Stop Malaria Project Interview: Badru Gidudu Walimbwe

As part of BAMM (Blog About Malaria Month) I will be featuring brief interviews with my coworkers at Stop Malaria Project (SMP) and Malaria Consortium (MC) in the Soroti office.

Note: SMP is implemented by MC, which provides technical assistance to the project.

Badru Gidudu Walimbwe is the Technical Team Leader for the Teso Region at SMP.

  

A: Where are you from?

B: My original district is Sironmko, near Mbale, but my family lives in Kampala. 

 

A: What did you study?

B: I received a diploma in medical entomology and parasitology at Mulogo paramedical School. Then, I got another diploma in health services management from Uganda Christian University. Then, I got my bachelor’s degree in social work and social administration.  I have a master’s degree in social sector planning and management from Makere University.

A: Where have you worked before SMP/MC?

B: Before SMP, I was with AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation) as a project assistant. The project was integrated for Malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB in two central districts. I worked in Rukingiri as a vector control officer at their district health office.  Throughout those jobs, I worked at the community level in home based management of fevers, net distributions, and IRS (indoor residual spraying). Rukingiri is a highland district where malaria was really low, but now those areas are prone to epidemics, maybe due to climate change. That’s why we had to do IRS there, which helps reduce epidemics.   

A: Why did you want to work for SMP/MC?

B: All my initial experience was in malaria since school, and then comes SMP, in so many districts. I thought wow…this is the best opportunity for me to make a contribution to the malaria world. That time in the beginning we were targeting 45 districts, but then we reduced to 34.  The fact that it was going to work through the national health system and local government level, I understood all the dynamics and interventions, I was excited to be able to make an impact.  It was a good opportunity for my career to grow and make a contribution to the community.       

A: What drew you to work in public health?

B: When I was little, I knew I wanted to be a health worker. Most of the interventions in health need to be more focused on prevention. It’s more rewarding to me to put more effort in prevention, than to seeing someone ailing in the hospital. Working with the small rural communities is easier and more rewarding than urban communities.  The response is better.  You have more success in rural areas in public health interventions than in urban settings.       

A: What do you like most about your job?

B: The most interesting thing is that you are acting like a broker.  You have this health worker, a community, and someone who has a little money to offer help.  So it’s exciting linking them; someone who needs support and someone who can provide it.  When people give testimonials about how nets have reduced the number of malaria cases in the wards, it’s rewarding.  It’s exciting to make a contribution and the result is positive.  It’s exciting to think you are reaching the whole health system and all those health centers.    

A: What do you think is the biggest challenge in malaria eradication?

B: The main challenge is that many people are intervening, but things seem scattered. 

A: What do you think could be improved in the malaria eradication campaign?

B:  We need to repackage the interventions so it’s not one intervention at a time.  We should do everything at the same time; IRS, nets, treatments, and community sensitization.  Very critical monitoring indicators should be followed closely to see if you’re really making progress. We need to work as team, with the districts, SMP, and have everyone on board.  We could start on a small scale then make it large.  The outputs need to be monitored.  We need to see what needs to be done at facility level, and community level. If we do immediate case management, you are reducing the number of parasites in the community. We need to promote early early early treatment! In principle, you can have mosquitoes. But if you don’t have the parasites, then they’re not a problem.   

A: After SMP ends, what would you like to do?

B:  Having gained all this experience, for me this is another opportunity to go to the next level to repackage this experience and make a significant contribution to malaria control and prevention, whether it’s a malaria organization or consultancy.  I think working in a big malaria organization would be the best.

A:  Can you share a memorable experience from working at SMP?

B:   In Serere (pilot net distribution), we have this huge thing that everyone is looking at; PMI (President’s Malaria Initiative), and the district are expecting a lot with logistics and administration. We need results, quality results, big teams in the country, district, even outside the country are seeing what your output will be.  You’re not trained in logistics, but you have to implement to make sure the activity is successful.  But you’re not in control of everything.  Someone else has to order the nets, deliver them, and they don’t’ come at the time you want.  It was a really interesting challenge.  There was no 8 to 5, we were having meetings through the night.  You have to balance being tough and soft otherwise, things won’t shift. The Distribution was a memorable experience. I was excited when I did the report.  Joslyn (Meier, the deputy director of Malaria Consortium) said it was the best report she’d read in Uganda.  You have to work under pressure to get that final thing.     

Stop Malaria Project Uganda is one of many organizations that host a Peace Corps Volunteer in partnership with the Stomping Out Malaria Initiative in Africa. The initiative mobilizes and connects over 3,000 Peace Corps Volunteers in 23 countries in sub-Saharan Africa to work together to eradicate malaria from the continent. To learn more, please visit: http://stompoutmalaria.org/.     

Stop Malaria Project Interview: Ruth Enyimu

As part of BAMM (Blog About Malaria Month) I will be featuring brief interviews with my coworkers at Stop Malaria Project (SMP) and Malaria Consortium (MC) in the Soroti office.

Note: SMP is implemented by MC, which provides technical assistance to the project.

Ruth Enyimu is a behavior change communication assistant at SMP.

  

A: Where are you from?

R: I’m from Kaberamaido.

A: What did you study?

R: My first paper was a diploma in secondary education. My bachelor’s degree is in adult and community education from Kyambogo University in Kampala.  I am now going for my master’s degree at Mukono Christian University in public health.  

A: Where have you worked before SMP/MC?

R: I first worked with World Vision in the children’s department where we looked at the beneficiary child, its family, health and education.   I worked there for about four months as a volunteer.  My second job was with Save the Children. I was supposed to work in Sudan in a rebel camp.  After the training, I remained working online.  But when the time came to go to Sudan, the rebels went to Central Republic of Africa.  I held my appointment for about 5 months, and then went to AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation).  There, I was a project assistant for Malaria, HIV/AIDS and Water and Sanitation.

A: Why did you want to work for SMP/MC?

R: The project I was working for in AMREF came to an end.  One thing that excited me about SMP was that I already had experience.  It’s all about behavior change, not just treatment. That’s why I applied for that position.  I felt like if the community takes on the responsibility of prevention, there’ll be no cases in the facility.  I wanted to continue the work I had started with AMREF to work with VHTs (Village Health Teams). This was an opportunity to create sustainability for both projects.      

A: What drew you to work in public health?

R:  Most of the health issues are preventable diseases.  But they are ignored; people don’t have knowledge.  I believe public health will give me a lot of insight into community health.  I believe that will really help me change the lives of the community; but with their help, I can’t do it alone.  Generally, I don’t like to be office-based.  I really want to be deep down with the local person who has a problem.  Public health will directly take me there.  

A: What do you like most about your job?

R:  It really makes interact with the local person.  I get to interact with different people. Without SMP I wouldn’t have met you.  I’ve got to meet and train many Peace Corps Volunteers.

A: What do you think is the biggest challenge in malaria eradication?

R: It’s the attitude of people and the allocation of resources.  There are more resources for treatment instead of believing that prevention can succeed. There is also a knowledge gap of the local person.   

A: What do you think could be improved in the malaria eradication campaign?

R: The sensitization that we are doing is broad; we think the same sensitization will work in every region. It should be zeroed in what the community needs.  For example, if I was in charge of nets, very few would be allocated to regions where the burden isn’t high.  Areas with a high burden should be focused on.  Small community and village groups like SACCOs (Savings and Credit Co-operatives) should be taught the benefits of health and changes will occur.  Most of our sensitization is radio based and not every person will interpret what they hear on the radio.  Our IEC (Information Education Communication) materials for each region (holds up a poster) should show have real photograph of an actual family in the community that everyone knows.  These are just cartoons.  But with a real photograph, people would think “even I could do this.”  The health education in the facilities should focus on individuals or households, and should be followed up.  No one bothers to make follow- ups to see what the problem is from the grassroots. Instead, they wait until they go to the facility.  Like other outreaches are done, with immunization and TB programs, why not do outreaches for malaria treatment and testing?  

A: After SMP ends, what would you like to do?

R: I would really still wish to work with another organization that is handling malaria issues.  It’s a big burden for the country.  

A: Can you share a memorable experience from working at SMP?

R:  We had a radio talk show which I initiated brining a local person, a couple who went for IPTP (Intermittent Preventive Treatment in Pregnancy) for four doses, and got treatment within 24 hours.  I realized that was very educational, but very brief.  When you bring in a local person, you get many callers, and educate others on the real experience.  Another morning, I decided to listen to the radio.  One of the LC3 (local councilor) from Kaberamaido discussed how people were using (bed) nets for fishing.  So, I got the driver and decided to go up there.  I saw nets in the swamp used for fishing.  I fear water, so I couldn’t remove them.  And I knew that if I removed them, it wouldn’t help.  So I got the community together and asked them to be sincere and march to the water to remove it.  I said, “Let’s go and remove them and we’ll talk.”  The only one that remained was because the owner isn’t there, but he refuses.  I said, “this one doesn’t have an owner, he doesn’t want to use it, and doesn’t think it’s important”.  We removed it, and had a meeting and gave them proper education on net use.  I asked them “how much does this fish cost?”  A kilo of the tiny fish was 2000.  “How much do you spend on treating malaria in your household?” They said at least 20,000.  I told them “let’s put this in a weighing scale”.  I used a stone to represent the cost of treatment and the other side was sleeping under a net.  We agreed that we should all we be watchmen, and signed an agreement that if someone uses a net for fishing, they would be arrested.  And today, there is no fishing with (bed) nets.   They realized that if you misuse something you are given for free, then you lose it. 

Stop Malaria Project Uganda is one of many organizations that host a Peace Corps Volunteer in partnership with the Stomping Out Malaria Initiative in Africa. The initiative mobilizes and connects over 3,000 Peace Corps Volunteers in 23 countries in sub-Saharan Africa to work together to eradicate malaria from the continent. To learn more, please visit: http://stompoutmalaria.org/.     

Stop Malaria Project Interview: Benjamin Omagor

As part of BAMM (Blog About Malaria Month) I will be featuring brief interviews with my coworkers at Stop Malaria Project (SMP) and Malaria Consortium (MC) in the Soroti office.

Note: SMP is implemented by MC, which provides technical assistance to the project.

 

Benjamin Omagor is a technical assistant employed by MC to work in SMP. 

  

A: Where are you from?

B: I’m from Soroti, in Arapai subcounty, Onyakai village.

A: What did you study?

B: I received a diploma in clinical medicine and community health from Mbale School of Clinical Officers. Right now I’m studying for a bachelor of science in health services management at Islamic University in Uganda in Mbale.  Afterwards, I will pursue a master’s degree in health economics or public health.  If all goes well, I’d like to do it at Johns Hopkins University, or study in London. 

A: Where have you worked before SMP/MC?

B: I was working as a clinician at Louis Memorial Medical Center in Kampala.  I was also working as a buffer trainer for Malaria Consortium in a project called ICCM (integrated community case management) which involves treatment of malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea at the household level implemented by VHTs (village health teams).  Working those two jobs gave me a clear understanding of the difference of health service delivery between the elites and the rural poor.  

A: Why did you want to work for SMP/MC?

B: I have this enthusiasm to implement community based projects.  I realized that I could be of use based on the experience that I gained from working in a well-facilitated health facility.  Now during supervision, I see myself trying to create an improvement in rural facilities.  The job also brought me back home.  Since the facility I was working in had patients with health insurance, I began to think “is it possible for me to come up with an insurance package for the rural poor?” Coming back to Soroti made it easy for me to think how I can implement that, even though it’s still just an idea.  Slowly, I’m starting to see how I can kick-start that project.  The point is to help people that are really poor.  I’m also involved with a chicken project to help generate income for poor households.      

A: What drew you to work in public health?

B:  As a clinician, I was seeing people come with different illnesses to a facility. The fact that there is a possibility to prevent a disease drew me to public health.  Why does someone have to wait until they are sick to come a facility?  We can attack malaria from all fronts, from prevention to management.  It’s all connected.  The fact that I can work with communities and crowds also drew me in. 

A: What do you like most about your job?

B:  I’m really involved deep inside the fight against malaria.  It helps me also move to places, meet different people and study different aspects about human beings. 

A: What do you think is the biggest challenge in malaria eradication?

B: The biggest challenge right now is the eradication of the mosquito itself. We are now encouraging people to use barrier methods, like sleeping under nets.  In our environment, it is almost impossible to eradicate the mosquito with so many swamps, especially here in Teso, with all the fingers of Kyogo Lake.  You can’t drain the swamps and a mosquito can fly over two kilometers.  But we have gained a lot success in preventing deaths from malaria.   

A: What do you think could be improved in the malaria eradication campaign?

B: I think we need to take curative measures nearer to the communities.  More research should be done on sterilizing mosquitoes.  If you can’t do without the mosquitoes, at least stop it from carrying the parasite and transmitting malaria. Introducing scaling up of ICCM should also be done. Drugs should always be available and recruit enough health workers to treat children with malaria. Drugs are useless in the facility if no one can dispense them.

A: After SMP ends, what would you like to do?

B: I would like to work with health projects for about five years.  But, if it doesn’t come my way, I will do poultry or other business.  Or I could volunteer in rural health facilities as a clinician.  And of course, I want to pursue my master’s. 

A: Can you share a memorable experience from working at SMP?

B: When I did clinical audits in Ngora hospital, we discovered they didn’t have an emergency room in their OPD, or Outpatient Department. (Clinical audits are a way for health professionals to be assessed through clinical performance.  It involves setting standards, and the audits compare the reality to the standards.  It identifies gaps that need to be addressed.)   So, for the first time, I saw that the administrators took it seriously.  Before I left, they identified a room to be set up for the emergency room.  It impressed me that they took it very seriously.

Stop Malaria Project Uganda is one of many organizations that host a Peace Corps Volunteer in partnership with Stomping Out Malaria in Africa. The initiative mobilizes and connects over 3,000 Peace Corps Volunteers in 23 countries in sub-Saharan Africa to work together to eradicate malaria from the continent. To learn more, please visit: http://stompoutmalaria.org/.