kekeli Archives - Rural Health Collaborative

International Women’s Day 2019: Balance for Better

When we sat down to revisit the direction of Rural Health Collaborative a few years ago, we recommitted to our vision of ‘investing in women’ as foundational to our work. The avenue we have taken for this is through health, by providing opportunities for women to be community health promoters. When the nursing students from…

New Motorbikes for Monitoring

In 2017 the percentage of Kekeli teachings that were monitored dropped from over 60% to 30%. The goal the monitors have set for themselves is to attend over 50% of the Kekeli teachings, so this drop is something all of us want to see improved. Monitoring helps provide the Kekeli Women with in-person support, increases…

Thankful

At the Rural Health Collaborative, we have always been working across oceans. With our team spanning Ghana and the U.S., we have navigated different time zones, challenging mobile service and internet reception, and different cultural norms—some of which we are aware of and some of which we surely are not. A year and a half…

Weeks 2 and 3, in photos

Our final weeks were filled with so much laughter, reconnection, new hurdles, old hurdles, new and old friends both Ghanian and from stateside. We thought it best shown rather than written about this time.

Week One Was Oh So Fun (in photos)

We’re starting our second week here in Ghana (the trip’s about 3 in total), so I wanted to share some photos from our first week with you all. We’ve been having a great time, save some minor GI bugs that we’ve encountered in more recent times. While the teaching began in earnest yesterday, week one…

A Few Firsts from Week One

When we first arrived, I had a hard time counting how many times I have been to Ghana. Not because each trip has been indistinct; but that each trip here has been full of countless learning experiences, challenges and growth. As I reflected at the end of my first week back in Ghana, there were…

Why run 40 miles?

“40 miles? Around a mountain? That’s crazy!” has been the immediate response from anyone I have shared my plans with. I agree; it feels crazy. At this point in my training I am grateful that I really did not have an understanding for what I was getting myself into. I have never trained for anything,…

Connected through Motherhood

Almost a year ago, in the early hours of the morning I became a mother. We welcomed our baby girl in the peace and calm of our bedroom surrounded by skilled professionals. One of the ideas that resonated with me while preparing for birth was to imagine all the women around the world that were…

“These moments move me”

An update from Olivia: I’ve been to Ghana so many times over the last decade that I lost count. So I decided to count. This visit marks my sixth time landing in Accra at Kotoka International Airport and stepping onto the tarmac to be greeted by the thick warm air of the tropics. The scent…

When do you become a woman? #internationalwomensday

Our culture often ignores a significant event in a young girl’s life: when that girl becomes a woman. Some cultures have a ceremony, rather than simple happenstance, to usher in the change. But for me, no one and no culture ever recognized when I became a woman. During my 20’s, with all their substantial bumps…