Africa: A Practical Guide for Global Health Workers

Preface

ix preface There are a multitude of opportunities to work in Africa on health or humanitarian aid projects sponsored by non-profit organizations, religious organizations, schools, and universities. These experiences can be broadening and life changing, and can help prepare you for a career of service with a global perspective. We recognized, however, that there is little information for potential volunteers and travelers that focuses on health, or provides a context for understanding what you will find when you arrive at your African destination . What we have commonly heard when our students return from experiences abroad is: “It would have helped if I had known . . .” or “I wish I had been better prepared for what I was going to see.” This book attempts to address some of the gaps. In the first chapter, the book gives an overview of humanitarianism and the concepts underlying global health. The chapter also provides a specific focus on the context of health in Africa, as background for traveling there to do global health work. The second chapter provides a wide range of practical tips for planning your trip and for engaging successfully in the work you aim to do in Africa. The following seven chapters on individual countries—and, in one case, on a region—provide a socio-cultural, political, legal, health system, and disease epidemiology context for readers. The chapter authors share their own experiences with health initiatives and research projects undertaken in specific African countries. The book’s final chapter provides useful advice for making the most of your work experience in Africa and re-adjusting when you return home. The book’s glossary provides definitions of terms, agencies and diseases you are likely to encounter. The book does not attempt to cover all global health aspects of the African continent. Rather, we have chosen seven representative countries or regions. They vary in size from tiny to large, and in population from sparsely to the most densely populated. They also represent a fair portion of the continent’s geography, from North Africa (Morocco, Algeria x preface and Tunisia), East Africa (Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania), Central Africa (Rwanda), West Africa (Ghana), and Southern Africa (Botswana and South Africa). Numerous authors contributed to this book. Each author has had many years of practical experience in the African country he or she discusses , and shares information about Africa from their individual perspective and experience as actors and collaborators on the ground, developing and running health and human rights projects and programs . Most of the authors we invited to contribute to the book are faculty members at U.S.-based universities or medical institutions. All are actively involved in an ongoing way in the country they write about. Immediately , many authors invited one or more African colleagues to write the chapter with them. This shared authorship gives an additional perspective and depth to the material they present. The resulting pictures of each country and its challenges are surprisingly candid and forceful. Yet you will detect in each chapter the authors’ love of the country and its people, and their enthusiasm for the work they are doing there. Having different authors for each country chapter has resulted in a portrait of each country that is intimate and knowledgeable. At the same time, it has resulted in a variety of styles and choices in what each chapter covers, largely based on the expertise, orientation, and experiences of the respective authors, which are highlighted in their brief biographies in the Contributors section at the end of the book. Each country chapter focuses on different aspects of health, service delivery , or human rights. Some issues are discussed in nearly every chapter , such as hiv/aids, tuberculosis and malaria, diseases that are very prevalent in many African countries. Many of the authors came to their work with specific expertise in infectious diseases, and they bring this perspective to the African experiences they share here. Despite these similarities, not every chapter covers every health topic or covers the same topic in the same way. Readers who want to gain a varied perspective can read about a topic in several chapters by looking up the topic in the book’s index. Doing so will give you a broader perspective on a topic than reading a single chapter. For instance, the South African government ’s approach to hiv/aids contrasted sharply with the approach taken by the government of Botswana in the early years of the epidemic. Reading about hiv/aids in...