Archive for the ‘Africa Trip Bryant Shannon’ Category
August 17th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) hosted us at the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute Center. At this location, they are creating hybrid varieties of sweet potato. Each variant is customized to produce a higher yield in different elevations, degrees of humidity, and climates. Many of these sweet potatoes are more successful because they have also been bred to be resistant to viruses and weevils.
The most common vitamin deficiencies in Kenya are Vitamin A, Zinc, and Iron, with more than 80% of people not receiving enough of these essential nutrients. Many of the institute’s sweet potatoes are being designed to include these nutrients. We learned that the orange coloring you come to expect in sweet potatoes is in less than 10% of Kenyan sweet potatoes, and it signifies the presence of beta carotene. Beta carotene is believed to strengthen your immune system, something that is very important for HIV patients.
The institute utilizes the feedback of farmers for their study on sweet potatoes in order to breed the most desirable plants. They have been promoting various ways that you can include sweet potatoes in local dishes, as a way to broaden the market. We were able to try sweet potato juice, cake, chips, and doughnuts. Surprisingly, they were not too bad. The price of these seeds has been subsidized in order to encourage farmers to cultivate them. Since the beginning of the study, yields have increased by over 40% and the nutritional value of sweet potatoes has significantly improved.
-Bryant Shannon
August 12th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
On Wednesday of our week in Kenya, the four other Campus Challenge students and I spent the entire day working with Tuungane Clinic’s outreach programs. They have been working hard in the region on their Voluntary Mobile Male Circumcision Campaign. The clinic had to get a lot of approvals from the district government to implement and promote their program.
Recent studies have shown that males who are circumcised are 60% less likely to contract heterosexually acquired HIV from their partner. They have trained many of their staff to council young men on the procedure, informing them on the importance of this in the prevention of HIV transmission.
Tuungane has their surgeons rotate to clinics in the district, performing hundreds of these procedures in a day. They have already circumcised over 15,000 males in the district since beginning in October. I was shocked that the locals were so willing to participate in the program. Dr. Omondi, from Tuungane Clinic, informed me that in many rural areas of Kenya it is a cultural tradition to circumcise males between 14-16 years old, as a way of inducting them into adulthood.
Tomas and Steven were even able to observe one of these procedures and speak with an individual that was about to be circumcised. One of their main operating rooms had three beds in it, because sometimes the program has so many patients that they have to perform three procedures simultaneously. This initiative by the Tuungane clinic, if continued to a large portion of the population, could significantly curb the prevalence of HIV in the area, an area where more than 1 and 10 people are HIV positive.
-Bryant Shannon
July 30th, 2009 at 10:52 am
On Tuesday, we had an early flight out of Nairobi. We were headed to Kisumu, a community near Lake Victoria where we were able to visit a clinic funded by PEPFAR. They serve over 1,200 patients that have HIV. Half of these patients were tested because they were sick, and the other half were merely curious about their status. The clinic provides counseling services in preventative health, nutrition, and hygiene.
When an HIV patient’s CD4 count (a measure of the number for helper T cells per cubic millimeter of blood) dips below 250, they are given antiretroviral (ARV) drugs. USAID helps fund these ARVs. Patients are only required to pay 200 Ksh (less than US$3) for their laboratory tests and their medications. These drugs, when taken as directed, can lengthen and improve a patient’s quality of life.
Kisumu’s HIV prevalence is more than twice Kenya’s national average. This is attributed to the fishing culture of the community and the number of people commuting through the area. Fish are in such high demand that often women pay high prices, and are sometimes forced to have sex as payment for the fish.
The clinic has significantly decreased mother-to-child transmission of the virus to below 10%, with the additional funding they have received for the medications. We met with Brightone Odundo, a nurse in the clinic who told us about the complications that arise from combating HIV in addition to opportunistic diseases that take advantage of a compromised immune system, such as tuberculosis (TB). Over 80% of this clinic’s TB patients are also HIV-positive.
Another portion of our busy day that I found particularly interesting was their outreach program to decrease the prevalence of malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes. USAID provides insecticide for the clinic’s outreach workers to spray peoples’ homes.
One of the homes we visited was that of Millicent Adhiambo Obuya. She was widowed 10 years ago and has four children. Her children would frequently get malaria in the past, until she was educated about spraying and using anti-malaria nets from the clinic’s community outreach workers.
Once every year, members of the clinic spray the homes of people in their community. Millicent was warned to remain outside of the home for 2-4 hours and then to sweep and dispose of the contents away from the home. This minimizes the adverse effects of spraying in and around the home. She was also educated on the importance of bed nets in preventing malaria. The clinic sells these nets at a greatly subsidized cost of 50 Ksh (less than US$1). These nets normally would cost US$8-10. Since Millicent’s family began sleeping under bed nets and getting their home sprayed, they have had no incidents of malaria. It was a great success story to hear about funds efficiently allocated and making a difference in the fight against malaria.
Although the clinic has made significant headway with its progressive outreach program, things are far from perfect. Many of the community members use the bed nets to fish instead of to prevent malaria. They would rather utilize them for the short term of catching food then sleeping under them to prevent malaria. Others do not access the clinic enough to get educated about the importance of insecticide and bed nets. In addition, much of Kenya does not have the funding that Kisumu receives for many of these great educational outreach programs.
Today showed me there is a lot of hope in the fight against these infectious diseases, yet still much to do. Educational outreach is a very successful way to get people to understand how to prevent these diseases, which is necessary to get their cooperation for these preventative measures.
-Bryant Shannon
July 27th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Where to begin … I arrived in Kenya yesterday evening after a flawless flight from Uganda, where I have been interning for the last two months. It was an incredible experience, where I was in a rural clinical setting!
It was awesome getting to meet the other students, Steph, Tomas, Steven, and Melissa! They are all very different and ridiculous…clearly jet lag does not affect them. Nairobi is a beautiful city and everyone is so friendly.
Today we went to Kitie Secondary School and met with a member of the Ministry of Education, a representative from USAID Kenya, and the principal of the school. The school has grown dramatically in the last seven years from 23 students to 280. This huge increase in enrollment can be directly attributed to Kenya’s abolishment of secondary school fees in 2007. Currently, about 65% of those who finish Primary School continue their education.
Students are still responsible for other fees that the government does not take care of, such as boarding, uniform, and books. Their performance in primary school determines the quality of the secondary school they will attend. Some of Kitie’s students walk nearly 45 minutes to get to school each day. Their level of dedication was also extremely evident when we got to talk to them about their personal aspirations. Many of the students came alive with such strong passion that can be difficult to find in the U.S. All of us were truly affected by the students’ desire to excel.
Finally, we learned about the role of USAID Kenya. They provide scholarships for over 3,300 students all across the country. Many of these students are orphans and are given priority in the program based on their grades. We were able to meet three students funded by USAID. They told us about how they hope to go to a university and how USAID has made their education possible.
Later in the day, we visited a teacher training college and learned about how they are become qualified to teach. They spoke to us about the lack of opportunity for employment after schooling. We also learned about the progressive training they receive to work with students with disabilities.
The later part of the afternoon was spent interacting with baby rhinos and elephants at an orphanage sanctuary. Many of their parents died from poaching, political unrest within the country, or they were merely abandoned. There were crazy warthogs all over the place that would charge anyone that got too close, including ONE Trips Director (and our guide) Tyler Denton. The place was also swarming with children, who enjoyed climbing everything and bothering the animals! All in all it was a great time.
We are all wicked pumped to visit the PEPFAR site tomorrow!
-Bryant Shannon
July 27th, 2009 at 9:10 am
I am really excited to head over to Kenya! I have been living in rural Uganda now for almost 2 months, interning with an American NGO. Africa has already proved to me to be an amazing continent with the most interesting people. My topic I will be focusing on while in Kenya is related to the challenge in their healthcare.
I am especially excited to study this, because I will have a lot to compare it to from my current work with a clinic about 2 hours from the closest city. If there is one thing Africa has already taught me, it is to have no expectations. The pace of things is far different from the US and there are always surprises. I have learned to appreciate a shower, no matter the temperature, and accept that power should never be taken for granted. Lets see what Kenya has in store for us!
I will be meeting Steph, Tomas, Melissa, and Steven in Nairobi, after a brief 1 hour flight from Kampala. Luckily, being on the same timezone I do not plan to fall victim to the jet lag that the others will encounter from globe trotting. I cannot wait to meet the rest of the group and share first impressions of Africa.
I am also most anxious to discover how access to health care differs in Kenya from the urban to the rural setting as well as to learn about how their programs are funded. Hopefully we will meet many interesting medical professionals, administration, and citizens that will shed some light on this topic.
-Bryant Shannon
May 12th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Meet Bryant Shannon, a rising junior at the University of Florida in Gainesville, co-leader of one of the top schools in the ONE Campus Challenge, and one of five students going on the first-ever OCC trip to Africa in July.
Originally from Maine, Bryant now studies Biological Engineering and Public Health at the University of Florida. Eventually, he hopes to become a physician. “My interests reside in combating modern plagues that hold back developing nations,” he explained in his application for the trip. “The reason why Malaria kills so many people is because there are not qualified medical professionals with the appropriate resources to diagnosis and treat sick individuals before it is too late.”
Although he has never been to Africa, Bryant has volunteered time in small communities in Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize and Nicaragua, where he helped raise awareness about the issues of extreme poverty, HIV/AIDS, clean water, and respiratory illnesses attributable to open-air cooking.
A ONE member since 2008, Bryant was recruited by Campus Leader Andrea Morley to help start up U-F’s OCC chapter, and has worked extensively with the University of Florida’s ONE group as well as in the local community of Gainesville. As Vice President of OCC-UF, Bryant helped his team win our Halloween Challenge as well as Photo of the Week honors. U-F squeaked in to the Top 10 Schools competition by a narrow margin, but proved with their amazing final project that they belonged there — ultimately finishing as a distinguished runner-up. That makes U-F one of the top 3 schools in the nation in the OCC for 2008-9, and is a powerful testament to Bryant’s strength as a co-leader of the chapter.
Bryant’s project for the Africa trip was a Powerpoint presentation. Download and check it out, here.
Congratulations to Bryant and the other Africa trip winners!
-Emily Stivers
TAGS: 2009 OCC Africa Trip, Africa Trip Bryant Shannon