SC Sentinel Story: Santa Cruz duo aims to make a difference in Nigeria
By Jennifer Welsh
Posted: 01/17/2010 01:30:39 AM PST – http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_14210234
Complications kill or maim up to 30 percent of pregnant women in Nigeria, one of the highest rates in the world.
That statistic is what drew Evelyn Castle and Adam Thompson to Nigeria last summer, working with UC Santa Cruz’s Global Information Internship Program to improve maternal and child health in the West African nation.
“All of their medical records are paper, which can easily get ruined or lost,” Castle said. “The information was there, they just often aren’t able to access it.”
The team spent three months at the Shehu Idris School for Health Sciences and Technology’s clinic in Kaduna. They designed a digital record keeping system for the clinic’s reproductive and children’s health teams, then taught the employees to enter and find patient records.
“These aren’t people looking for handouts and charity. They want to work and take ownership of the project,” Thompson said. “It makes the work really rewarding.”
The team is in discussions with Pathfinder International, a global nongovernmental organization working to improve maternal care in Nigeria, to set up the record-keeping software in more clinics. Thompson hopes to return soon to set up the partnership.
If successfully implemented, “the records will not only inform what doctors do on a clinical level, how they treat a patient, but also on a policy level,” he said.
Castle, a junior health sciences major, hopes the partnership allows her to continue her work in Nigeria this summer. After graduation, she hopes to go to medical school. This trip was her first out of the country.
“My dad was about to disown me, and I had concerns,” she said. “But as soon as I got there, all of those concerns went away. All of the people were very welcoming.”
Thompson has been active in the program since 2003 and became the associate director for programs and instruction after graduating from UCSC in 2005. He has been on several trips for the program, but has a soft spot in his heart for Nigeria, saying that “it runs at a different pace.”
“They’ve just taken off with [the program],” said program founder, director and UCSC professor Paul Lubeck. “They are exemplary Santa Cruz activists.”
For information, visit http://giip.org.