The ten weeks that I spent interning with the Senegalese non-governmental organization, Réseau Africain de l’Education pour la Santé (RAES), in Dakar, Senegal was an unforgettable and valuable learning experience. RAES educates youth regarding health concerns and promotes healthy behaviors – especially as related to HIV/AIDS, sexual and maternal health, nutrition and malaria – using Internet and Communication Technology (ICT) and traditional media. RAES integrates an Internet-intensive education model into multi-dimensional, community-based programs that create relevant and sustainable programs through the use of technology. RAES has three major directives: to use myriad media platforms – ICT, radio, video – to educate local populations about health issues – especially HIV/AIDS, sexual and maternal health; to train youth to use ICT interactively for health education, with the outcomes of promoting health and reducing the “digital divide” between developed and developing nations; and to utilize interactive ICT methodologies to create and enrich partnerships between different actors in the health system.

The majority of my internship was spent designing evaluation tools for health education programs – especially those programs that were geared towards HIV/AIDS de-stigmatization and voluntary testing in high school-aged youth. These evaluation tools were to be used for internal and external purposes. Presenting reliable measures of program effectiveness to donors was one of the key purposes of these evaluation measures. They were also used to provide internal, organizational structure. One of the most enjoyable aspects designing these program evaluation tools was the opportunity it provided me to work with the target populations – for example, the student leaders involved in this HIV/AIDS initiative. Working exclusively in French also presented special challenges – and rewards – to work and daily life.

The second major aspect of the internship involved traveling to a remote region of the country, Matam, to implement evaluation tools for a technology capacity building program, designed to link health professionals in a virtual network across Senegal. Also while in Matam, a fellow intern, Philip Massey, and I conducted a survey that provided information about maternal and child health in the village and family planning practices, as well as vaccination status among children. These findings will be used to strengthen arguments for local capacity building and hopefully as a starting point to encourage mothers to participate in current maternal and child health and family planning programs.

Beyond the hours spent as an intern at a growing NGO, Senegal offered any intern an unforgettable field learning experience. Not only is Senegalese culture a wealth of vibrant and heterogeneous inspiration, but the Senegalese pride themselves on their hospitality – many a Saturday lunch became a day spent with family, eager to teach newcomers about the traditions of Senegal and their particular ethnic group. Although Senegal is a country where many health challenges remain, I left feeling hopeful about the resolution of these problems and the knowledge that one day I will be back.

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During my 2008 summer field studies I interned at the Réseau Africain de l’Education pour la Santé (RAES) in Dakar, Senegal. RAES is a non-governmental organization that was first started through a partnership with the Senegalese Government and UCLA. RAES’ mission is to train, teach, and unite the Senegalese population and its health professionals through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). While working for this non-governmental organization, my jobs included curriculum formalization, project evaluation, health surveillance, and professional capacity building.

My responsibilities at RAES were realized through four major objectives, each contributing to the professional development of RAES. My first major responsibility included helping formalize five training modules intended to aid students in developing HIV/AIDS messages using information and communication technologies (ICT); the curriculum was developed using problem-based learning, encouraging active participation from students. Secondly, in order to document and evaluate the effectiveness of the summer training, I was also responsible for developing and administering a web-based questionnaire to the participating youth. A third objective at RAES focused on capacity building through distance learning, realized through the creation of Internet modules that taught useful skills when navigating and creating content for the web. Finally, I was responsible for creating and implementing a health surveillance survey on maternal and child health issues in the town of Odobere, located 12 hours from the capital city of Dakar.

One of my greatest and most difficult achievements while at RAES was the conception, organization, implementation, and completion of the rapid survey in Odobere, Senegal. This village-wide health surveillance survey was the first rapid survey that I had been involved with, let alone led and conducted. Data from 105 women examining child immunization coverage, prenatal care, and family planning access were collected and will be placed in a report to be handed back to the local and regional medical directors. The information obtained from this survey will help local authorities in future planning and service implementation in this area. This experience was extremely difficult yet amazingly rewarding and has no doubt prepared me for future public health work.

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