Experiencing public health in a developing nation: Lessons learned by an "azungu" in Malawi

In May 2010, I traveled with seven other public health students to Malawi, Africa to conduct our public health practicum in partnership with Under the Baobab Tree (UTBT), a non-profit organization focused on building sustainable community through improving education. Our primary objective was to assist UTBT in the evaluation of the health and nutrition of a small village in Malawi. In order to gain community support, we worked with UTBT to identify projects that not only aided UTBT in their efforts to build community capacity, but also addressed expressed community needs; took part in a village meeting aimed at disseminating information about our projects to members of the community; and spent time getting to know the community. Once we began work, we found that community participation was much higher than expected. The established relationship of trust and understanding between UTBT and this village, the novelty of having the “azungu” (white people) in the village, and the approval of the project by the village chief all played a large role in creating community support. With this increased access also came lessons learned about the dynamics of village living. Members of the community had to keep a balancing act of being willing to help us, but not seem too overly eager to other community members in order to prevent potential discrimination. By rotating translators and not calling on any one villager too frequently for help, we were able to maintain a good relationship with the community and complete our tasks.