Staff and community opinion leaders at the Ekialo Kiona Center publicly receive first doses of COVID-19 Vaccine to promote community uptake on Mfangano Island, August 2021. Photo: Brian J. MattahAmong the many disruptions generated by COVID-19 for rural communities around the world, community-based research reliant on international collaboration and face-to-face interactions has been greatly tested. In a recent report in the Journal of Global Health Reports, researchers from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and other University of Minnesota departments provide an example of how community-based research collaborations can use embedded networks to adapt their responses to unexpected public health threats. The report focuses on the Mfangano Community Health Field Station, a training and research collaboration among the University of Minnesota, Maseno University in Kenya, and Ekialo Kiona (EK) Center on Mfangano Island situated in the eastern part of Lake Victoria about 10 miles of
December 17, 2020
It was a most unusual summer project for two students at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs spanning two continents, 10 time zones, and an ocean to deliver important public health information about the coronavirus pandemic to an isolated island population in Kenya. But the students, who are pursuing their Master of Development Practice (MDP) degrees, took on and succeeded in that challenge.
Aimee Carlson and Neamatallah Elsayed (both MDP ‘21) collaborated with several partner organizations to create and implement a COVID-19 information campaign for the 30,000 or so residents on Mfangano Island, situated in the eastern part of Lake Victoria about 10 miles off the coast of Kenya. And they did it all over Zoom.