Hey everyone!
My name is Erica Fuller and I am a rising junior majoring in Public Health and Cell & Molecular Biology at Tulane University. This summer due to the amazing help of Newcomb College Institute (NCI), I will be working with an issue very near and dear to my heart: maternal and child health. I have the opportunity to assist as a midwife intern in Guatemala with Asociacion Manos Abiertas.
What is really exciting to me about this internship is being able to work with such a wonderful organization that has a profound impact on its community members. Maternal and child health is a profound problem throughout the globe.
Manos Abiertas works to improve the maternal health in Guatemala by providing holistic sexual and reproductive healthcare services to over 3,500 females in the community. The clinic seeks to empower the women, who are often seeking medical care for the first time in their lives, to make informed health decisions for themselves and their families by providing information on matters such as pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and cervical cancer. The clinic is culturally and linguistically-sensitive in order to provide patients with the best, most respectful care. Overall, Manos Abiertas believes that “by investing in individual women, we seek to build a healthier Guatemala.”
I will be working with Manos Abiertas for 10 weeks doing things like be taking patient histories, blood pressures and weights. I get to create and implement a project of my choosing in order to improve the clinic for the future. I may even get a chance to observe a few live births if I am lucky!
I have several learning objectives to achieve during my time at Manos Abiertas.
- To explore the field of maternal health and careers within this field
- To improve my Spanish language skills, especially medical terminology
- To effectively communicate with different cultures
- To learn how community engagement interplays with health
- To see how health is dealt with differently in developing versus developed countries
This internship will be perfect for NCI’s mission of educating undergraduate women for leadership in the 21st century because it not only works directly with women on an important health issue but, it will also give me the ability to grow as a leader through providing me with the support to start my own projects and initiatives to best serve the community.
There is a lot to do in a little time so I am currently watching Spanish movies, reading books in Spanish and doing anything I can to brush up on my language skills before I go down to Guatemala. I will be completing a 2 week language immersion course before I start my internship so I can hit the ground running. This coupled with practicing my blood pressure taking skills and packing gives me a lot to do before I depart for Guatemala in two weeks.
Wish me luck! I will keep you posted on how it is going.