it entails. I think it would be helpful to have learned more about the solution to some of the problems presented.

These new computers were installed with upgraded Windows and Linux programs modifying the school’s computer curriculum. New campus pathways were also constructed outside the school gate.