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An Interdisciplinary Evaluation of an HIV/AIDS Education Program in Kampala, Uganda

SAS Foundation: Kampala, Uganda

Yes, this is my new research. It is the research that I will be conducting for two months this summer and will serve as my practicum. Here is a little rundown of it.

We have been asked by a HIV/AIDS treatment, counseling, and educating foundation to evaluate the education portion of their organization. We are looking at the training and establishment of not only the mentors providing the education but also the children themselves. We are doing this in attempt to identify best practices and provide recommendations that will allow this program to be replicable and sustainable through the rest of the city and eventually the rest of the country.

The research we will be doing is all social. We will be working with researchers from Johns Hopkins and Case Western that are doing the epidemiological and biological research for this project. Our focus will be on determining if the material presented is appropriate and received by children of different age groups and that the information is correct. We will also be evaluating if this program is causing behavioral change and if this information is having effect on the community at large. Our research will include interviews, observations, focus groups, and community meetings with a focus on the impacts that this program has had and how to improve it.

The major goal for this program is the replicability and sustainability aspects. This program is getting a lot of media and a lot of support in the region and has been cited as reducing seroprevelance in the area. We are there to relate the information that the children are learning and determining if it having an effect on their actual behavior.

For us, this is a major undertaking and could be a major benefit for us. The director of the program wants us to further develop the social data to show the efficacy of the project and spread the word. He is really wanting us to publish and present this material as much as possible. Talks of the future even reach to presentations to Ugandan parliament, the international conferences on HIV/AIDS education and eradication. This would be amazing.

We met with the head of the foundation this past weekend and everything is working out great. He is really excited and supportive of the research and is really excited about what we have to offer. He is a very well known and very well connected physician both here and in Uganda and will be a major cornerstone for us throughout the rest or our careers.

We will be spending two months gathering data in Kampala, Uganda and then spending the next six months doing data analysis and reporting. This is kind of the project that will validate me as an anthropologist and is turning into a project that will set the tone of my career.

I am so excited.

Paula and Raiford's Disco

Here's a video that I found about Paula and Raiford's Disco. For all of you that have never seen Raiford, he is the star of this video and is as amazing as ever. I also just now figured out that the bartender that always talked to me and knew me as "cutie" was Paula. Guess I should have figured that out, oh well.

Academic In Training

I have to admit, the thought of becoming an academic versus a "professional" always seemed like an easy way out of sorts, a decision to be divided from the "real world", a choice of never entering the "work force" and becoming one of "those" people who was set on doing research and teaching topics that may not even be known by the rest of the world.

All that has changed.

My undergraduate work trained me in a set of skills that were very useless without some other kind of title behind my name like MS, Ph.D., or board certification. I knew from this point that I was going to have to have further training, but that I might be able to land a "real job" once all was said and done. Or so I thought. The more I got specialized and indoctrinated into anthropology, and forensics in particular, I realized that I would more than likely have to find a job with an academic institution and work as a consultant. This really didn't strike me as being an academic though, like I would still be a professional in the business sense of the word.

I am now an academic. NO doubt about it. And it is has dispelled all preconceived notions that I had about it. Yes I knew anthropology graduate students and doctoral candidates when I was doing my undergraduate work, but I didn't know any of them well enough to really understand what it was like. On top of that, most of the graduate students that I did know had second jobs which spoke to there being extra time to be had outside of the education they were getting. I know this was probably not the case knowing what I know now. It was a necessity for them, it would not have been a choice.

I have also known other people whom have gone to graduate school for business related masters degrees or some one year masters program, and still this didn't help me understand what to expect. I just didn't take people's word for their experience and I didn't see the dedication or demand through their actions during our interactions. If that makes sense. I always down played the current status of graduate studies as being an extension of the specialty you had chosen during your undergraduate career and not much else, not this difficult. I have to admit that some other people in graduate school that I have talked to have fallen into two categories: those whom have every hour of every day taken up by their studies and research and those who skate by with little effort and little dedication. I contribute this to the difference in academic areas that i have seen as in what is demanded and expected. But I could be wrong, I have been before.

I say all of this to say: Graduate school is not easy. Becoming an academic is one of the most demanding, stressful, and intense experiences that I have ever had and not what I expected. I am enjoying every minute of it as it is expanding my knowledge base, teaching me to think and conceptualize in different ways, and really testing my limits. But damn, it is consuming me. Having so many things in the process on a regular basis, the coordination between classes, meetings, projects, and assignments all on top of having an assistantship is a lot. This is the first time in my life where the demands of my life and work (aka school) are actually diminishing my sleep, causing fatigue, interrupting my hunger patterns, and leading to contemplate whether or not I am actually burning out.

Becoming an academic is now something that holds prestige to me. It is a position that I hope to achieve in that doing so will allow me to hold a title that I can really be proud. An opportunity to look back and know the amount of hard work and dedication that is required to reach such a position and know that I was able to do it.

I am so happy and so fulfilled by the work I do, I hope that I can accomplish my newly founded goals and become someone that people can look up to. I want to be an academic as in doing so will bring be great pride and allow me to give something back to other people. Not only in the nature of my discipline but in the ability to share my knowledge with others.

PeaceofPi suggested this wonderful post about what it is like to be an academic. If you are in this boat with us as well, check it out. The K-Zone: So you want to be a University Lecturer?