With my M.P.H. program’s internship requirement, I wanted to broaden my reach and work globally. Curamericas Global’s KIKOP team provided me with the opportunity to do so.
I have a huge respect for the mothers who are a part of the project — they called us mpenda watoto, which means lover of children, and that humbled me. They sent us home with sugarcane from their community gardens, which are also a KIKOP project, invited us over for ugali (a
traditional Kenyan dish), taught us a local dance and even gave us our very own Kisii names — mine was Moraa. The community reminded me a lot of my grandparents’ community in India. It was familiar, yet foreign.
I loved my experience with KIKOP and drew a major lesson from the internship: that it is important to transcend the pressure to comply with the limitations of the current healthcare system and its policies and meet people where they are at — be it in Kenya or the U.S. This means bringing resources and services into people’s homes first, slowly building trust between patients and healthcare providers and then encouraging them to visit health facilities and hospitals. This is a more sustainable approach than top-down approaches, especially for reaching underserved populations.
~By KIKOP intern Supraja
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