June 22, 2012 –
by Alice Waugh
Could raising chickens lead to a healthier human population in Mbarara, Uganda? That’s the question Mary Anito (LGO ’12) and her teammate tried to answer during the Global Health Delivery Lab class, or ghdLab.
Anito was one of two LGO students who spent two weeks in Africa this spring as part of ghdLab (MIT Sloan course 15.961). The course matches teams of graduate students with host organizations that aim to deliver healthcare in resource-limited areas across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The class, which was created four years ago by MIT Sloan Senior Lecturer Anjali Sastry, was recently profiled in MIT Sloan, the MIT Sloan School of Management’s alumni magazine.
In Uganda, Anito and Marisa Gerla (MBA 2012) worked on a microfinance project to help residents generate household income through raising poultry—income that would make them better able to afford treatment at a local HIV/AIDS clinic. Dave Hilliard (LGO ’12) joined Thapana “Pipe” Chairoj (MBA 2012) in rural Chebaiywa, Kenya, in studying how a local clinic could implement a medical records system.