WorldView Magazine - Fall 2009 - (Page 28)

Health TRANSLATING INTERNATIONAL HEALTH TO HEALTH CARE AT HOME San Francisco Bay Area Volunteers discuss post-Peace Corps health careers by Erin Bowman y boss likes to recount a story I mentioned to her three years ago when I interviewed for my current job. To illustrate the ways in which I’ve dealt with unexpected or challenging situations, I provided an example of a sensibilisation gone awry. I was leading a World AIDS Day event in Benin, West Africa, where I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Midway through the education session, as health Sensibilisation workshop in Benin. educators used wooden penises to demonstrate proper condom use, a man adorned in ceremonial, My boss reminds me from time animistic costume charged through to time that the stories I told in my the event, causing distraction for interview set me apart from other elders and youth alike. The “voodoo candidates. Not surprisingly, these spirit” marched through the education same skills we cultivated in our session asking for a contribution, as is countries of service are critically the tradition. My counterpart quickly important and relevant in the United provided money to the man and the States as well. This was the topic of a educators regained focus. The elders recent panel on careers in health, held continued to stay in their front row in San Francisco in late July 2009. seats, clapping along with the HIV/ Returned Peace Corps Volunteers AIDS-themed songs. make up a small but significant I told this story during the proportion of the educated, interview not because of any role innovative civil service workforce I played in handling the relatively here and abroad. Yet with the common scenario, but because it economic downturn and significant symbolizes a challenge that many unemployment rates, RPCVs are Peace Corps Volunteers struggle with not immune to the severe difficulty each day and, in my opinion, makes in finding fulfilling employment. In us better equipped for challenges we fact, the San Francisco Bay Area had a face post-Peace Corps. As my boss 10.3% unemployment rate as of June has said, it exemplifies an ability 2009 (U.S. Dept. of Labor). Attendees to persevere, transcend cultural at the July healthcare roundtable differences, and to stay calm under expressed deep frustration with their pressure. Most importantly, it shows respective job hunts. They found it that, as health volunteers, we were somewhat challenging to translate tasked with influencing positive their experiences weighing babies behavior change while respecting and finding clean water sources, for deeply entrenched cultural traditions example, into marketable skills for and beliefs. employers here in San Francisco. The 2 Fall 2009 M basic sentiment of our discussion was that as Volunteers we did not learn how to use Microsoft Office—we learned how to mobilize communities. The question was how to turn our unique experiences into job skills that non-RPCVs can understand. The purpose of the roundtable was to allow newly returned Volunteers interested in careers in health to learn from those who are successfully “doing” international health care here in the States. What I realized from holding the career panel is that the skills needed to be a successful Peace Corps Volunteer are incredibly relevant in the United States, not only because they’re practical but because, at least in the case of the Bay Area, we live in incredibly diverse communities. Finding Bay Area RPCVs with international health care experience is like trying to find a tomato vendor in a Cotonou marketplace. It’s easy and they’re everywhere. In the end, we brought together seven seasoned RPCVs, all working in different sectors of health care, to discuss how their Peace Corps experience helped shape their current career and put them on a path to becoming the gainfully employed health experts that they are. Several volunteers found interesting careers in health program management and education. We heard from one volunteer who provides tobacco cessation education to Russian immigrants in San Francisco. To excel in this position, she relies on language skills and an understanding of Eastern European culture that she acquired in the Peace Corps. Another RPCV used Erin Bowman

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of WorldView Magazine - Fall 2009

WorldView Magazine - Fall 2009
Contents
President's Letter
Your Turn
Are You Connected Yet? Join Africa Rural Connect
Group News Highlights
Why Investment in Health Is Critical Now
New Hope and Lessons from Rwanda
Turning a Blind Eye
A Question of Capacity
CN U HLP ME? I HAVE A ??
When Water and Sanitation Are a Priority
Could “Peace Care” Lessen the Global Burden of Disease?
One, Two, Three
Translating International Health to Health Care at Home
Turning Tragedy to Opportunity
Costa Rica: Finding My Religion
St. Lucia: Learning about Hunger
Seven Dusty Notebooks
Peace Corps Service 2.0
The Peace Corps Community Making a Difference
Community News
Advertiser Index

WorldView Magazine - Fall 2009

https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/worldview/fall09
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/worldview/summer09
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/worldview/spring08
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/worldview/winter07
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/worldview/fall07
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com