Oct. 8. 2015. CORE Group Global Health Practitioner Conference [Day 1]

Without a full motivation, public health is not possible to emit the shiny light. To tell the truth, I was almost suffocated by the normal life these days, so I have always tried to find something fresh moment that suddenly motivates me again. I had never imagined that CORE Group Global Health Practitioner Conference would have a rich source of inspiration for me. All of us might have heard of this, how to get a job, how to start a new career, and how to successfully undertake the task at least one time: the answer was always networking, networking, and networking… So then, how do we start the vague, intangible, and difficult networking? It is not hard! You might also have heard the answer for that: Close the laptop right now, and go out to see the people.

It was true! Just as most people, I was in the middle of bunch of things to do, but I just drove to the conference place, Washington DC. Actually, I have been waiting for this conference for a long time. I was a bit sad that my oral presentation application was not accepted for “New Information Circuit,” but I still wanted to attend this conference. I thought my research work, quantitative analysis by using Lives Saved Tool, was pretty new for the New Information Circuit session, but I realized that this CORE Group Conference, which is held twice per year, have already dealt with this analysis several times. Wow… I have to keep up with all new information from now. Global health practitioners should be sensitive to embrace up-to-date framework and concepts with keen eyes!

CORE Group Conference, established in 1997, is for exchanging new ideas and knowledge among more than 75 organizations in 180 countries. CORE Group members and associates are mostly NGOs, academics, and for-profit organizations, and they gather at the conference to make unified and centralized synergy to have a positive influence on community health. I think it is a great movement to cooperate with each other for creating “Trending topics in community health.” I joined the conference as a World Vision Global Health Fellow, the position that I am officially done quite a long time ago. Nonetheless, I was happy to become one of CORE Group members to meet Alfonso and Lianna from World Vision. We were in Sierra Leone together when there was an Ebola outbreak over there last year. There were some students and early career professionals among attendees, so I also enjoyed interacting with them during social networking time. The session about supervising community health workers and monitoring & evaluation gave me a better sense of finding thesis topic as a prospective doctoral student. It is interesting moment that everyone in the conference mentioned one person’s name “Henry Perry,” whenever they talked about community health worker and health systems. He is my lovely teacher at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health! I am glad to know he has made a great contribution to develop the guidance for managing community-based primary health care.

I am already excited to attend Conference Day 2 tomorrow. The conference reminded me again public health would be strengthened unlimitedly if people put their heads together to better other’s lives.

Oct. 3. 2015. Eritrea Cuisine I

I was just happy to see African food in the U.S. You know, basic ingredients are the same, no matter where people live, but depending on how to cook, it can be called Korean, Chinese, American, or African food. The bread was made of flour, the soup made of lamb, and the left side of the picture… what is it? Is it cheese? Bread crumbs? Weldegergis said, “It is HALVA!” “How do you spell?” “H.A.L.V.A. Halva~!”

I could not tolerate my curiosity, so I did quick web search with my phone. Halva is a type of dense, sweet confections. According to Wikipedia, there were two styles, flour-based and nut-butter-based, but I was not sure what kinds of halva I had. Anyway, I had a nibble on halva, and the taste was really sweet! I felt like it was a chunk of sugar, so I was a bit afraid of cramming them in my mouth. However, having carelessly torn bread saturated in lamb soup with a small amount of halva reminded me of my Africa life last year. Of course, there was no need to use spoon or fork!

Oct. 1. 2015. Refugee

Wars, conflict and persecution never end in the earth. UNHCR’s annual Global Trends Report points out that worldwide displacement was at the highest level in 2014, 59.5 million people forced to flee their home. To me, who has never been to a battlefield, the war-torn Middle East seems to be a far away land. Of course, there was a Baltimore riot last May, and it is not that quiet area, but still, I think I am in the place that misery displacement never happens. I am so apathetic. While Syria has become the world’s biggest producer of refugees and internally displaced people, what have I done...?

UNHCR- Worldwide displacement his all-time high as war and persecution increase 

I looked around. I was still in Baltimore, and I believed there was something that I could do for the community in Baltimore. When I realized that International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps refugees settle down in the U.S., I was reluctant to become an IRC Family Mentor for the first time. ‘I am a student, and I have a visa that expires soon. How do I work for refugees?’

In the end, I could not ignore the opportunity to become a Family Mentor. Though I did not know how much I could be helpful for refugee family who just came to the U.S., at least I thought I would be a good listener and sincere friend for them. I could not quite understand the difference between asylee and refugee even after IRC volunteer orientation, but I was full of both pleasure and duty that ‘I want to do this!’ When an IRC staff asked me over the phone interview what kinds of refugee family I would like to meet, I said without a moment’s hesitation, “I’d like to meet big family who’s from Africa!”

Why Africa again? There were quite a number of people who are skeptical about my work in Africa. They did not understand why I went to Africa, so to speak, unfamiliar place located too far away from the U.S. They said they would have done similar things what I did in Africa, right here in Baltimore. At that time, I could not answer for that. They may be right because I have had little concern what’s going on the communities that were so near to me. After a long trip in Africa, I was determined that I would do invaluable volunteer work for underserved population in Maryland and Virginia, the place where I can reach so quick.

That’s how I met Weldegergis’ family. He is from Eritrea, small country that gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993. After a long period of years of living in exile in Eastern Sudan, at last, his family finally set foot on the U.S. soil in 2015. He met his wife in Sudan and now has six kids, big family! I visit the family once a week to help them adjust to the new life in the U.S. by going to bookstore together, teaching English and math, or share each other’s daily life. I originally had a lot of pressure about how to become a great mentor, but now I feel like I am more healed whenever I see them. They moved in new, sweet home in Baltimore, go to school, go to work, and go to Catholic Church on Sundays.

Now I finally have the answer for those who are not sure why I like on the ground work. I would never imagine how hard living in the asylum and refugee camp. Weldegergis talks about his refugee life in the past with a smile, but I never know how much he had to go through. Likewise, I cannot feel the same way of pain and sorrow that Syrians have, simply because I am not physically there, and I am not in the same situation of forced displacement. So I need to go again, to feel their life fully in the same environment where gives suffering to them. I believe public health is for everyone. Wherever I am, I hope I can do outreach, go and visit people who need helping hands.