Post #4

Blog Post #4

James Hickling

7/14/17

            Looking back on my research experience in Zambia, I have seen luck, successes, and the frustration of navigating beaurocracy. I have learned that the public health sector in Lusaka is an international one, and it is difficult to go a mile in the city without seeing a health NGO or foreign aid organization. The scourge of HIV has drawn interest from across the globe, although none more so than from Zambians themselves.

            In our various interviews, we have met with everyone from the director of JSI deliver project, one of the chief beneficiaries of the massive annual PEPFAR aid package, to the director of TALC, a grassroots organization involved in advocacy and community based support. One director lives a fifteen minute drive from my house in Massachusetts, the other was born in Zambia and has been HIV positive for a decade. Meeting with such a broad range of people, all with the same goal of ending the epidemic, has helped me realize the broad scope of the robust Lusaka public health community.

            Although I feel lucky to meet these people who are making a real difference on the ground every day, the saturation of the field has also presented challenges. Well established organizations with the backing of millions of dollars from donors have far more extensive resources than our humble undergraduate research duo. We have been stonewalled from talking to CIDRZ, an organization conducting research related to our topic. Despite the HIV public health community generally having a sense of comradery and helping one another out, CIDRZ refused to meet with us due to the proprietary nature of their data. While I understand that they must protect their research interests, and they are doing good work for the country, it is frustrating to think that the nature of the structure of academic public health research may prevent progress from being accomplished, and ultimately slow the suppression of the disease.

            Despite our limitations and setbacks, I am overall very happy with the progress of our research. Our topic is a fascinating one, and I feel engaged and interested whenever we uncover a new development. This experience is an invaluable one, and I feel privileged to take a role, however small, in such an incredible community of academics and difference makers. The results of this community are tangible, and the statistics prove that Zambia is making progress towards not only statistical, epidemiological improvements in the disease, but also social and cultural ones.

            My research partner and I feel confident about our paper, well prepared and knowledgeable about our topic, and hopeful that it will realize the potential that we know it has. Over the next two weeks, we will work hard to have something to show for all of this time and effort in Lusaka.