Courtesy of Meera...
http://picasaweb.google.com/meerachary/
BlumCenterICTImplementationGroupPhotos?authkey=bYnloQ0-8fo
(for funny photos, email us!)
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
Until next time...
I hope Meera and Ali have returned home safely. Amanda should now be in Tanzania, enjoying the sun and water. I miss the rest of the team already! The past 3 weeks have simply flown by.
Last Friday, both teams presented findings and recommendations to the Ministry of Health, the Uganda Communications Commission, and Microcare. The meetings lasted 2 hours, with plenty of time for discussion, and the Ministry seemed genuinely interested in what we had to say. They were especially surprised by our reports on the conditions in Nakaseke; at the previous meeting, they expressed their belief that Nakaseke was "ok" and were shocked to learn that there was only spotty network, inconsistent electricity, poor roads, and a lack of supplies and staff. George Sharffenberger, Executive Director of the Blum Center, also presented on the Blum Center for Developing Economies and its role in this project. Afterwards, we met with the Member of Parliament for the Nakaseke District, who also happens to be the Minister of Gender. For the most part, it seems like everyone is interested in continuing to support the work that is being done and the next steps for us are to continue information and document retrieval and hold "healthy discussions", a favorite term of the Celtel COO, with potential partners about the possibility of a pilot. I am sad that the on-site part of this research project is over so soon, but as Meera said, who knows what opportunities will arise going forward. We will keep in contact with all the wonderful people we have met and maybe one day we will get a chance to come back.
I wish I had some more pictures to post, but unfortunately my camera was spoiled, as they say here, before I left Berkeley. Rest assured, though...the rest of the team will be uploading all the pictures soon and we will post a link on this blog. Stay tuned!
Last Friday, both teams presented findings and recommendations to the Ministry of Health, the Uganda Communications Commission, and Microcare. The meetings lasted 2 hours, with plenty of time for discussion, and the Ministry seemed genuinely interested in what we had to say. They were especially surprised by our reports on the conditions in Nakaseke; at the previous meeting, they expressed their belief that Nakaseke was "ok" and were shocked to learn that there was only spotty network, inconsistent electricity, poor roads, and a lack of supplies and staff. George Sharffenberger, Executive Director of the Blum Center, also presented on the Blum Center for Developing Economies and its role in this project. Afterwards, we met with the Member of Parliament for the Nakaseke District, who also happens to be the Minister of Gender. For the most part, it seems like everyone is interested in continuing to support the work that is being done and the next steps for us are to continue information and document retrieval and hold "healthy discussions", a favorite term of the Celtel COO, with potential partners about the possibility of a pilot. I am sad that the on-site part of this research project is over so soon, but as Meera said, who knows what opportunities will arise going forward. We will keep in contact with all the wonderful people we have met and maybe one day we will get a chance to come back.
I wish I had some more pictures to post, but unfortunately my camera was spoiled, as they say here, before I left Berkeley. Rest assured, though...the rest of the team will be uploading all the pictures soon and we will post a link on this blog. Stay tuned!
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Back in Kampala
After two weeks in Nakaseke, the two Blum Fellow teams decided to meet up for a weekend of debriefing (and, yes, relaxing!) at the amazing Murchison Falls National Park in Northern Uganda. We saw the view from the top of the falls on Friday, and went for a pre-dawn game drive on Saturday morning. This is the African landscape you see in the movies-- sprawling Savannah, wide trees, cavorting cob and waterbuck... it was beautiful! We saw everything from hippos and warthogs to the elusive leopard and lions. An afternoon boat ride brought us close to hippos and (yikes!) crocs, and to the bottom of the falls. It was a great weekend.
Between the game drives and boat rides, the two groups had a chance to meet and exchange what we had learned and saw so far. What we found is that the two groups had vastly different experiences. This was partly because we were working in different regions, but mostly because we had different objectives and thus went into our interviews asking different types of questions. The other group was focused on a sophisticated smart-phone technology that would make data collection and dissemination digitized. And in the districts that they visited, people some health centers were already using these types of devices, to varying degrees of success. The group was excited to see what smartphones could do for Nakaseke.
Our group's optimism was a bit more guarded. Because we saw a number of technologies in Nakaseke that failed due to lack of maintenance, we are not convinced that putting smartphones in the hands of village clinics is the best idea right now. But we are excited to see what the smartphone group learns this week in Nakaseke district.
We, on the other hand, are camped out in Kampala for a week of meetings on the backend side of things. We've been to the field and seen how things are, and now we want to talk to the people who can change things at an institutional level. Thus far, we have talked with representatives from the Uganda Communication Commission (which plays a role similar to the FCC in America), Celtel Uganda (one of the major cellular/broadband/landline providers), MTN Uganda (another cellular provider), and SEVO (a national volunteer first-aid/ambulance service organization). These meetings have been incredible, and at times I wish we had had them at the beginning of our research.
All of these stakeholders are interested in the type of project we are considering, and all of them had both insight and advice to contribute. More importantly, many of these entities are ready and willing to partner with us to provide service or support. For example, the Celtel COO said that they would be willing to discuss providing subsidized rates for an emergency health hotline in Uganda (think 911), which could link patients to the services that currently exist but are underutilized due to lack of access and awareness.
We have more meetings like that this week, culminating in our final meeting with the Ministry of Health on Friday, where we will present our findings and recommendations. Let us clarify, by no means do we think these recommendations will be final or complete. They are simply another step in the long road towards improving health care in Nakaseke and Uganda in general. But we do hope to shed new light on the situation to the Ministry Officials who will be working on this going forward, and also to guide further research by other Blum Fellows. Who knows? We've all expressed an interest in continuing our own involvement with this project-- perhaps our adventures in Uganda will not end so soon after all?!
Between the game drives and boat rides, the two groups had a chance to meet and exchange what we had learned and saw so far. What we found is that the two groups had vastly different experiences. This was partly because we were working in different regions, but mostly because we had different objectives and thus went into our interviews asking different types of questions. The other group was focused on a sophisticated smart-phone technology that would make data collection and dissemination digitized. And in the districts that they visited, people some health centers were already using these types of devices, to varying degrees of success. The group was excited to see what smartphones could do for Nakaseke.
Our group's optimism was a bit more guarded. Because we saw a number of technologies in Nakaseke that failed due to lack of maintenance, we are not convinced that putting smartphones in the hands of village clinics is the best idea right now. But we are excited to see what the smartphone group learns this week in Nakaseke district.
We, on the other hand, are camped out in Kampala for a week of meetings on the backend side of things. We've been to the field and seen how things are, and now we want to talk to the people who can change things at an institutional level. Thus far, we have talked with representatives from the Uganda Communication Commission (which plays a role similar to the FCC in America), Celtel Uganda (one of the major cellular/broadband/landline providers), MTN Uganda (another cellular provider), and SEVO (a national volunteer first-aid/ambulance service organization). These meetings have been incredible, and at times I wish we had had them at the beginning of our research.
All of these stakeholders are interested in the type of project we are considering, and all of them had both insight and advice to contribute. More importantly, many of these entities are ready and willing to partner with us to provide service or support. For example, the Celtel COO said that they would be willing to discuss providing subsidized rates for an emergency health hotline in Uganda (think 911), which could link patients to the services that currently exist but are underutilized due to lack of access and awareness.
We have more meetings like that this week, culminating in our final meeting with the Ministry of Health on Friday, where we will present our findings and recommendations. Let us clarify, by no means do we think these recommendations will be final or complete. They are simply another step in the long road towards improving health care in Nakaseke and Uganda in general. But we do hope to shed new light on the situation to the Ministry Officials who will be working on this going forward, and also to guide further research by other Blum Fellows. Who knows? We've all expressed an interest in continuing our own involvement with this project-- perhaps our adventures in Uganda will not end so soon after all?!
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