When in Ghana/what was your project? The first time I was in Ghana I was getting to know GHEI and the community of Humjibre. I then participated in the Malaria Summer Serve and Learn Project. I returned to Ghana the next winter with 10 Cornell Students. This time I stayed for 6 weeks, as part of a Cornell University - GHEI collaboration on a Malaria Intervention Project. Our project involved bed net distribution, net-retreatment, education outreach and research, and community assessments of health and malaria.

Current schooling/career: I am a first year medical student at Georgetown University School of Medicine, and am pursuing a joint MD/MPH Georgetown/Bloomberg School of Public Health degree.

Future career goals: I am unsure of my ultimate career path but it will be in the field of Public Health/Global Health and I hope to be involved in clinical medicine, as well as research, policy and advocacy.

How has your work with GHEI influenced you? My work with GHEI has been an incredible exposure to the ideals of sustainable development. GHEI and Humjibre have reinforced the idea that development is not just about charity, it's about working on community empowerment and community mobilization. For example, handing out bed nets is charity. However, by teaching community members that malaria can be caused by one single mosquito bite, and insisting that their children sleep under bed nets protects them from both mosquitoes and malaria, GHEI empowers the community with knowledge and the power to change their health outcomes. With this understanding, I was able to recognize when my actions were doing more harm than good in Humjibre, and am now able to evaluate the success of other development projects from a new perspective.

What is your most memorable moment in Humjibre? The people of Humjibre made a lasting impression on me. I got to witness an incredible reality: in a place that has electricity only on occasion, lacks running water, where parents have eight children in anticipation of loosing two, and livelihood is dependent on exterior demand, families thrive. The gap in access to resources was dramatic, but people in Humjibre are strong, they are tenacious, (Shoshana, continued)