Oct. 27. 2015. Are You Gay?

“Are you female or male? Or… both?"

“Are you homo or not?”

[To man] “Do you have wife? Or… husband?”

“Are you man or woman? Or… third sex?”

You must be insulted if someone seriously (or either way, jokingly) ask about your sexuality. So then, how about you define yourself?

“I am a man… because I have a man’s genitalia, and I am attracted to women.”

Do you think it is enough explanation to define yourself as a MALE? Then, here are some questions for you:

1.    What if your general recognition towards biological sex has an exception, “intersex”?

2.    What if you, as a man, have a sexual attraction to women, but your gender identity wants to define yourself as a woman?

3.    What if you are not attracted to anyone, regardless of sex, and have never felt sexual arousal, which is identified as “asexual”?

4.    What if you were ostracized during your school days because your gender expression was so girly?

5.    What if you’ve had crush on man just for a few seconds because he was your ideal person who has everything and that was exactly what you have always wanted to be?

6.    What if you have fantasy about ladyboy, bisexuality or pansexuality?

So then, what are you? Are you sure that you are all-about-man? Who told you that you are a man with what kinds of criteria?

Let’s talk about my case. I used to like the color, pink. The reason? I don’t know, I just liked it, all colors from red channel, including purple, violet, and powder pink. I’d never thought my color preference would be a big issue to Americans. Of course, I have to admit the fact that it was already 3 years ago (probably, men have become more open to pink now?), and people in Utah were startled (perhaps, Utahns are more conservative than others?). Anyway, this story happened when I went to Kumasi, Ghana, for global health study abroad program with a big group of public health, nursing and medical students during summer, 2012. I brought my fancy white and pink striped slipper to wear indoors to Africa! But, some strange moments occurred. When I walked around, a male colleague saw my slipper with pop-eyed and cried out in surprise, “Pink…………..???”

“Yes, my friend, it is pink, so…?”

“Oh… You should be very careful for that.”

“…….?”

He must have some fixed boundary of choosing color to make himself to be a masculine? I took a little offense at his shock and came back to my room. Another colleague, who was my roommate, also saw my slipper and showed exactly same response, “Pink…………….???”

I shocked them again when I took out my purple laptop. A female colleague saw it and asked in surprise, “Charles! Why is your laptop pink?” Well, there was some choice that I could remonstrate with her. “My friend, this is not pink, but purple!” “Okay, Okay… You’re right.” She consented reluctantly. After that, whenever I talked with her, she asked me earnestly couple of more times, “By the way, Charles! Why is your laptop pink?”

They didn’t ask me directly, “Are you gay?” However, they seemed that they wanted to hear from me directly like this, “Yes, because I like pink, I am gay.” They were so nice Utahns who didn’t cast me out even if I looked somewhat suspicious. One more moment happened when our group came back to the U.S. from Ghana. I finally took out my U.S. cell phone to turn it on. Sadly, my cell phone case was also pink. Another female colleague said in a low voice, “Pink…?” ‘Okay okay… Your response doesn’t that surprise me anymore.’ Right after this Africa trip, I threw my purple laptop into the storage, gave my fancy white and pink striped slipper to my “female” friend, and bought the new cell phone with “pure white” cover. Also, I threw all pink shirts away with tears in my wounded hearts (half in joke). It was the moment that I had to abandon my color preference to survive (Yes, I was really serious at that time).

What is your sexual orientation?
Is it the exactly same as your gender identity?

And now, I am attending half-day Gender & Sexual Diversity (GSD) Training provided by Palladium, global health consulting firm. 13 attendees from USAID, CDC, and other implementing partner join today’s training session to discuss gender & sexual diversity. I have been working with Palladium and Johns Hopkins University to research the impact of GSD training funded by PEPFAR (The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) in 38 developing countries, and today’s training was great time for me to talk about Gender & Sexual Minority (GSM) with staff who have been working so hard to change people’s awareness towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT), men who have sex with men (MSM), and sexism.

Wait, what is GSM? Why do we make the new terminology and make ourselves confused? GSM means “People whose gender, sexual orientation, or sexual characteristics differ from what is typically expected.” It is a broader concept than LGBT and MSM that you can be also considered as GSM. If I had stuck to my pink preference ignoring whatever people think about me, I would have been called, GSM. However, I just wanted to be normal and I didn’t want to argue with anybody by saying “Pink isn’t just for girls!” Wait again, what is normal? Since when people started thinking men cannot like pink to be masculine? How much we have been suffering from this kind of social convention, not expressing yourself to the full?

Clicker for the training! 

People have complex identities. It must be impossible to express every single emotion and define themselves who they are. Even if you are confident to say who you are and what you really want to do in the future, it can always change once you sleep and get up in the next morning. If you really like to dissect the color as black and white, sex as man and woman, and weather as summer and winder, where is true diversity? How do we ensure highest attainable standard of health for LGBT and MSM? I know, God created us, either man or woman, but we are still, imperfect creatures who always need love and sincere affection from somebody else. GSM is not the existence who we blame, but we embrace. We may be locked in the cage that is defined by our society.

I was really impressed by one attendee’s self-introduction.

“I am cis-gender. I am gay. And I am from Chicago.”

I haven’t heard of “cis-gender,” but it was actually great way to explain ourselves if you are not “trans-gender.” (It reminded me cis- trans- complex molecular structures in organic chemistry class). It was also good to see that he declared himself as a gay and said he had his husband. The time is already past when coming out man dies out. To be honest, I don’t want to argue whether same-sex marriages should be banned or not. But at least, I eagerly want to see that every single person regardless of their gender identity, gender expression, biological sex, and sexual orientation has the same human right to be respected. Also, I hope to see that people can become ally, who openly support the equal treatment and human rights of gender and sexual minorities.

Oct. 9. 2015. CORE Group Global Health Practitioner Conference [Day 2]

By sunrise Day 2, I was bright and breezy this morning. I thought it was so lucky for me to attend the conferences in DC because I would just drive and easily get there. For the next year in Spring, Core Group Conference will be held in Portland, Oregon, so far way from here. From CCIH in June to CORE Group in October, I might have not been grateful enough to attend conferences just because the places were located too close. Okay, so I have only one day left for the conference, and I will absorb all kinds of information! Day 2 was for “Behavior Change in the Age of Complexity: Implications for Monitoring and Evaluation” all day long.

It was interesting topic for me to understand how to approach to monitoring and evaluating (M&E) Social and behavior change (SBC) in an alternative way. You know, it must be very hard to measure subtle and indefinable changes in people’s emotions, so SBC M&E needs to be more adjusted for effective measurement of impact and generation of learning. The new way of approaching SBC M&E would be strengthened mixed methods coming from various disciplines, anthropology, sociology, history, psychology to embrace complex interactions and transformative change. For example, social/gender norm has been shifted, and the human right of underserved population, such as LGBT and MSM has been improved, so adapting and optimizing behavior change interventions would be fundamentally necessary to integrate community member’s engagement and feedback.

Through the conference, people’s efforts to share the new approaches to SBC M&E and applying the best local systems framework will improve the quality of life on the opposite side of the earth sooner or later. I met a few people from Johns Hopkins; they are from Center for Communication Programs (CCP) and Jhpiego. Though we did not talk much with each other, it was good to see people from the place that I am well aware of attend the conference to share their experience with global health practitioners from other organizations.

See you all in Portland!

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.

July 24. 2015. Meningococcal Disease

http://www.path.org/menafrivac/meningitis-belt.php

When I began working at the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), I was not also sure what the specific topic would be. There were several options about meningococcal disease that I would be able to contribute to work on. Though I will be the first author for the paper, but honestly, the disease itself sounds pretty new to me! Nonetheless, it is interesting for me to know about this disease because it is predominant across sub-Saharan Africa. Here at IVAC, there are passionate people who are working for AGEDD Project, stands for Adult Global Estimation of Disease Burden and Distribution of Serotypes of Serious Pneumococcal and Meningococcal Disease. I learn so much about how to collaborate with each other to find a new subject to write for the benefit of AGEDD Project.

Meningitis, the best well-known subset of invasive meningococcal disease, is caused by inflammation and irritation of the membranes that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. The symptom is stiff neck, fever, rashes, deafness, mental retardation, seizures, or paralysis, and some survivors lose their limb, or suffer permanent brain damage. In the Africa’s meningitis belt, a total of 450 million people are prone to this deadly disease. From West to East, Senegal to Ethiopia, epidemics of meningitis has swept across this region by killing one in ten people infected and leaving people severely debilitated. How to eliminate this disease? Thanks to a unique partnership between PATH and the World Health Organization cost-effective new vaccine MenAfriVac has been distributed, and 150 million people have received it. However, the serotype of disease has switched from typical Neisseria meningitides A to C, and it actually caused another epidemic in Niger and Nigeria this year.

The topic for meningococcal disease can be various: about vaccine policy, vaccine effectiveness, or history of epidemics in Africa. I hope that well-organized research about this disease will be done soon so that everyone in the world can react to prevent it in the future.

July 17. 2015. JHU Fellows

The building reminded of me last year this time. I grinned at the building and said ‘Hello, it’s been a while!’ inly. I have been here in June last year for World Vision orientation. One year has passed in an instant: Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, South Korea, Mozambique, and back to the U.S. during one year. In the office, there would be new Johns Hopkins University fellows who have been receiving training from this morning. I was a little nervous at first to get inside the office. What story would I tell them? Erin invited me to come to the World Vision International office in DC for sharing my Global Health Fellows Programme experience to the upcoming group of JHU fellows. A security guy opened the entrance door and took me to the orientation place. “Hello, people!” It has been more than a year since I saw Erin last time. We embraced each other, but I was kind of embarrassed because five ladies who sat on the chair in a line were looking at me at the same time (I did not know where to look!) This year, there would be five female JHU fellows who will work Lives Saved Tool from August/September. Where are men? There were 2 female and 2 male fellows last year. Men, let’s give it a little more effort for public health! J

I arrived 30 minutes early, but my sharing experience and Q&A went off immediately. Haha, I liked this flexibility. I talked this and that; overview summary of my fellowship focus, my personal experience and learning, and top recommendations for a successful fellowship. I should have known who the audience are to understand how much they are familiar with Africa. I simply considered that they must be novice about anything for Africa, but they were not. Many of them were originally from Africa or someone has already been to Africa. Ooh… This was the big gap between my school colleagues and friends outside of the school. My school dudes and junior colleagues are normally into Africa! Since I have seen many friends these days who do not care whatever I say about Africa, I said too much basic things to them, such as “Behave humbly in Africa!” When I said, “I want to be an Africa expert!” they laughed; I was saying that in front of native Africans! Anyway, they are going to go to Laos, Mauritania, Kenya/ Ethiopia, Senegal/ Mali, and Zambia/ Malawi/ Swaziland. They have just become my great motivation because they are rising stars for public health in Southeast Asia and Africa. I was very happy to share my experience with them, and I hope they will enjoy their work and life outside of the U.S.

The next step after fellowship work? Yeah, one thing always leads to another, and we have to prepare for that. I believe there will certainly be an interesting life that makes me really excited. All I can do is to try harder than yesterday to become an “Africa expert.” J Wait a sec, Africa. I will be back!

July 11. 2015. Good Spoon

I have always passed them by. I cannot deny that I must have been scared or I simply thought that was not my problem. At the same time, I have had a bad conscience that I could not do anything for them. ‘Maybe next time… when I become stable, I may help them…’ Suppressing discomfort in the innermost recesses of the heart, I did not bat an eye and avoided that location in a hurry.

They are not different. Actually, I do not even want to differentiate between “homeless” people and “home yes” people by saying “they.” We are the human beings and creation made by the author of nature. I honestly do not know anyone’s story on the street. So you cannot slander people without knowing anything about them. Abysmal suffering from being forsaken by truelove, being cast out from society, or worn out by poverty… Many people at the shelter already closed their mind and did not seem to share their story. I mingled with them and asked him right next to me to sing a hymn together, but he said “No.”

It is well, (it is well),

With my soul, (with my soul)

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

2 hymns resonated throughout the hot but mentally frozen air about 10 minutes, and I was greatly embarrassed at that moment. I felt like they were blaming God lamenting their lives. I guess every single person might have had experience to feel bitter against God for his heartlessness, “Oh, God. Why did you do this to me! Why am I suffering from this?” People are disappointed with incompetent-looked God and they drift apart from Him. I do even feel like this way that God seems to do nothing and just stands by and looks on with folded arms what’s happening on the earth. If someone who never even sang along the chorus would ask me “Do you still believe in God? If so, why?” I would say “Yes!” because at least, Good Spoon team comes to Baltimore to share God’s love by giving free food, daily necessity, and clothes once a month. The life seems to be so bleak and fall into endless darkness, but at least, there is hope for all of us. Hope that God is always be with us to become a partner of our joys and sorrows.

<Click the Good Spoon Homepage>

Good Spoon does missionary work and social services for the urban poor in the U.S. It was established in 2004 to begin providing free meals on the street, and expanded its service to having their haircut, providing clinic, helping employment and recruitment, solving the cases of unreasonable remuneration, opening ESL, Korean class and tutoring class, and share the happiness during Thanksgiving or Christmas for free. The biggest objective for Christian on the ground is to spread the gospel. It must be not a good thing to see if Christians are selfish enough to be baldly pompous and self-serving. I know that there is no “next time.” That’s why I join this work. Even though I am not still sure how I can understand and help them fully, I believe paying attention to them and praying for them at any time would be an immediate contribution that I can happily to do.

That was what I have always had a load on my mind. I have only been concerned about people in Africa while I have not done anything for my community. To be honest, I wanted to ask and double-check myself if I am really willing to put all of my energies into people’s health in Africa by working for people of a community, my neighbors in Baltimore. No matter where neglected classes of people are, I want to embrace all of them to share the God’s love. Because it could also have happened to me. I could also have become the underprivileged and I could also fall into that situation anytime. There is no complete peace of mind and comfort in a changing world. People meet and part every single day, and you cannot rely on any people forever. What you can do is to find happiness and holiness in the Lord and appreciate the heart’s-blood, the LIFE at this moment.

Let's just look at the world in a different way. The world is so beautiful!

주님 안에서 화이팅!

June 29. 2015. Christian Connections for International Health (CCIH) 29th Annual Conference

My school for Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) degree is finally over. When I entered the graduate school, I felt myself I was on top of the world and was ready for everything. However, as you also may know, graduation does not mean everything; another world is always waiting for me! So sad for me: my school colleagues have been scattered all over the place. We did not quite have time to say “good bye my friends,” even during the graduation ceremony, and all we can do right now is emailing to each other by saying meaninglessly that “Hey! Meet in Baltimore!... No, come to Texas!... No, come to Seattle! No, come to the Philippines!... Nono, come to Peru!...” Some are staying at school for research assistant, data analysis, or volunteering, some are doing PeaceCorps, some are entering PhD program, some are already working at the organization/ company… 

One to come, and one to go. I may meet the new people from now to form a new and more meaningful relationship. Of course, every time I meet someone, that must be the most meaningful moment. But I am just saying that I am hoping to improve myself to welcome people with a bright smile. Though I cannot avoid unintended farewell at any time, there is something that I will always be in my heart. Yes, I cannot say with confidence that “I have an unwavering faith and devotion for 24 hours!” I am also frustrated, discouraged, or too preoccupied with my own thoughts as a fragile human being, so I forget pretty often that how much I am blessed and how much love I have been given.

<Matthew 7:13-14, The Narrow and Wide Gates>

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

I live in the confusing world where I may even have to be careful in saying “I am a Christian.” Though I do want to embrace all kinds of ideals and religion to maintain wonderful relationship without making any issues and to keep happily ever after moments with anyone, the phrase of the Bible shook my humanistic thought completely that the door of truth is so narrow. I can never ignore it and should accept it as my mission statement because I believe my calling is to look all around the place where people normally have overlooked.

Christian Connections for International Health (CCIH) 29^th Annual Conference was held during June 26-29, 2015, in Arlington, Virginia. About 190 attendees from many different countries, Benin, Cameroon, China, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Uganda, USA, and Zambia participated in the conference to discuss with each other with the theme of “Ending extreme poverty: the Challenge for Christians in Global Health.” These days, I was worn out and still never been recovered fully after leaving Africa. Driving every early in the morning for the conference was not easy, but I rendered thanks to God that I was able to see and interact with passionate and talented public health professionals around the globe in Virginia this year, just 1.5 hour far away from Baltimore, the place where I live. I realize again that I am a mere novice who have just started international health career and still needs to learn endless things from their experiences. 

Throughout this conference, I was able to become abundant with full of spiritual motivation. My forever questions, “What drives you to go to Africa?” “Why do you want to do international health?” “Why do you like NGO?” "How your belief can be connected with your career?" have been answered so naturally through many speakers’ presentations and communication with attendees. Especially, I was glad to meet a person from my country who has been working as medical missionary in Uganda for 15 years, which looked already a long-term commitment enough. So I asked him “How long will you be there more in Uganda?” He answered, “Until I was buried in that soil.” How will you explain this touched moment? It cannot be explained by human rationality. Only God is in control. I believe work, study, and faith should go forward all together, and this attitude of mind will make myself to live the life with full of patience, determination, and tireless spirit.   

Sometime, I am under a difficulty that many people are doubtful about what I have done or will have done.

“Why do you want to keep studying?”

“Do you think God whom you believe will be happy if you feel pressure to do it?”

“Don’t you think you are too greedy to do all of them?”

“Why do you go to church every single day for early morning prayer? Are you too free? Something serious happened?”

“Choose and concentrate! It must be still insufficient time for you to focus on your top priority.”

Whenever I hear these questions, I am suddenly shocked because those who ask me are the closest people to me. When I find myself that I have to put all of the energy to defend myself and impress on them, I feel so isolated because it seems that nobody, even my sincere people, do not understand me. I realize that there is no person who can listen to me and understand me 100%, but only God understands me. Even if I pour out all my troubles to somebody else, which moment seems to be cool, I know that abysmal emptiness will be followed again.

I ask God, “What is my calling that you want me to do?” I do not hear his voice directly, and I do not even know what the next destination is. But what I do know is that God has been always with me even at the painful moment and given his mind to me that “Approach people first to share God’s love.” That is why I exist. Ebola was despairing, I went to Sierra Leone with the only one reason: God loves me. Likewise, all of doubtful question towards me can be answered: God loves me so much. You hurt me with words that cut deeply before, and I am still suffering from it, but I will not give up on you because God loves you!

Apr 23. 2015. Mobile Health

“Galaxy S6?” Once I read the news article, I looked at my cell phone. I bought this Galaxy S3 in the summer of 2013, and it is still fine. I finished paying the rest of the price of this phone throughout two-year contract and revived the same U.S. number when I came back in last January. I think Samsung release the new product every single year, and now it is the S6 this year. The difference between S3 and S6? Well, I do not know. My S3 accepted every SIM card in each African country, and I was amazed by its durability. I may be an old-fashioned man whose willingness to learn the new technology has been stopped in 20^th century, so I am not that interested in the new and cool functions that only a new model of a machine has. I have to admit that I laughed at my high school teacher inwardly when he told “I don’t know how to text. I can only answer and call the phone.” during the class. For me? “I can text, answer and call the phone. But… what is the mobile application?” I realize that I am old enough who has no interest in cell phone subsidy in South Korea and satisfied with only text, answer and call.

From PewResearchCenter

While the cell phone price & charge, subsidy, new function, and comparison between Galaxy and iPhone are actively argued by people in the rich country, the cell phone is the tool of lifesaver for people in rural Africa. You cannot imagine that at least one family member in each household in rural Africa may have cell phone (of course, literally cell phone but not smartphone in most cases). The number of mobile phone has already exceeded world population.

CellPhones in Africa: Communication Lifeline

If you are under emergency – cut your finger or labor pains begin – you may call 911 and get assistance almost right away. Hospital is located nearby and doctors and nurses in the ER will help you (I heard the ER situation that patients may have to wait for the whole night to get medical treatment if the level of emergency is not fatal, but anyway, I believe patients will save their lives thanks to 911, transportation, and hospital). What about Africa? Is there 911? Is there hospital? Is the medical service 24/7? Is there a car to refer patients to hospital? Is fuel available for the car? You can see that everything that is considered as too obvious is not available in rural Africa. Many pregnant women do not receive proper antenatal care and die of birth complications only because they have no money to buy fuel, the road condition is muddy track, no one can help them in the health facility at night, and many other reasons that city people have never raised the point about.

How can the situation be solved? Medical infrastructure – hospitals, medical doctors and nurses -, transportation – vehicle and road condition -, and education – people’s awareness of healthcare – cannot be improved like magic.

GlobalHealth Facts: Physicians (Per 10,000 Population)

Ebola outbreak: Which West African countries could be next in the line of fire?

In Sierra Leone, doctor-patient-ratio (population per 1 doctor) is 1 to 45,588, which means there is only one doctor available for 45,588 populations. The total population in Sierra Leone is 6.2 million, and if you divide 45,588 by 6.2 million, you will see there are only 136 medical doctors in Sierra Leone for entire population. It is obvious that even medical device and protective gloves are not available to treat Ebola patients, so Ebola outbreak in West Africa has not still contained.

Mali mHealth Application: SNISI

I have been working on NIH R21 project, <Virtual Community Health Services- for Equity and Quality in Health Care in Mali> since the beginning of this year. The team has been thinking how mHealth intervention package will save people’s lives in the Sélingué health district, 120km south-west from the capital city of Mali. I believe mobile health (mHealth) can be the second best plan to improve maternal, neonatal and child health in Africa. Most people has the cell phone to text, take pictures or video, and some people can make or receive payments, get political news, access social network, get health info, look/apply for a job, and get consumer info. 

Community health workers in Africa have a strong sense of duty that they are responsible for visiting household to assist inhabitants to maintain their healthy lives. If people in the village can receive the text message reminders that let them know the timing of antenatal care visits or Sulfadoxmine/Pyrimethamine medication, and receive health education from community health workers regularly, they will realize the importance of healthcare during pregnancy. If the mHealth system among district hospital, vehicle driver for emergency, community health worker, village leader, and village member is systematically connected, most diseases can be prevented, and child and maternal health will be dramatically improved. Yes, mHealth is the solution for healthcare in rural Africa for the present, and I hope the health system with mobile technology will be established soon so that no one in rural area deliver their baby at home and give birth to their child without any complications.

POSTSCRIPT:

Carpe Diem, lads! Seize the day!