From the beginning we’ve been using micro-fundraising and peer-to-peer connections to raise funds. We always focused on supporting grassroots projects led by local, community members who wanted to increase access to basic health for their communities. We focused early on engaging young people and utilizing connections within a network in order to make change and replicate it. Many of the strategies that made our organization exciting, innovative, and successful have spread across the non-profit community. Now there isn’t an organization out there that skips a beat talking about peer-to-peer fundraising, network utilization, campus chapters, or the need for local control of international aid projects.

As times have changed and the needs of our members have evolved, we have been flexible and have grown our organization with those needs. This year marks our 10th anniversary of the start of an Eagle Scout project in 2001, led by a 14 year-old, that raised funds to purchase an ambulance for a health center in rural Uganda. Since the successful completion of that project in 2002, we have supported projects in 5 different countries with health issues ranging from access to medical supplies, nutritional needs, and HIV prevention. Check out our 10 year impact!

As our organization has evolved we have been uniquely able to adapt and implement various methodologies and theories of change. One that has been a cornerstone of our member training is a focus on “Allies in Development.” This training was developed from a range of resources to bring understandings of privilege and international development to our members. Being an ally means that our members recognize that there is a degree of detachment that comes from the privilege of activism on a campus to the health realities on the ground.

We are students and young people, but we can’t save lives. We CAN utilize our knowledge and resources to better support the work of projects and organizations that CAN implement community-based solutions.

That is why SCOUT BANANA is restructuring as a member-owned international development cooperative organization. There is no reason that a non-profit should collect your donations, but you have no participation beyond donating. Likewise, there is no reason that members and donors should be disconnected from the people implementing the funds they donate.

Our goal of engaging young people in meaningful international development efforts to improve access to basic health across Africa can best be accomplished with a strong network of invested individuals working within their campuses as Allies in Development and partnering with grassroots projects in need of resources and support. Become a member today and impact our work!

Learn more and Become a Member at: http://scoutbanana.org/activate

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has put together an amazing event to promote HIV testing and treatment among young people in South Africa. In a country where there is still a large stigma towards testing for HIV, especially among young people, this is a powerful example of using youth cultural influences to get the message across. AHF also offered free testing and counseling at the event.

What strategies have you heard of to get young people involved in their own health? Do you think hip hop can change people’s minds about testing for HIV?

We have been following MedAfrica (formerly called MedKenya) as it develops new ideas to share health and medical knowledge through the growing number of mobile phone users across the African continent placed against the extreme lack of doctors available in many African countries. Increasing access to better health information with technology and knowledge.

Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) posts regular “frontline reports” about their work. This is a great example of some of the critical health work being done to prevent mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV in Kenya. MSF is working at the frontlines of pediatric HIV prevalence. There have been amazing medical steps forward to prevent PMTCT, but these innovations are not as easy or accessible in rural regions. Yet another example of the importance of investing in health infrastructure where access is limited and needs are great.

The health care system in Uganda is overrun with problems.  As a community health volunteer for Peace Corps, I have been working with a Health Center II (a basic-services clinic) and have been assessing the state of health care here in Uganda.

While government health care is intended to be free, there are so many hidden costs that patients are often still unable to afford health care.  The government provides free drugs and care, but when those drugs run out (which is all-too-often), the patients are responsible for going to a private drug shop and buying their medicines.  Women who want to deliver at a government health center are often required to bring their own “mother kit”, a set of supplies which can include such things as cotton, gloves, needles, etc.  At our small Health Center II, we have no capability of running tests such as urinalysis, blood smears for malaria, or even taking blood pressure, and often have to refer patients to either a larger government health center or a private clinic for the care they need.  Many people cannot afford even 4,000 Ugandan shillings roundtrip (less than $2) to the Health Center III, a few kilometers away, for testing or maternal care, let alone a trip to a private clinic where all costs are out-of-pocket.  Some of our patients walk several miles to get to our clinic.

Malaria is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality, and is severely over-diagnosed.  Practically everyone with a fever is given anti-malarial drugs, and subsequently health centers often run out of the drugs before the next shipment arrives from the government.  The cost of these drugs in a private drug shop can be 15,000/- (about $7), which is too expensive for the average rural Ugandan.  The nurses at the health centers have little choice when they have no way to test for malaria before dispensing drugs – if the patient does have malaria and is not treated, he or she could die.  Better to be safe than sorry, but being safe in this situation causes its own host of problems.

There is also a big problem with motivation among health workers.  Salaries are very low, and some workers feel no obligation to give good ‘customer service’, which is a huge concern in privatized health care systems such as the U.S.  Health workers often show up whenever they feel like it, and leave the clinic hours before the official closing time, leaving some patients to wait for hours to be seen.  A small aspect of this stems from the culture where family comes first – if the nurse has to harvest millet or help a family member out, they don’t see a big problem in staying home.

So what, as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV), can I do?  It’s a difficult question to answer – if there were an easy fix, Uganda would have great health care.  PCVs don’t come with any funding or external assistance, we come to act as change agents and co-facilitators to mobilize local resources and work with what is already available.  While it’s difficult to make system-wide changes or improve facilities and equipment without funding, I am working to encourage healthy behaviors, build capacity among health workers, and provide people with the knowledge they need to keep themselves and their families happy.  Another PCV I know is working at the district health office, so he can encourage health officials to improve efficiency and make positive changes in the health care system.  These are small steps, not a big NGO project with millions of dollars backing it, but these small steps are (hopefully) sustainable, using local resources and requiring the community to get involved to make changes in their own lives.

This week’s chosen video highlights the work of HEAL Africa working to rebuild health infrastructure in DRC, address the issue of rape with counseling and support, and train more  health professionals. The organization’s reach is incredible as so is their impact. Eastern DRC has seen so much violence over such an extended period of time and this initiative is having a serious and long lasting impact in the health and well-being of communities. HEAL Africa does more than provide social services, it also builds capacity for long lasting social change in the DRC. Learn more from the video and visit their website.

Across the African continent health systems are greatly impacted by the burden of neglected disease, endemic malaria, HIV/AIDS, and other environmental difficulties. Very often these health crises are exacerbated by the lack of enough trained health workers to administer treatments, provide care, and build the capacity of health systems. Africa Health Placements is one such organization that brings in foreign and local health workers to fill the gaps. Placements are long-term and the needs are real. In 2009, I finished an academic paper titled “Why there is No Doctor” about the lack of health infrastructure, doctors, and the impacts of HIV/AIDS in South Africa.

South Africa has pioneered some of the most advanced medical procedures in the world. In 1967, Christiaan Barnard preformed the first human-to-human heart transplant, but still the majority of the South African population is without adequate health care. Cosmetic and plastic surgery has grown a “medical tourism” industry in South Africa while rural populations wait for doctors.

Our key stakeholders in the United States are young people and students at universities. More often than not, business leaders, non-profit directors, politicians, and other “experts” don’t think that young people have much to contribute in the way of new ideas of skills to improve or make a difference on global health issues. This video was chosen today because it is an excellent example of how young people are entering into development projects with an open mind, understanding of community control over projects, and the limitations of their work. These students from Harvard present an excellent idea adapted from a Western development project to improve the health and nutrition of people in Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya.

The video is very quiet, turn up the volume and listen closely.

This week and last we’ve been talking a lot about mobile health (mhealth) and how it impacts communities in developing African countries. As the mHealth Summit 2010 takes place in Washington DC, I can’t help wondering if this represents a lack of perspective on developing traditional health infrastructure. Mobile is hip, easy, quick, and exciting however how do we measure its success. A recent article on MobileActive.org  asks if mobile technologies are “really impacting the poor?” As we sit in our nice homes, co-working spaces, conferences and offices we must not forget accountability and scale. Many during the mHealth Summit 2010 have noted that success comes through capacity building with locally based organizations. This could not be more true. Community-based initiatives that seriously invest in people will succeed.

“The most effective forms of organization are based on partly autonomous and contextually rooted local units linked by connective structures, and coordinated by formal organizations.” (Tarrow, 137)

This week I’d like to share a video from Josh Nesbit (co-founder SMS:Medic) demonstrating the successes of FrontlineSMS: Medic in scaling its work and staying accountable to the communities they support through local capacity building.

With the growth of health sectors across the world one of the most critical areas moving forward is how to pay for health care. South Africa’s NIH is facing resistance with its national health care scheme. A few years ago Ghana was working on a similar national health insurance plan. In many countries there are innovative micro-health insurance programs some like Mpesa that are available on your mobile phone. What will be the future of health financing in Africa. This video from a Kenyan news agency looks into the meeting of African Health Ministers talking about health insurance for Africa.