Am new to EA but have over 7 years experience implementing public health projects this is my 2 cents,global health starts and ends with the community and sadly we tend to overlook the community even here at EA,why has no one ever thought of a cost effective way of funding or doing community health projects?This is the missing piece even with this Ebola outbreak,stop only concentrating on research with data that was not directly collected on the ground,have people on the ground to talk to the community include their input in your research.You will have all the know how and equipment but will not make any meaningful impact,yes you got the numbers but how was the reception?Did you build any meaningful constructive,sustainable bond?If such outbreaks were to occur does the community trust you enough to listen to your advice,or you just dropped whatever and left,was it even needed,do they even know how to use it and use it well?All am trying to say factor the community and everything works out.You wanted to know where to send your donations well am sure the areas mentioned have community based organizations that can be used to directly reach the affected communities with activities like health promotion things like encouraging health seeking behavior,basic awareness of the disease how its spread,handwashing etc all this can be done by using public address systems or the local radio stations,establishing community health units if non exist or strengthening the existing units.
Am new to EA but have over 7 years experience implementing public health projects this is my 2 cents,global health starts and ends with the community and sadly we tend to overlook the community even here at EA,why has no one ever thought of a cost effective way of funding or doing community health projects?This is the missing piece even with this Ebola outbreak,stop only concentrating on research with data that was not directly collected on the ground,have people on the ground to talk to the community include their input in your research.You will have all the know how and equipment but will not make any meaningful impact,yes you got the numbers but how was the reception?Did you build any meaningful constructive,sustainable bond?If such outbreaks were to occur does the community trust you enough to listen to your advice,or you just dropped whatever and left,was it even needed,do they even know how to use it and use it well?All am trying to say factor the community and everything works out.You wanted to know where to send your donations well am sure the areas mentioned have community based organizations that can be used to directly reach the affected communities with activities like health promotion things like encouraging health seeking behavior,basic awareness of the disease how its spread,handwashing etc all this can be done by using public address systems or the local radio stations,establishing community health units if non exist or strengthening the existing units.