Hartwick College Students and Faculty Create Partnership with Move Up Global
Move Up Global has developed several meaningful collaborations with Hartwick College and together, these projects will have a direct and significant impact on the current health situation in the Musanze District of Rwanda. Two professors from Hartwick, Dr. Betsy Bloom and Dr. Melonie Walcott, are senior technical advisors for Move Up Global and have been awarded a grant to fund a research study to assess health issues and determine the best strategy for improvement. In addition, they will be bringing a group of Public Health and Education students from Hartwick to Rwanda in January to help start this process and provide educational support.
The Hartwick College Faculty Research Grant will fund the first phase of a three-phase study. During phase one, Dr. Bloom and Dr. Walcott will be collaborating with local teachers, volunteers, and a translator to collect information and assess the health needs of the community. This information will help develop potential intervention strategies, and phase two will consist of implementing those strategies. Phase 3 will be to measure the success of the interventions —not only so that we can see what works for the Musanze District but also so that other communities can see a proven successful intervention that they will be able to integrate as well.
This study is being evaluated by the Institutional Review Board, and then the Rwandan government must also approve it. Both bodies intend to ensure that the study will not be harmful in any way to the participants and have gained their full consent. Due to the COVID pandemic, Dr. Bloom and Dr. Walcott will be doing most of the research remotely, with the exception of their planned trip to Rwanda in January 2022 with Hartwick students. The trip in January will be an opportunity for Public Health and Education students to gain firsthand experience of Rwanda. Public Health students will be studying social determinants of health and observing the quality of health care the citizens have access to. Education students will be working in pairs to teach groups of kids in grades 1-6 in English, and they will be playing sports with the kids after school. The Hartwick College men's and women's soccer teams will donate equipment such as shin pads, cleats, balls, and nets that Hartwick students will bring to the local Nyabirehe Primary School.
In addition, Move Up Global has been working with a group of interns at Hartwick College over the 2021 spring semester to revamp Move Up Global’s website, create a social media presence, identify potential funders, and write new articles to publicize the organization's achievements. The internship team comprises a project manager to oversee our collective projects, two social media specialists, a public health major, a digital art specialist to enhance the website, and a content editor to produce and edit articles for Move Up Global. Supervision has been provided by Dr. Pauline Stamp and Professor Richard Barlow of Hartwick, as well as Dr. David Giber and Dr. Anatole Manzi of Move Up Global. The students have conducted interviews with members of Move Up Global, associates, and teachers in Rwanda in order to gain first-hand exposure to the situation at the Nyabirehe School. This collaboration has produced a beautiful and informative website that will help Move Up Global grow the organization and raise awareness of the public health issues in Rwanda.
By Hannah Smith, Hartwick College, Oneonta, New York.