I grew up in a small village in Kenya. I remember witnessing mothers delivering babies on the roadside while attempting to trek to a health facility miles away.
An email in my inbox one month ago invited me to attend the first planning meeting for a visit by Pape Gaye, our president and CEO, to Tanzania, but it was also an invitation to elevate health and health workers as newsworthy topics to my former teammates: journalists.
The shortage of health workers around the world is estimated at over 4 million, and 57 countries are experiencing a critical shortage, defined as having fewer than 2.3 doctors, nurses or midwives per 1,000 population.
Habari! (“Hello” in Kiswahili.) Well, after many intensive weeks of planning and transitioning from my daily work responsibilities to my fellowship objectives, I’ve made the journey from Dublin, Ireland to Nairobi, Kenya.
Capacity assessments by nature reveal weaknesses and gaps that have the potential to make participants feel vulnerable. Recognizing this, we held introductory meetings with the program and facility management teams of our partners—Catholic Health Services, Lutheran Medical Services, and Anglican Medical Services—to explain the process and get their buy-in.