By Rose Carr | Communications Coordinator
Here's a quick glimpse of what we have been up to this summer so far!
OHR Hosts 2nd Team of UCSF Global HealthStudents!
Late June, Mfangano welcomed its second group of University of California, San Francisco students! This year's dynamic group of seven come ready to exercise their nursing, medical, social work, and pharmacy studies and will hit the ground running with projects in community health. The group will primarily focus on relaying last year’s research results back to the community.
In partnership with the Kenya Medical Research Institute, OHR and UCSF designed the first community health baseline study for Mfangano East. During the summer of 2010, UCSF students trained and hired 9 local research staff to gather data from households in the community. The household survey assessed community health and demographics, including information on HIV/AIDS knowledge and stigma, income, food and water security, and social support.
The same local research staff will return this year to assist the UCSF students in organizing and conducting community focus groups. The focus groups will discuss OHR programming, specifically for the Micro-Clinic Project. Both staff and community members look forward to using this information to help shape the future of OHR and its programs and services.
VagaBead: Bead a Better World
On July 31st, 2011, OHR participated in a celebration of international crafts with VagaBead, a local Minneapolis bead and jewelry business. The event will featured OHR’s Sisterhood Exchange Program aprons and jewelry alongside other vendors, great eats and global beats. VagaBead founders Kara and Craig collect beads straight from the source, traveling to international markets, then making and selling jewelry at home. VagaBead generously offered to donate 5% of all their profits to the Organic Health Response.
OHR Welcomes New Co-Directors of Operations!
The Organic Health Response is thrilled to announce our first US-based staff, our new Co-Directors of Operations,
Kelsi Hines and Annika Terrana! Kelsi and Annika are founding members of OHR, with extensive experience living and working within the communities of Mfangano Island, organizing HIV/AIDS awareness events and ecological sustainability activities, coordinating OHR's volunteer home-stay program, and developing the Ekialo Kiona Youth Radio Station. Kelsi and Annika will direct day-to-day US operations as OHR Founder, Chas Salmen, returns to Kenya for 12-months to implement the Mfangano Island Healthy Networks Pilot Program.
Please feel free to touch base with Kelsi and Annika as your primary contact for any questions or ideas relating to ongoing OHR programs, fundraising, partnership opportunities, volunteer coordination, or media announcements: khines@organichealthresponse.org, aterrana@organichealthresponse.org. We look forward to exploring new directions under their creative leadership, and working together with the rest of the OHR team in Kenya and the US to continue our long-term vision, seeding health possibilities through community-rooted partnerships.
2011 has already been a year of many successes and progress and we are so thankful for all your support. Stay tuned for more updates.
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