This whole inventory/biomedical curriculum project is being funded by a grant from the AIHA (American International Health Alliance), a non-profit organization that is “working to advance global health by helping communities and nations with limited resources build sustainable institutional and human resource capacity…through twinning partnerships and other programs”.
The AIHA is also partnered with a hospital in Debre Berhan, a city 75 miles outside of Addis Ababa. Because of this partnership, and because we finished our inventory so quickly, next week we’re going to visit and do inventory at Debre Berhan Hospital. I’m really excited about this for a few reasons: 1. We’ve been spending a LOT of time in the guest house lately and I’m getting a little stir-crazy, and 2. Debre Berhan is supposed to be one of the best hospitals in Ethiopia. This is in large part due to their partnership with the AIHA. We got to talk to the Country Director of AIHA, Kidest, about what makes Debre Berhan different.
AIHA paired Debre Berhan Hospital with Amherst Hospital in New York, and there is a constant exchange of ideas and people between the two hospitals. Kidest says that the Ethiopian personnel who visit Amherst come back with a vision of how to effectively run a hospital, and are inspired to make changes. This has resulted in ideas such as having a nurse on duty 24 hours a day; previously patients were unattended at night.
I found this to be very encouraging. As a young person who’s only in Ethiopia for seven weeks, it can be difficult to tell if I personally am making an impact. I know that our work is a crucial part of a bigger picture, but it’s easy to feel like another student could take my place and the ultimate result would be the same.However, Kidest’s talk made me remember that I have another purpose here besides taking inventory of medical devices: cultural exchange.
While working with people at Tegbare-id, Zewditu, and Ras Desta we have been participating in a cultural exchange. We have been absorbing their ideas and they have been absorbing ours. Even if the inventory could have been done just as well by someone else, my interactions with our co-workers are uniquely my own.Hopefully this will benefit them like visiting Amherst benefited the Debre Berhan personnel. Sometimes all it takes is being exposed to a new idea or way of thinking to be inspired to make a change. At the very least it made me think about my personal responsibility in this cultural exchange.