Prelude

Hello!  Thanks for visiting my little site.

I leave in just a few days for Tanzania, where I'll be living and working for the next two months.  I've set up this site to keep track of my trip, to stay in touch with you all, and to let you see what I see in Tanzania this summer.

I'm traveling as part of a DukeEngage program that partners with the organization Engineering World Health (EWH).  DukeEngage is an umbrella organization that supports students to pursue a summer of civic engagement, sponsoring trips both within the US and around the world.  My program in Tanzania approaches service through the lens of engineering, i.e. by applying technical problem-solving to address issues, specifically healthcare issues, in low-resource settings.  I'll be working for EWH along with a group of about 20 other students, first acquiring the necessary training and then diving into field work.  We'll spend the first month in classroom, in Usa River, Tanzania, learning basic Swahili and relevant technical skills.  The second month we'll disperse in pairs to hospitals scattered throughout the region, where we will collaborate with the hospital staff and work to meet the unique demands of our hospital.  I've been assigned to Marangu Lutheran Hospital, which sits at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro, about an hour outside the town of Moshi.  The village of Marangu is supposed to be beautiful, as is the rest of the country, full of natural wonders.  I can hardly wait to see it!

For some background: There's been a lot of effort to ameliorate conditions in developing world hospitals by simply donating vast amounts of equipment.  These efforts have not just been futile; they've been harmful.  Donated equipment has become a source of grief for many hospitals.  Much of the equipment is useless, either broken, so old that its replacement parts are no longer manufactured, or in need of parts that can't be found in low-resource settings.  The hospital staff is often unable to repair the equipment or supply the correct parts, so the equipment must be tossed aside, serving no purpose and consuming precious space.  Perhaps what's most striking is that donating equipment to these hospitals actually takes away jobs from the local people.  Much of the donated equipment addresses needs that can already be met by local manufacturers.  While these are generally simple needs, e.g. lighting and wheelchairs, the donations threaten local businesses by imposing competition.  Despite good intentions, charities that donate equipment to developing countries ultimately stunt opportunity for local growth.

The mission of Engineering World Health is to find other means of improving healthcare conditions in the developing world, by designing low-cost equipment that can be maintained, or even created, in low-resource settings.  This TEDx talk "Donations Hurt" by Dr. Robert Malkin, Duke professor and founder of EWH, explains more.

As far as this summer, our goal is first to fix medical equipment.  But the larger goal, really the true goal, is to make sustainable repair.  We'd like to find ways to extend the life of equipment beyond initial repair, to prevent against breakage, to develop reliable methods of repair in the given circumstances, and to document those methods in an accessible way so that repair may continue long after we leave.

I have an incredible summer ahead of me.  It's both a great privilege and a responsibility.  I am empowered yet humbled by the opportunities this trip presents me.  And I'll do my best to keep you updated on life in Tanzania--as I see it.