My name is Lauren Baur and major at OSU right now I’m getting my master’s in Public
Health, in International Health.
As part of the International Health program we do have to do an internship, and they prefer
it to be overseas since it’s international health and I decided to go to Uganda, it was
an opportunity that came up, it fit my interests and my desires and what I would want in an
internship.
The organization I worked for is called Terrewode.
It’s the Association for The Re-orientation and Rehabilitation of Women for Development.
It’s a women’s rights and women’s health organization, and within my international
health track, my focus area is maternal and child health and kind of the interplay of
nutrition and disease.
So this organization very much fit that maternal health aspect of it.
My work there to help combat obstetric fistula was to work with Terrewode and to work on
grant writing for them so that they can partner with an organization called the Worldwide
Fistula Fund and raise money to establish a fistula care facility within Uganda, in
addition, I was able to meet with different volunteers that are going out into the field
and actually going home to home and looking for these women because a lot of times the
women who are suffering from it are isolated from their families, isolated from society
as a whole.
Obstetric fistula is a childbirth injury that occurs when there’s prolonged obstructed
labor.
So what happens is a woman goes into labor, the fetus drops down into the pelvis, but
then because the pelvis is too small for a variety of reasons the baby gets stuck.
And it cuts off the blood supply to the tissues which causes them to die and they sluff off
and leave a hole, which leaves the women in continent of urine and feces.
And so that’s the problem that Terrewode is looking to address in order to holistically
kind of address the maternal and child health issues in Uganda and poverty.
While I was there I definitely met some amazing people.
The organization only has five full time staff and so it’s very small but they have a network
of over 1,000 volunteers.
So I was able to work very closely with them as well as get to meet some of their volunteers
and go through training and workshops with them.
In addition, I lived with a family while I was there and so I think just living in the
culture was probably as much of a learning experience as actually working for the organization.
It was eye opening in the sense that a lot of the stuff that we talk about in our international
health classes was reality for these people every single day.
And it came up in conversation just with the family I lived with and in the experience
that they were facing.
It just brought it to a whole new perspective for me.
One thing I asked myself all summer long is why are these 1,000 volunteers doing what
they do?
They don’t have very many incentives for it, why are they doing it?
And on the very last day of the workshops we met with the fistula survivors themselves
and I was not expecting the emotional reaction that I had when they were just pouring in
the room for this all day workshop and all of the sudden I realized why these volunteers
did what they did.
Because the women with their smiling faces and some of them carrying their kids, it was
just, it was an overwhelming emotional reaction from me that I wasn’t expecting just to
see these women.
I would definitely recommend other students to go out into the field and get this experience.
I think coursework and the classroom environment is important for getting the foundation but
I think you really develop the skills and a greater passion for your work when you get
to go out and you get to see the people that you’re helping and you get to see the people
that you’re working with.
I’m definitely glad that I had this experience, that I went ahead and I went to Uganda, I
had some reservations about going and I was very nervous but overall it was definitely
life-changing and also just helped me confirm that I am in the right place and I am doing
what I am supposed to be doing.