Below are three brief reflections on the final projects of three groups from the community health team. I have linked all of their individual interpretations of their final project into the title of each section so please do explore more about their respective research and work.

Role of Alcohol Consumption in Nicaragua: Aneeq Chaudhry and Michael Sun

Aneeq and Michael’s project was very comprehensive with their research. In my personal project and my final project with my group we did not research anything regarding substance abuse, which is a primarily male issue in Nicaragua, so this presentation was especially enlightening. They did an especially great job using conversations with our collaborators, specifically Mike Boudreau, to learn about alcohol consumption behaviors in rural areas like where we will be working. One of the most enlightening quotes to me was:

“People know that life’s hard in Nicaragua. A lot of men are out of work and unfortunately the easiest thing for them is to forget about it and pick up the bottle, whereas women will find other ways to support their families.”

I found this especially interesting because it shows how alcohol consumption in Nicaragua is also so obviously tied to the cultural environment, social norms, and gender roles. I think understanding all of the intertwined dynamics in the culture is crucial to our work so this was very revealing to me. Although Michael and Aneeq didn’t have a formulated plan for implementing their project in Nicaragua, I am excited to see how their knowledge and interests play out and help them during our time there.

Cross-Cultural Maternal Mental Health: Kate Herrington, Leah Hite, Valentina Sedlacek

I was extremely impressed with Kate, Leah, and Valentina’s presentation. How much they cared about their topic was absolutely evident in the work they put into the project and I am very excited to see how they implement their photo project in Nicaragua. They had so much information about maternal mental health, both generally and as much as they could gather about Nicaragua which was very helpful with understanding what we might encounter when we interact with women in the Casa Materna in Hormiguero. Their actual project and implementation was the most interesting to me. First they went to the Women’s Health Resource Center affiliated with DHMC to find out about maternal mental health firsthand and they then took that information to formulate their project.

The deliverables for their project were very intriguing and have the potential to have a long-lasting, positive impact on the Casa Materna. Essentially, they plan to talk to women about their own mental health and perhaps have them draw or write about their experiences and feelings both pre and postpartum. They are also bringing along a polaroid camera so they can take pictures of the women with their baby so they can have a lasting memory. They intend to create a mural at the Casa Materna with the pictures and reflections and I think this will help the women keep in mind their entire project and endeavor to improve maternal mental health. The fact that they tested their methods at the Women’s Health Resource Center was very reassuring because it was a resounding success and I can’t imagine the women in Nicaragua liking it any less. I am very excited to see how their project goes in the Casa Materna, as well as potentially how our projects may overlap and help each other.

Nutrition and Sustainable Agriculture in Nicaragua: Asha Wills, David Ruiz, Marcus Gresham

Asha, David, and Marcus’s project was especially intriguing to me because it combined the goals of the community health and the community development team. They first explored the nutrition of Nicaraguans and identified what gaps they have in their diet  and what potential health issues they may experience because of these gaps. They then chose a relatively sustainable crop in the sweet potato to advance the growth and use of to fulfill some of these nutritional gaps. They created multiple deliverables to help normalize the crop and give locals easy ways to grow it and ideas in how to cook it. I am excited to see how they implement their project because they have members of both teams in their group so they can advance their projects in different ways because of the different contexts. From what I understand, they have funding to procure sweet potato sprouts to bring to Nicaragua so we may be able to see how concretely successful their project is if the locals begin to grow it which is very exciting.