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Dr. Shah's Travels
The wordly adventures of Yogesh Shah, M.D., associate dean of Global Health
Dr. Shah visits the World Health Organization
Posted on May 21, 2009
From April 27-29, Dr. Yogesh Shah, associate dean of Global Health at DMU, attended the Preterm Birth International Collaboration (PREBIC) conference in Geneva, Switzerland. He was invited by the World Health Organization (WHO) one of DMU's partners on projects related to women's health.
Dr. Shah at WHO's Executive Board Room
While in Geneva, he visited the WHO headquarters to meet with individuals regarding DMU's collaboration with WHO. Dr. Mario Merialdi of the WHO Reproductive Health and Research division confirmed that about 20 pieces of art commissioned by WHO will be in Iowa in October. The art is designed to increase awareness about and promote action toward improving sexual and reproductive health around the world, especially the health of women and children. The art will be part of the joint program between the World Food Prize (WFP) and Des Moines University. Dr. Merialdi also confirmed WHO support for the next issue of Abaton which will focus on Global Health. Lastly, he will welcome two summer interns from DMU to Geneva to work on research questions at WHO.
Daisy Mafubelu, assistant director
general for family and community
health at WHO, and Dr. Shah
Dr. Shah also met with Daisy Mafubelu, assistant director general for family and community health at WHO, and they agreed to continue to develop these linkages between DMU and WHO. Mafubelu has been invited to be a speaker at 2009 WFP event.
Dr. Shah met Meena Cabral de Mello to discuss a partnership between DMU, WHO and UNICEF called Care for Childhood Development. WHO is interested in working with DMU to develop student-focused modules for this program to be used by DMU and other medical students while on international rotations. There is now an opportunity for summer student internship on this topic.
A meeting with Alma Virginia Camacho focused on WHO programs aimed at reducing adolescent pregnancies. This collaboration is a good fit for the Global Health department's support for the Iowa Initiative whose goal is reducing the number of unintended pregnancies. The Iowa Initiative will conduct an "On the Issues" conference at DMU on July 22, 2009. Keynote speaker will be Melody Barnes, director of the domestic policy council for President Obama.
This brief visit extended the developing partnership between DMU and WHO in several new areas as Dr. Shah had meetings with several senior WHO officials. Substantial new initiatives will soon be coming.
"We want to make you Maasai" - by Dr. Shah
Posted on March 5th, 2009
On a recent trip to Tanzania, I got to experience what few tourists enjoy - an overnight visit to a Maasai village. It was an adventure that involved a motorbike, a couple of flat tires, a goat, wonderful people and invaluable lessons.
The Maasai - also spelled "Masai" - are an ethnic group of people living in northern Tanzania and Kenya. The village I visited was 15 kilometers from the nearest town. My guide and translator was a pastor who offered to take me there by motorbike. I had never been on a motorbike before, and this one had a flat tire to boot. It was a nearly three-hour journey into the bush on dirt paths with no signs to mark our way. However, I didn't want to give up the opportunity. After the tire repair and a few wrong turns, we arrived at our destination.
The Maasai people are polygamous; the men can have as many wives as they have cattle, the chief indicator of wealth. Huts of branches, mud and cow dung, constructed by the women, are arranged in a large circle, with the cattle kept in the center. While a small school recently opened in the vicinity, the children in this village don't receive a formal education. My guide/pastor chose to refer to me as "professor," a title of higher stature to the people than "doctor."
The villagers welcomed me warmly. After the pastor delivered a sermon to approximately 45 mostly women and children in a small church, everyone came outside to perform a local dance consisting largely of jumping. When I joined in, an older woman advised my guide that the guest is supposed to enter the dance last - which didn't bother me, given the stamina such dancing required.
Later, the villagers presented me with a gift, provided by a local member of the country's president-appointed parliament: a goat. The parliamentarian had sent with it a staff member and an inspector to make sure the animal was disease-free. We left the village with a group of men and boys into the bush, where the goat was calmed and killed. Its blood was collected in a bowl, which the boys drank. This is considered to give a person great physical strength, but I was silently grateful the bowl wasn't offered to me.
The goat was then butchered - with the inspector examining it at every step in the process - and cooked over a fire. Pieces of cooked meat were placed on a bed of leaves; we sat in a circle around it. The host cut a piece for each guest, going around the circle; you were supposed to finish your piece by the time he handed you another. I took so long chewing that they gave me a plate to hold my share. The meal lasted past midnight.
The next day, after the women and girls had milked the cows, the villagers and their chief gathered around me. He told me, "We want to make you Maasai." I was presented with a beautiful cloth and an elaborately beaded stick.
I was deeply grateful for these gifts because of the significance and value they represent. Besides their livestock, the Maasai have none of the material wealth we enjoy in the United States. The children play with each other, not with toys or Wiis. The people subsist on rice, beans and occasionally meat; obesity is not an option. Health care consists largely of herbs and, for the young mothers, a diet that keeps their expected babies small to minimize complications in delivery. Until recently, these villagers had to walk 10 kilometers to get water; a new pump now puts water within "just" one kilometer.
Still, the Maasai I met were happy. Older villagers were treated with great respect. The children were excited when I gave them just one TicTac or piece of gum. I'm grateful for all we have in America, but too often our level of satisfaction seems lower the more that we have.
These are among the lessons Des Moines University students and alumni gain in our Global Health Program. While they hone their clinical skills, they learn how people in poorer countries manage with far fewer resources. They gain cultural awareness and appreciation, insights they bring back to their medical practice. They establish deeply human, personal connections with other people.
That appreciation helped me in one more way: I didn't even think about complaining when, upon our intended departure, we discovered our motorbike had yet another flat tire.
