Amani Global Works has been featured in the news! Please click on the images below to read the articles.

The Network Journal

The feature article describes the inception and missions of Amani Global Works. It also discusses the ways Amani Global Works has made a difference to the community of Idjwi Island. For example, the medical center has been treating approximately 240 patients daily and the nutrition center has been feeding 150 children twice a day. A total of two full-time physicians and eight nurses now serve the community on 10 acres of land that has been donated to the organization by the community. Dr. Jacques Sebisaho hopes to use “health care as an anchor for community economic development model in the region”.

Westchester Magazine

Dr. Jacques Sebisaho and Amani Global Works were honored by the Afya Foundation, a Yonkers-based non-profit global health organization. The relief efforts Dr. Sebisaho and Amani Global Works provide to the people of Idjwi Island were recognized at the Afya Foundation’s first inaugural Benefit Awards Dinner that honored visionaries in global health. Dr. Sebisaho was presented the Afya Foundation’s Visionary Award.

We Care Solar & UN Foundation

Dr. Sebisaho spoke about the important connection between sustainable energy and health care at the “Powering Health Care in the Developing World” conference in Washington, D.C. The conference was sponsored by the United Nations Foundation and the World Health Organization. Since many of the patients in Idjwi come to seek health care only after their work day is done, the important and life-saving role that solar energy plays in the facilities at Amani Global Works is immeasurable. For example, when a Solar Suitcase was brought into the village during a cholera outbreak, survival rate from cholera spiked to 100%. The clinic’s current ability to monitor patients throughout the night continues to make a world of difference to those who live in Idjwi.

33rd Annual Refugees International Dinner

Mimy Mudekereza and Dr. Jacques Sebisaho attended the 33rd Annual Refugees International Dinner in Washington, D.C. as Matt Dillon’s guests. Refugees International is an organization that “advocates for lifesaving assistance and protection for displaced people and promotes solutions to displacement crises”.

http://refugeesinternational.org

“I had my whole summer planned out. This happened really, really suddenly,” said Baxter, 16. He was working as an office assistant for Sandra Campos at Cynosure Holdings in New York when he was introduced to Jacques Sebisaho, founder of Amani Global Works . Sebisaho runs a clinic on Idjwi, which is located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“He mentioned that he was having trouble transporting people to the clinic, because there aren’t really any cars on the island.” Baxter has an interest in woodworking and had built a kayak that won best in show in a regional contest this year. The doctor and the high school student came up with the idea of transporting patients around in a canoe.

On July 7, Baxter was off to Idjwi. It was his first time out of the country besides some vacations to the Caribbean. He stayed in a concrete house with dusty sheets and no electricity, waking up at 4 a.m. to work on the canoe while also helping around the clinic. Not speaking a word of Swahili, he found himself dependent on Sebisaho at first to communicate with the workers who helped him build the canoe.

“It was very confusing at first, but we were quickly able to develop our own form of sign language,” Baxter said. After some trial and error, he and the workers were able to understand key phrases in each other’s languages.

It took about 12 days to build the 18-foot canoe, using only hatchets, chisels and adzes. Baxter learned a lot about other cultures during his short time on the island. “It was great to get out of the U.S. bubble and see that a lot of people aren’t as lucky as we are in the U.S.”

Along the way, he made friends with the crew, picked up a little Swahili and taught some local children how to play basketball. He says he definitely wants to go back next summer.

by Casey Donahue for The Daily Darien on 8/11/11

Every morning on the northern part of Idjwi island, Jacqueline and Rolande, the clinic “mothers” arrive by 6:45am and begin preparation of the protein supplement porridge. They create the mix from a flour base, prepare the fire, and cook the meals twice a day for 120 children enrolled in the nutrition program. By 7am children begin to arrive and the first meal is served at 8am.

The children range in ages with the majority being under 10 years of age. Many of these children walk, barefoot, between 4-6 miles each way in order to be a part of this program. Several of the older girls carry their younger siblings on their backs in a traditional fabric carrier.

They are given 1/2 a cup of porridge, twice per day, in order to provide necessary nutrients to boost their immune system and provide proper vitamins for growth. Currently, the clinic has only 50 cups and 50 spoons, so the staff has to group the children and feed them in stages.

PLEASE HELP US ACQUIRE MORE CUPS AND SPOONS – DONATIONS ARE WELCOME.

AUGUST 2011 – Since the AGW teams’ recent visit, another 15 children have been sponsored for a year’s worth of supplementation!

PLEASE HELP US ENROLL MORE MALNOURISHED CHILDREN – ONLY $5 PER CHILD PER MONTH.

MEDICATIONS – For only $5 per patient, you can help provide the antibiotics and medications needed for critically ill patients with diseases ranging from malaria to typhoid fever.

PLEASE HELP OUR CAUSE AND DONATE NOW!

They worked endlessly for a week with small tools from 4 AM to 7 PM or later. The success of this creation inspired the community and can continue to be recreated by the craftsman and volunteers of Idjwi.

Learn more about Clay Baxter and our “TEEN DREAM TEAM” >>

PLEASE HELP US BUILD MORE WATER AMBULANCES AND DONATE NOW!

The ambulance is 17′ long, and has room for two rowers and two patients, or one laying down. This mode of transportation will help expedite travel to the clinic and will save thousands of lives in the future.
The canoe was built from a large tree on the AGW clinics’ property, with the help of master craftsmen from the community and many volunteers.

Lake Kivu sits between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), its serene waves giving little hint of the conflicts that have erupted beyond its shoreline. To the west, Rwanda is still waking up from its genocidal nightmare. To the east, fighting continues in the DRC; though a 2002 treaty officially ended a civil war that left millions dead, militant groups persist with brutal rapes and other acts of terror.

Halfway between the two countries, surrounded by water, is the DRC-owned Idjwi, home to a forgotten population in the midst of its own kind of humanitarian crisis. And in a rare chance to explore the health needs of a remote and neglected population, HSPH students and other Harvard graduate students are documenting Idjwi’s state of public health and working with the island community to find solutions.

Though Idjwi’s people live in relative peace and stability, they are desperately poor and vulnerable to malnutrition and disease. The island’s six doctors work at ill-equipped health facilities inaccessible to many of the estimated 200,000, mostly rural, Bany’Idjwi. Nearly 3,000 people die each year from preventable causes, but the island has received little attention from the international community.

Seven students from across the University, including HSPH master’s candidates Michael Hadley, Tom McHale, and Dana Thomson, and Shu-Chuan-Tseng, MPH’10, traveled to Idjwi this summer to assess the island’s health needs. Their work paved the way for possible short-term interventions, such as vaccinations and a future health facility. This “dream team” of specialists, seasoned in fieldwork, included a physician, political scientist, geographer, anthropologist, and two architects.

A Public Health Model

The group came by arrangement of Jacques Sebisaho, a Congolese doctor whose parents were born on Idjwi. Now based in New York, Sebisaho recruited the students through Harvard’s Student Alliance for Global Health to partner with his organization, Amani Global Works. The hope is that this effort will encourage non-governmental organizations and donors to get involved and provide lessons that can be used to help other at-risk populations in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Over the summer, the students visited local health centers to document resources and patient experiences, conduct focus groups, and launch a household survey that will provide a snapshot of the population’s health needs against which the effects of future interventions can be measured.

Because there has not been a recent census on the island, the students had to get creative as they planned which households to sample. Thomson, who specializes in geography and geographic information systems, used satellite imagery to map infrastructure across the island and come up with randomized areas for the survey team to visit. Hadley organized the translation of the survey into the local language, and trained a cadre of young women to administer it.

At the end of each day, the HSPH students and their colleagues met to share their findings and figure out on the fly how to work together. One thing that surprised Thomson is that the island “isn’t really as peaceful as we’d like to think.” Although the population hasn’t suffered the systematic attacks seen in the eastern DRC, it has experienced occasional direct violence and indirect effects of the nearby turmoil. Rape and wife beating may also be more prevalent than anyone had suspected. McHale, a public health anthropologist, interviewed not only women who have suffered abuse, but also former child soldiers who now work as “moto” (auto rickshaw) drivers. Currently in their 20s and 30s, these men support each other much like a surrogate family, with its own organic mental health system.

“We want to understand how they’ve learned to process their traumatic experiences,” Thomson says. “Maybe there are techniques that can be used by other populations.”

Learning in the Field

Thomson found it rewarding to learn how architects, and others with whom she doesn’t typically work, make their decisions. But it was also a challenge that required negotiations in the field. “Everyone thought it was important to visit the health centers and interview doctors, but we all needed to ask our questions in different ways. The architects needed to observe what windows were open or closed, and how patients were using the space during a normal day. As a more quantitative person, I wanted to create summary statistics, such as what percent of clinics have running water. It’s been an incredible learning process.”

“The makeup of this team of students is a fascinating model,” says Sasha Chriss, a project manager at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and adviser to the group. “It’s how things should be done in the field, but rarely are. Typically in these settings, you send in doctors, and they build a hospital assuming that just creating a building ensures health care for a population. These students have a broader understanding of the dynamics of the island, and have great respect for the systems already in place.” This fall the students will meet to discuss short-term goals and interventions.

The effort is likely to yield results that can be applied to future humanitarian efforts with other populations in the region, says Allan Hill, Andelot Professor of Demography in the Department of Global Health and Population, who advised the students. “It’s the massive problem of public health: a population that has tremendous health needs and very little resources. What do you do? These students are jumping in with both feet and actually doing it.”

by Amy Roeder of the Harvard School Of Public Health – download the article in pdf

In arguably the world’s poorest country, on an island four times the size of Manhattan, exists a population of 250,000 people invisible to society and, in a sense, forgotten. This island—Idjwi—is a six-hour boat ride from the mainland of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the middle of Lake Kivu.

Many Harvard students travel the globe to pursue their own projects each summer, but in this project, a team of seven students from the Graduate School of Design, the School of Public Health, and the Kennedy School joined forces and traveled to Idjwi to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the island and to design a preliminary framework for a healthcare facility. They hoped their efforts would also raise awareness of the island’s needs and gain international support. This collaborative effort between the schools at Harvard is a great way to foster innovation and amplify impact; hopefully, other Harvard students will follow suit.

In the fall of 2009, Dr. Jacques Sebisaho, a native of Idjwi and now the Executive Director of Amani Global Works, approached the Student Alliance for Global Health at Harvard (SAGHAH) about doing research on the island. Together they began planning the trip to Idjwi that would provide the first thorough and comprehensive description of the island and its inhabitants. Each student would be responsible for designing their own research agenda as part of this project.

After arriving on the island this past June, the team became familiar with the local customs. The more educated on the island spoke French and Swahili, but the common language was Kihavu. The islanders are devout Christians and find religious meaning in even the smallest daily occurrences. Social life centers on church and the biweekly markets. Groups have come and gone before, and the people of the island don’t want to be given false hope. “Please come back and do something, don’t just ask questions and leave,” they would say. The team reassured the Bany’Idjwi that if they could secure funding for the project, this would be the first of many trips to work with the local community to plan and deliver a better healthcare system.

Traders take vegetables and fruits to sell on the mainland, but most residents never leave the island. Poverty is extreme and most families have 10 to 12 mouths to feed. Kwashiorkor (protein malnutrition in children) is common, and there are an estimated 3,000 preventable deaths per year. Though there are schools on the island, many of them cost money to attend—money that most families don’t have (islanders usually use barter, rather than currency). The few children who get a good education leave, as there are few opportunities for them on Idjwi.

Michael B. Hadley, a HSPH student, designed and conducted a health survey, while fellow HSPH student Thomas A. McHale conducted a qualitative survey on men and women about gender-based violence and access to healthcare and education. Dana R. Thomson used satellite imagery to map infrastructure across the island and come up with randomized areas for the survey team to visit; Shu-Chuan Tseng collected data from existing healthcare providers. Sunkyo Im at HKS assessed the how the healthcare system fits into the healthcare policies of the country. Marika Shioiri-Clark and Daniel S. Sullivan at the GSD assessed the island’s infrastructure—the designs of the buildings, waterways, and land use practices.

By the time the team was done with its initial assessment, they had over 44,000 pages of data. And although they are just beginning the data analysis, there are already some interesting findings. Gender-based violence is a common problem, most likely due to mens’ joblessness. The total fertility rate is 9 -10 children per family, higher than Sub-Saharan Africa’s average of 7-8 children per family. Health data from this region does not yet exist. This assessment should shed light on more specifics of the health and medical status of the residents.

The identification of the needs on the island may be helpful in attracting more NGO and international support to Idjwi. Dr. Sebisaho’s organization that supports the SAGHAH Idjwi project, Amani Global Works, was able to achieve 501(c)(3) status this year. This will be the first health-focused NGO to establish a lasting presence on Idjwi. Though there is still much to be done, SAGHAH is very excited about the headway it has made in collecting data and establishing ties in Idjwi. This is only the beginning. The group is planning a trip next summer to continue the next round of data collection and to begin preliminary planning of health care interventions. As global health is such a popular subject among undergraduates (I’m talking to you, Societies of the World 25), those brave enough to venture into this uncharted territory, or help from afar, can join SAGHAH to get involved in this exciting project that, as Hadley puts it, “uses the lens of health to connect other disciplines.”

by Meredith C. Baker, an editorial writer for The Harvard Crimson

In a recent interview, Dr. Sebisaho articulated three goals that Amani Global Works hoped to accomplish during the team’s three-month trip to Idjwi. First and foremost, Dr. Sebisaho wanted to get the Idjwi community behind the organization’s plan to erect a main hospital and satellite health clinics. After all, if the community rejects the unfamiliar availability of healthcare, after laying the future hospital foundation and stocking its shelves with supplies, its halls would remain empty, vaccinations would remain unused, and all efforts would be rendered futile. As Dr. Sebisaho puts it, the organization’s success is contingent on confirming that Amani is “not going against the flow.” Secondly, Amani hoped to mollify any potential racial or political tensions that could result in an isolated island’s sudden exposure to technology, never before seen races and unfamiliar practices. A third and crucial goal was to return to New York with a concrete plan the citizens of Idjwi will embrace and that Amani can support.

So how did the Amani team’s accomplishments measure up to their goals?

Of course, there were many impediments along the way. The difficulty associated with a lack of communication technology on the Island is only topped by the frustration of having no roads and efficient travel means (not to mention limited or no electricity). Until a few weeks ago, when Dr. Sebisaho’s team charted a map of the Island, one had never existed. When faced with an illness, someone from Idjwi has to wait one week to board a boat to a neighboring village to receive medical attention- a scenario that certainly does not favorably lend itself to emergencies. The team’s plan to accrue feedback from surveys and town hall meetings were inherently complicated by the lack of communication, but their glowing results hardly reflected the difficulties.

The Amani team composed of Harvard students traveled throughout the island from door to door, and collected surveys from more than 3,000 people conveying their wants, needs and preferences. Furthermore, the students were able to employ women on the island to aid in conducting the surveys and collecting the coveted data. Even some children, previously tangled in the army as child soldiers, participated in the discussions and voiced their dreams for Idjwi. Close to 1,000 inhabitants of Idjwi attended the two town hall meetings that took place in both the North and South regions of the island over the course of the team’s three-week visit, and engaged in open discussions about what the people of the Island need most. (Dr. Sebisaho expected a turnout of 20 people, based on previous apathy and discouragement that he detected among the people.) In one group interview, five village children conveyed to Dr. Sebisaho that they “had lost faith in people;” they felt like no authority would provide for them or fill their basic needs, and “for the first time they were finally seeing someone do something positive for the island without a political agenda.” And after reading through the thousands of surveys collected, it is clear to Dr. Sebisaho that this sentiment is a pandemic throughout the island, perhaps as widespread as malnourishment and malaria.

After garnering the support of the community, the Amani team tackled its other goals. During one of the door-to-door meetings in Northern Idjwi, Dr. Sebisaho’s team found five young high school graduates (a rare finding on the island, since many move away to seek more education or jobs) who were eager to lend a hand. Without the help of any machines, these students traced a road linking the community of Northern Idjwi to the future hospital. People now use the road to travel to places where only motorcycles dared to roam previously; thanks to these five students, their elementary tools, and Amani Globa Works’ guidance, the community realized that Dr. Sebisaho is not only there to merely preach and make promises. Needless to say, his current promises to raise funds and begin building, have raised high expectations.

Although the medical statistics of Idjwi have not yet changed, one man and a handful of students have won over the hearts of the people and have started to make their mark. You can see this in their newly traced roads, freshly charted maps, and pages upon pages of data that will continue to guide the Amani team closer to solutions for a community with many basic problems.

If they can accomplish all of that in just three weeks, I look forward to seeing what will unfold in the coming months.

by Adeena Schlussel for Next Billion.net

To be honest, I hadn’t even heard of the Island of Idjwi until very recently, but I have not been able to get it out of my mind since. Idjwi is located on Lake Kivu and floats between the Congo and Rwanda. It officially belongs to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, though you wouldn’t know it, since the island receives no services from its parent government. Idjwi is home to over 200,000 people who live without access to critical goods such as electricity, clean water and medical care. These facts of course imply high infant mortality rates and slim chances for education and development. It is a story we have unfortunately heard before, but it is an especially jarring one. There are 3 doctors on the entire island, and meager medical supplies on a good day. (In the few hours during which my family and I sat with Dr. Sebisaho on the front porch of our home in suburbia, we counted 6 doctors among our neighbors passing by and stopping in to say hello. That’s twice the number that Ijdwi boasts in total.)

But Dr. Sebisaho is not overwhelmed by these odds. He and the Amani Global Works team, which he leads, have a lucid mission with manifold potential benefits:

The team’s five-year plan is to bolster the practically non-existent healthcare system on the island by building a hospital, which will be supported by a few clinics and various health posts. The approach to decentralize healthcare carries not only social benefits, but economic ones as well; as healthcare becomes more accessible, people will be able to enter a habitual cycle of preventative care, which is much less expensive that the consultation, testing and lab fees incurred by a patient who waits to feel pain before they seek care. Furthermore, decentralizing its services will allow Amani Global Works to conquer what would otherwise seem like a formidable goal of bringing health services to a population that lacks them completely.

Currently, the group’s main objective is to attract funding and doctors, but by employing the community, these obstacles are not insurmountable. Amani Global Works plans to train community health workers not only to man the dispersed health bases, but to penetrate the community and initiate care. (This method is used by Partners in Health and by others.) These health workers will come from within the community and will be paid- not much, but still will be paid- for visiting households and bringing solutions. This incentivized plan will enumerate the number of qualified care -givers and will further the organization’s preventative treatment dream.

Once the hospital is established, it will become a communal and economic hub on the island. Dr. Sebisaho plans to use utilize solar panels and possibly the surrounding rivers to generate electricity to light the hospital hallways, and hopefully surrounding homes as well. People will essentially be lured to the buildings- a rare source of electricity and clean water- as moths are lured to a flame.

Additionally, Dr. Sebisaho feels that a valued hospital could have the power to stimulate developments in the country’s infrastructure. Even the most talented politician would be unable to promise to lay roads throughout an unpaved island- the task is too great and the funds, absent. However, it is possible to pave one road- and then another, and then another- to link vital health clinics to their treasured hospital. These hypothetical roads will of course benefit business and general transportation on the island, being that pavement is not prejudiced towards health.

Another, more commonplace benefit to increased healthcare are increases in education as well as economic productivity. When women and children are sick from sullied water or postpartum deficiencies, their entire families take a hit and are unable to complete daily life activities such as earning a living, or even collecting food or firewood. Because Dr. Sebisaho sees women and their children as a crucial pillar in a family, their hospital care will be free of charge (although men and children over five years old will face small fees). Seeing a hospital as an “attraction,” would foster business and other forms of development in the area, a consequence that can be quite palpable on an enclosed island. By the same token, health care services for this vulnerable group could grant them a life of lesser worry and greater learning and productivity.

Knowing that the government will not seed its ventures, the organization is currently working to procure funds necessary to jump-start its plan. However, Amani Global Works will not rely solely on munificence. Some nascent ideas include facilitating cooperatives among the pineapple and banana farmers surrounding the future clinics, and imposing a small health insurance fee that will guarantee services for the entire coop. Another idea for revenue is that in a few years, Dr. Sebisaho hopes that his hospital will have earned a reputation for quality and results that will draw some of the 6+ million people surrounding the island who currently travel much further for care.

But Dr. Sebisaho is not curbing his dreams while waiting for the finances to work themselves out. He and the Harvard students continue to craft their mission. Once they get the ball rolling, the group is looking forward to a whole bunch of ensuing benefits.

This week the groups is traveling to Idjwi to survey the future hosptial’s plot, as well as to further poll its future patients about their wants and needs. With high hopes and manageable first steps, Amani Global Works surely embodies the hope that the Congolese speak of.

by Adeena Schlussel for Next Billion.net