Multiplicandos, PhotoVoice, and Baseball

Activities have been going well in the Dominican Republic so far. I have been living here a bit longer than a week, settling into La Romana my new apartment. My current housemate is Dr. Robina Horak, an awesome pediatrician at UCSF who is conducting a breastfeeding study in the same bateys that I visit. So far, I have tackled a youth education project and a community needs assessment.

First, the youth education project (called Multiplicandos) aims to recruit community leaders for maternal and sexual heath education. In a community without much access to outside health information, we believe that these individuals can be an excellent source of health knowledge for their peers. The program starts by showing a Fundacion Enciende una Luz film called Tu Decides which, though a series of culturally-relevant vignettes, highlights the benefits of safe-sex practices and healthy life choices. After the film, we ask for volunteers who are interested in learning more about the topics presented in the film. The volunteers return for two subsequent evenings of lectures, discussions, and small group exercises with Dr. Denny and Dra. Angela, two HGBS* physicians. In addition to coordinating the educational materials for the project, I am studying whether the the Multipliandos teaching model is more effective than our current “best practice” for community education—the health education films. We'll have the first complete set of data in two weeks.

Second, the needs assessment program uses a technique called PhotoVoice (PV). With PhotoVoice, a few community members are presented with cameras and instructed to photograph the strengths and weaknesses in their communities. We piloted this program with a few bateys in August, with positive results. The benefit of the photographs is twofold. The individuals can more specifically describe the problems that they are facing (e.g. “septic overflow is contaminating our water supply” vs. “the neighborhood is dirty”) and discussing the photos fosters a greater sense of community among the photographers. We have asked the women participating in the program to focus on maternal and infant care.

There are a few other activities going on, but I'll have to write more on those later. Besides her breastfeeding study, Dr. Horak is also conducting neonatal resuscitation trainings with local health workers, with the goal of helping babies breathe during the first, “golden minute” of life.

On a more recreational note, we went to a baseball game Saturday night to see the La Romana team, Los Toros. Baseball in in the DR (and Puerto Rico, from what people tell me) is not taken lightly. The noise can be deafening, and those not accustomed to a DR ball game are advised to bring earplugs. The entire stadium erupts whenever a player scores a run, gets a base hit, strikes out, hits a foul, tries to steal, waves to the crowd, sits down, gets a drink of water, etc.

Appropriately, baseball news stateside has been focused on the Cardinals. The Toros game Saturday, though, was amazing. The Toros were down by two points at the bottom of the ninth, with two outs and two men on base. The batter (sorry, forgot his name) hit a line drive into left field to score a double. This brought the final score to 5-4 for the Toros.

*Hospital General Buen Samaritano

24 Oct 11 Blog Post