Kristi Thane |
| Country of Service |
| Guinea |
| Dates Served |
| 2002 - 2004 |
| Volunteer Position |
| Health Educator |
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| Description of main volunteer activities: |
| During my service, I worked mainly with the village health center and the area schools, collaborating with health professionals and community members to improve programs, hone organizational and skills development, and patient care. This included coordinating, securing funding for, and co-leading a two-day training for a group of ten Community Health Agents and subsequently working with this group to improve health education and access in smaller surrounding villages. With the schools, I organized, secured funding for, and co-facilitated a week-long conference which addressed proliferation and consequences of HIV/AIDS for 25 youth, creating active group of peer educators. This group then disseminated reproductive health information to their peers through sensitizations at village events. Also at the junior high, I taught human biology to 10th graders. At the primary school, I collaborated with teachers and administrators to organize a number of health-themed projects, including a series of health/environmental education camps in several villages, a weekly girls club, and numerous classroom sensitizations. On a larger scale, I worked with fellow Peace Corps Volunteers to plan, secure funding for, and coordinate the annual Young Women’s and inaugural Young Men’s Conferences. These brought together students from around the country to promote education, health, and environmental protection. |
| How Peace Corps service influenced decision to go into nursing and future plans: |
| I went into the Peace Corps with few expectations – Guinea was a faraway land, a place and culture completely foreign to me. I went with the simple goal of helping people. I wanted to make a difference, however small. Two years in a Guinean village allowed me to see and experience what most Americans never will. I saw distended bellies of malnourished children and feverish faces of malarial victims. I saw mothers who have walked for miles with their babies to the health center, only to be turned away for lack of medication. I saw teenaged girls carrying undesired pregnancies and forfeiting their futures because of precocious marriage. I spent two years as a volunteer doing the best that I could to improve lives, but I wanted to do more. With clinical skills gleaned through a nursing degree and the added public health knowledge through the combined MSN-FNP/MPH, I knew that I could make a bigger impact. After graduation, I plan to first hone my clinical skills in the United States and then to return abroad. In particular, I hope to work on women’s health issues, with a focus on family planning, in a developing country setting. |
| Impact of RPCV Fellows experience: |
| I appreciate the RPCV Fellows experience for the connections it created between Returned Volunteers. Being a part of the Fellows program meant being part of an instant community within the School of Nursing – a community whose members contribute diverse international experiences but have a common interest in the promotion of health and wellness, both in Baltimore and on an international level. |
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