DPMI Rwanda with Partners in Health, January 2017
Reflecting on my experience taking part in the DPMI Rwandan program, it was a truly valuable experience on both a personal and educational level. Rwanda is an intriguing development case study, and DPMI offers students the opportunity to study the Rwandan context first-hand and in close collaboration with local public health professionals. The potential for growth is immense, but it requires work and dedication to quickly pick up and apply new techniques from Professor Sharon Bean’s instruction to prepare the professional presentation by the end.
January 3-5 in Kigali
Upon our arrival in Rwanda, we had two days devoted to site visits in the capital city of Kigali. Some of these visits were incredibly valuable to our understanding of the Rwandan context; particularly the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre, the Presidential Palace Museum, the Belgian Peacekeepers Memorial, and a non-profit organization called Enfants de Dieu (Children of God) providing help to street children.
A peace garden at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre. Our visit to this museum inspired a somber yet important reflection on genocide, humanity, and what our host country has been through before our work.
January 5-13 in Rwinkwavu
A windy 2.5-hour drive across the Land of a Thousand Hills brought us to the Partners in Health facility in the village of Rwinkwavu. The staff at Partners in Health welcomed us amiably as we settled into our dorms and began the first class session with Professor Sharon Bean. Over the next few days, Sharon provided an intensive lesson set covering topics such as problem identification, the theory of change and outcome mapping, results frameworks, and behavior change theory. Our research focused primarily on strategic development documents such as Rwanda Vision 2020, the USAID Country Development Strategy, and the Rwanda United Nations Development Assistance Plan.
We were divided into focus groups consisting of 4-6 DPMI participants and 1 PIH professional in order to focus on a specific public health challenge. Our group targeted malnutrition in close correspondence with Mr. Adrien Habineza, who provided invaluable background on the Rwandan context and ongoing PIH projects that were essential to our research and understanding of Rwandan culture.
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