Seven Rice University undergraduates spent their summer in Africa on the frontlines of the world’s AIDS pandemic in an inaugural two-month internship sponsored by Rice’s Beyond Traditional Borders (BTB) Initiative.
The students designed health-care tools and programs last year as part of a new multidisciplinary course at Rice, “Introduction to Global Health Issues,” and then tested those tools and programs in clinics and hospitals run by or associated with the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland.
The interns came from a variety of backgrounds, from engineering to public policy, so depending on local needs and their interests, they helped dispense medicines, developed teen activities, took vital signs, visited rural clinics, taught children about HIV or made presentations to local health-care workers. In short, the interns saw what doctors and nurses in the developing world see every day.
COURTESY PHOTO
Children pose for a picture in the Swaziland countryside.
Rachel Solnick, a Wiess sophomore, and Lindsay Zwiener, a Brown junior, worked in Botswana. Sophie Kim, a Will Rice senior, and Christina Lagos, a Wiess senior, were in Lesotho. Kim Bennett, a Brown senior, went to Malawi. David Dallas, a Lovett senior, and Tessa Elliott ’07 worked in Swaziland.
“We received great feedback about our students’ work at the clinics and want to go forward and move into other areas supported by the ministries of health in these countries,” said Yvette Mirabal, BTB director. “At the same time, the personal growth of our students has been amazing. Their experience has impacted their career choices and how they plan to live their lives.”
Lindsay Zwiener, a Brown junior who worked in Botswana with Wiess sophomore Rachel Solnick, noted the advantage of seeing firsthand the places they had read about. “One of the most significant things I learned was the need for a holistic understanding of the environment in which a project is to be implemented,” Zwiener said. “Despite all of our planning and preparation during the semester, we were unable to anticipate factors which had a sizable impact on our project; we were unable to see from our desks in Houston the situation in Botswana.”
Improving adherence in Lesotho
Sophie Kim, a Will Rice senior, and Christina Lagos, a Wiess senior, established important outreach and education projects in Lesotho, freeing BIPAI’s doctors to practice medicine.
Read the students’ blogs online. Here are
a few excerpts:
Kim Bennett,
Malawi
Lunch was a typical Malawian
meal, except that it had rice instead of nsima. (Which is good, because
I like rice more than nsima.) I ate with Amanda and Jenny, two nursing
students from Seattle who have been around for a while. After everyone
is done eating, the kids form a huge circle and start chanting/singing
in Chichewa. It took us quite a while to figure out what was going on,
but we decided that they must have been introducing the newcomers. They
dragged in a group of five English people, all of whom were very nice.
Then, they dragged in Amanda, Jenny and me. It was fun and a little
embarrassing.
Dave Dallas, Swaziland
I’m
hoping that the rain will stop soon, as it is foiling our plans for the
day. Two nurses, Prince and Godwin, have invited me to go out with them
from house to house to educate about sanitation and hygiene. It is part
of their training as nurses
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