History From Togo, West Africa

A Heart for the Work: Journeys Through an African Medical School by Claire L. Wendland is both an first hand account of time spent in an African medical school and hospital as well as a critique on Western medical practices. Dr. Wendland, an accomplished anthropologist and physician, provides a first hand account of her time in a Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. Through this account she provides insight into the complete journey a student must take to become a doctor in conditions much different than our own. These insights and research are used to argue that medicine, or biomedicine as it is called, is part of a cultural system and is predicated on the cultural ideals and resources of developed nations. Wendland uses the differences in moral order, technology, and resources between the Malawian culture and our own culture to provide evidence for her main argument.

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 poor areas have many less doctors than the wealthy spots, even though the rural areas suffer from much harsher diseases on a larger scale. The countries either provide medical training for their own citizens or fund their training from somewhere else, but once the students have the skills to save lives, they move to different places for higher pay. This issue lies not only in South Africa, but in the entire continent. For example, for every Liberian doctor working in Liberia, there are two working abroad. Not only is there a shortage of doctors in general (averaging about 1.15 doctors for every 1,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa) but a shortage of nurses and midwives. Over two-thirds of mothers in Africa have no health professionals to guide them through hardships regarding pregnancy and childbirth, causing Africa alone to be responsible for over one half of the world’s infant and maternal

1) What were the major empires of West Africa from 1200-1500? What were their major

Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care, the words of Theodore Roosevelt written in the radiology department at Good Samaritan Hospital, where I work as a Radiologic technologist. These words are a constant reminder of why I choose to pursue a career in medicine. Growing up in Haiti, I was an underweight, mal nourished child with a weak immune system. Sick days seemed to occur every other day. In a country with limited resources, I remember traveling with my parents to different towns in search for medicine and the right physician. We would walked miles, but no miles was ever long enough to stop my parents from getting their son the proper treatment. At a young age my parents showed me the true meaning of altruism and empathy, necessary skills needed to make a great physician. Living in poverty can have major consequences on one’s health. I witness this in my own health and those surrounding me. To survive these harsh conditions, as a community we had to stick together, we had to care for one another. We shared everything with our neighbors, from clean drinking water, food supplies, to natural herb treatment and medicine. From observing the change in lives in the community when treatment was provided, I quickly learned to values the benefits of good Health and medicine.

There is no universal fix to the complexities of each country and what they face with regards to their health care needs. Health care is a fundamental need among all peoples. Each country will have to work on solving the disparities that exist in access of care, funding of care, and availability of care. Because we now find ourselves facing the dilemma of fighting many infectious diseases once thought to be under control, we must work with all countries around the world. Every country faces the potential of an outbreak of a disease like SARS or a terrorism strike involving biological or chemical agents. Global initiatives to improve the health of nations across the board regardless of resources in these nations will benefit all. We need to continue with consistent and comprehensive measures to ensure health equity to all (Williams & Torrens, 2010).

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).

As I was reading about the village and the people in the village in Madagascar, I really admired Janice Harper the medical anthropologist. The living conditions and the health of the people really made me think about how fortunate we are in the United States to have health care. The mortality rate was disturbing with 100 deaths per 1000 people compared to that of the US being 8 deaths per 1000 population (Singer & Baer, 2012, p.45). It would be wonderful to be able to go to different countries to help people improve their health care and provide proper medical care, but not sure how one deals with the conditions of the different countries. It definitely takes a special person to be able to deal with the situations Harper encountered. But, Harper found that even though the children where sick with bloated bellies, ear infections, scabies and boils, they were still active and happily playing (Singer & Baer, 2012, p.45). This was the children’s way of life and how they

Good, accessible healthcare has always been a part of my life. This summer I got to see firsthand that this is not the case for everyone. I knew disparities in healthcare were prevalent in the world, but seeing it in person instead of reading about it in a global health textbook opened up a whole new door for me. As I have reflected on these experiences, I have come to the realization that me becoming a doctor is not about “me” necessarily. I have the opportunity to gain a good education and contribute to this world, which many people do not have, and I cannot think of a better way to do this than to help improve health. With my medical degree, I want to go and work in Zambia, and really any other country which faces large disparities in access to quality health care because I have been fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to enter the medical profession and it is time I use the resources I have to help the global community solve this issue.

The residents of Africa are suffering from preventable, treatable, and fatal diseases everyday at a higher rate compared to developed countries. The healthcare crisis in Africa is the primary cause of all these deaths, and includes inefficient healthcare systems. Consequently, African's inefficient healthcare systems results in poor delivery of care and a shortage of health professionals. The healthcare crisis in Africa is a current issue impacting the lives of many African's who don't have the same access to resources as developed countries such as the United States. These resources can save the lives of many African's dying of preventable and curable disease, and understanding why the African continent has little access to them

I was born in Monrovia, Liberia. Liberia is a country on the west coast of Africa that had endured a civil war from 1989 -2005. Liberia infrastructures are in ruins because of the civil war. Mostly, Importantly the Liberian medical infrastructure is non-existent. Liberia has only one medical school, and there are only 173 doctors in Liberia, a country with about 2.8 million citizens. Liberia medical infrastructure put to the test during the Ebola outbreak of 2014. The world watched as the Liberian medical apparatus collapse under its own weight. For example, there weren't enough medical facilities to facilitate Ebola patients. The Liberian government shut down schools, so they could be just as makeshift clinics. An estimated 5000 Liberians

Born and raised in a developing country called Rwanda, it didn’t be an excuse of defining what I can achieve in life. I didn’t let the starting point define the finish line. Neither did it affect the type of change and give back I want to make on this world. I looked ahead and considered life as a process of the overcoming the challenges every single day. I experienced the lack of access to health care since childhood, and I have got to see that it is one the crucial human needs that have to be satisfied, that’s why I went for Biomedical Sciences and Pre-Medicine.

Ancient Ghana was originally found in the 830 AD. They built their capital on the edge of the Sahara and the city quickly grew into a thriving trade market and became a very wealthy place. the city turned into one of the most wealthy places on earth and made its wealth from gold and silver.

Africa, a place of diversity and culture. A land that is filled with beautiful landscape and some of the most inspiring people. We are so taken away by the idea of Africa but we never take the time to soak in the smaller pieces of Africa, the things that make Africa what it is. I decided to take a deeper look into Africa. Togo, a small chunk of land that is filled with breathtaking sites and some of the most interesting culture that sits on the south coast of west Africa.Togo is so small it is often taken for granted. The people of Togo currently live in minor poverty and gain most of their income from exports of cocoa, cotton and coffee. The current population of Togo is 6.18 million. Togo speaks a total of 39 different languages, though a

The histories of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai are not well documented much of what we know is a mixture of legend, stories, and 2nd hand accounts. According to Mr. Clifton's lecture notes, “Empires of Ancient West Africa”, Ghana started as the first empire to establish of the three empires and rose to power in the 1400’s. Ghana was located where several trade routes came together. The origin is unknown of how the empire began. According to legend, Odinga’s son had found the empire of Ghana. The empire had succeeded because Ghana’s people had possessed gold and salt mines, and controlling valuable trade routes. Once Ghana weakened, Mali conquered them.