Day 1 and Overview

Our first day here has been quite an eye opener. People in our group have been to very poor areas in Guatamala, Peru, China, Mexico, and southeast Asia, but we were all still surprised to see the poverty throughout the city. As we walked down the streets, we saw many people begging for food, homes poorly constructed of cinder blocks and tin roofs, and even a few people with crippled legs severly struggling to get down the street without wheelchairs. It was very humbling to see how many of the people live here. But despite their circumstances, we met several people who were very friendly and excited to help us understand their culture, history, and language. But in their desperate circumstances, many also did all they could to get money. I even had a group of people crowd me to cover as a child reached into my pocket and tried to pull out my wallet. Unfortunately, it seems many of them don't know of another way of life. It's difficult to strike a good balance between being open and getting to know the people while still being cautious. As we walked, we feel a little awkward as outsiders. For me, I couldn’t help but feeling guilty that we were so lucky to be born in such privileged circumstances while they were born in these poor conditions. None of us chose where we were born, and it’s hard to see others struggle. Though we did give a few people some food and money, we couldn’t possibly give to everyone we saw. It makes me really sad we can’t just give away endless amounts, but I also know that it’s not sustainable; tomorrow their circumstances would be exactly the same. We need to create sustainable solutions to make lasting differences. That’s one of the great goals of this program: to create long-term solutions that improve the health care of the people in developing countries. It would be incredible to look back years from now and see a project we work on still in use and continuing to spread among people in these nations. I think that is what we’re all about here.

This picture is interesting because it shows the stark contrast of developed vs. developing circumstances. Brand new smart phones and flat screen TVs are advertised right next to people whose homes are literally crumbling to the ground.

Overview of our program

We are Johns Hopkins Master's students in the Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design (CBID) Program, which is part of the Whiting School of Engineering. Partnered with Jhpeigo and Laerdal, one of our primary goals in the program is to observe the health care system in developing countries and identify clinical needs that we could tackle to develop medical device solutions and help improve the standard of health care. For the next two and a half weeks, there will be CBID students in Ethiopia, Tanzania, India, and Nepal. We are Team Ethiopia and we're looking forward to doing all we can to learn of the healthcare infrastructure here and create effective solutions to help local clinicians provide better care.

We look forward to keeping you posted on our efforts here. Stay tuned!

Creighton Petty, Team Ethiopia