Marc Trudeau, Architect, MAIBC, writes about his experiences with two UBC Global Health Initiative projects.
One of the great opportunities of global health is the learning exchange that happens between everyone involved. As an architect who has participated in the UBC Global Health Initiative generally and in its associated Uganda and India projects, I have observed how ideas and experiences get shared with participants as quickly as curry from a frying pan gets to every nose in the kitchen.
On arriving in Kampala in January 2009, we had the pleasure of being introduced to an individual named Abdul who runs African Hearts Community Organization. Abdul’s story is an amazing one, where he went from being a street youth in a slum, to organizing a group of his friends to learn brass instruments, to networking and raising money as a group of performers, to completing his own
social work degree, to marshalling resources to build a school and residence facility that can in turn help more street youth. Meeting Abdul was a profound learning exchange and inspiration in how personal commitment can significantly change the lives and health of others. At the time of our visit, Abdul was starting to plan for the new residence facility for street youth. Within Uganda there is a wide range of observable construction types from concrete buildings with curtain wall glass, to lean-to metal and wood assemblies, to mud brick and grass huts. My initial desire was to explore how to effectively house (and help) as many people as possible and I described to Abdul my own positive memories of staying in cabins with fellow cub scouts. For street youth in Uganda, these were not positive thoughts. The Ugandan youths are coming from living in large group settings in the slum, in some instances being orphaned through war, and a big part of overcoming the stigma of being outside of society is being able to live in what is perceived as a proper home. For these boys, a proper home meant having a painted concrete building with concrete floor, bedrooms, a personal bed to sleep in, and a good roof. The kitchen was less important because they were generally happy to cook outside, but the other elements were critical to creating a home rather than a temporary structure or cabin. So in addition to learning about personal commitment, I had an architectural reminder about the importance of social context.
In June 2010, I participated with the Global Health Initiative project in Spiti Valley India, and I was particularly interested in the preparatory work that happened before the group left Canada. We each investigated a relevant aspect of the upcoming project and presented results back to the group. Topics were based on important needs and requests of the local community such as anemia and nutrition, water safety and sanitation, diarrheal diseases, lice and worms, and for myself, solar energy opportunities for buildings. Practically, we needed these meetings so that we knew what to do. But as well, the background research reinforced to me the importance of collaboration as a way of building a team, and the importance of research and discussion in helping people build ownership in the project.
When we arrived in Spiti Valley, there were several unexpected challenges for the project. The roads were temporarily closed due to snow and again later due to flooding, so our efforts had to be done effectively in a condensed time frame. The local partner was not ready for new solar energy measures, so the information prepared was passed along as ideas for consideration rather than as something to immediately proceed with. As well, a big surprise was that the local municipal water supply was discovered to be infected with worms, so many of the locals needed medication in response. But even with these surprises, we were able to respond well largely because we had already talked about the relevant issues and we had ideas about what needed to be done.
As someone who is not a medical practitioner, these global health projects have been a very rewarding learning environment and experience. In these two projects, I have seen how engineers, doctors, nurses, dieticians, monks, social workers, and architects amongst others can work collaboratively together, learn, have a great time and very importantly, help global communities achieve their goals.