{"id":85038,"date":"2016-06-07T09:42:19","date_gmt":"2016-06-07T13:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?p=85038"},"modified":"2020-09-17T10:27:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T14:27:28","slug":"in-the-classroom-avoiding-barbie-savior","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2016\/in-the-classroom-avoiding-barbie-savior\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Classroom: Avoiding \u2018Barbie Savior\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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June 7, 2016<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\"Tanzania\"
In Pommern, Tanzania, students Theresa Cheng (left), Kimberly Hassel, and Dave Carroll-Kenney read over their survey before visiting households in the community. Photo by Chenzhe Cao (’16).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/a>In the rural southern highlands of Tanzania, 19 students are currently studying water, sanitation, and maternal and child health in the village of Pommern.<\/p>\n

Before they set out, the students had four orientation sessions to prepare for GH 707: Field Practicum in Public Health in East Africa<\/a>, led by William MacLeod<\/a> and Jennifer Beard<\/a>, assistant professors of global health, and Chenzhe Cao (\u201916) as teaching assistant.<\/p>\n

At the final orientation session on April 29, Professor of Global Health Davidson Hamer<\/a> stopped by to discuss the students\u2019 own health, and how to prepare. \u201cI would worry about malaria, other mosquito-borne illness, water-borne illness, food-borne illness, spending a lot of time with Jen Beard\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow you\u2019re just trying to scare them!\u201d Beard said.<\/p>\n

The discussion moved on to other important preparation, covering cultural norms with Albert Magohe (an SPH student from Tanzania), the goals of the four research teams, and the itinerary\u2014arriving in Dar es Salaam, moving to Iringa Town, and finally traveling out to Pommern.<\/p>\n

Eventually, however, a different kind of concern emerged: how can students in the field be sure to help, rather than exploit, inconvenience, or harm?<\/p>\n

For this orientation session, Beard assigned a recent essay by the associate dean for global health at Dartmouth, \u201cHow Not to Save the World,\u201d<\/a> on growing concerns of \u201cvoluntourism.\u201d Cao had also recommended the satirical Instagram account \u201cBarbie Savior<\/a>,\u201d portraying a shallow and unhelpful Western volunteer playing the \u201cWhite Savior\u201d in Sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n

Beard noted this is the first year the field program is in Tanzania\u2014it was previously in Kenya<\/a>\u2014meaning both that this group would be making a first impression, and would also probably not see direct impact from their short time in Pommern. \u201cWhat do you want to contribute with your research,\u201d Beard asked, \u201cto Tanzania or more broadly?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to avoid being the Big Bad Americans coming in to fix everything and making it worse,\u201d one student said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sense of, \u2018I can do better somewhere else than here [in the US]\u2019 is so frustrating to me,\u201d another student said, referring back to the \u201csavior\u201d mentality and the way Western students might overlook or undervalue local medical and public health professionals. \u201cI\u2019m glad we\u2019re in a context where we\u2019re not going to show up and draw blood when we\u2019re not qualified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, the class agreed the goal ought to be laying groundwork for future change, establishing partnerships with residents and local organizations and working together to document public health initiatives and challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re documenting information about things they may already know,\u201d Beard said, explaining that documentation can then be used by village leaders to advocate for resources and improve the health of people in Pommern.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe low-hanging fruit has already been picked,\u201d Beard said. \u201cTo a certain extent, people already know what\u2019s wrong and what\u2019s needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than \u201ctrying to save the world,” Beard said being realistic and humble is what can benefit Pommern during the six weeks there. \u201cMaking your mark is probably not all that helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toward the end of the orientation session, the group switched gears to talk about \u201ccommunity norms\u201d to help the 19 students and faculty live together, as well as guidelines to keep in mind when working in Pommern or when out and about in Iringa Town (population 151,000).<\/p>\n

In previous orientation sessions throughout April, the class had learned about Tanzania\u2019s history and healthcare challenges, gotten a crash-course in Swahili, covered what to bring on the trip, and detailed the research work included in the course.<\/p>\n

After this last session, the students headed for home, ready to pack their bags and continue wrestling with what it means to work in global health.<\/p>\n

\u2014Michelle Samuels<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

GH 707 is taking over the SPH Instagram account from June 6 through 12. Follow along at Instagram.com\/BUSPH\/<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students in inaugural Tanzania Field Program prepare for global health work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10989,"featured_media":85040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[1535,2044,1925,506,1899,1991],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3520,3523,3528,3532],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[431,460,365],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/85038"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10989"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85038"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/85038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174176,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/85038\/revisions\/174176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85038"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=85038"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=85038"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=85038"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=85038"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=85038"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=85038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}