Carol Bales

What’s So Rosy about Garden City?

Sarah Dwyer — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 17:57:13 +0000

The walls. They’re the first thing you notice when you arrive at Garden City University College, a small school in Kumasi, Ghana. They’re painted a pale mauve. During the magic hour, when the sun’s low and red, the building and everyone in it glows.

The women who lead it. We’d come to document the school’s progress toward its goal of graduating more health workers, and we had hours of interviews lined up. Garden City’s leaders are stepping up to help address the country’s shortage of health workers. Ghana has fewer than half the minimum number of doctors, nurses, and midwives recommended by the World Health Organization to provide adequate access to health care.

So school leaders are using CapacityPlus tools to improve school management and identify cost-effective ways to educate more health workers. And we couldn’t help but notice that many of those leaders we met—from the new acting president to the dean of students—were powerful women who #MakeItHappen.

Author's name:

Carol Bales

Publication Date:

March 2015

The Room Was Full to Support and Protect Vulnerable Children in Nigeria

Sarah Dwyer — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 14:02:16 +0000

Nigeria SSW report slideshow

Jan 20, 2015 by Carol Bales

Click to view slideshow.

In December, the government of Nigeria launched a key report aimed at protecting orphans and vulnerable children in its Federal Capital Territory. IntraHealth’s USAID-funded CapacityPlus project contributed to the report and participated in the event.

The Child Protection System Strengthening Mapping and Assessment Report for Federal Capital Territory looks at the state’s child protection risks and gaps, and examines continuum of care, accountability mechanisms, and resource mobilization of the state’s existing child protection system. It ultimately aims to strengthen delivery of quality child protection services in the state.

According to the report, there are 17.5 million orphans and vulnerable children in Nigeria. It’s estimated that 39% of children ages 5-14 are engaged in child labor; approximately 40% of children do not attend primary school; and as many as 40% of children may have been trafficked.

Author's name:

Carol Bales

Publication Date:

January 2015

Emergency Care Comes into Focus in Ghana

Sarah Dwyer — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 13:24:50 +0000

Dr. Eno Biney is an emergency medicine specialist at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, the second-largest city in Ghana. She’s part of a new cohort of health workers that are changing the way emergency care happens in the country.

See Dr. Eno Biney on the cover of Impact magazine. This issue is all about health workers.

“I chose to specialize in emergency medicine because I realized that it was one of the most lacking specialties in our country,” Eno says. “There wasn’t any form of organized emergency treatment of patients.”

Instead, Ghanaians injured in accidents or suffering from medical, surgical, or obstetric emergencies were rushed to feebly equipped emergency care centers that didn’t have specially trained health workers or triaging systems in place. During her medical training, Eno saw the resulting delays in diagnosis and treatment—and lost lives.

Author's name:

Carol Bales and Gracey Vaughn

Publication Date:

October 2014

Programmers Embrace International Standards for Zimbabwe’s Health Worker Registry

Sarah Dwyer — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 14:15:31 +0000

This post originally appeared on IntraHealth International’s Tumblr.

These programmers see the light and embrace international standards for the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care’s new national health worker registry.

The registry is a database that will pull together a basic set of data on health workers from various information systems in the country.

Once the data are available, health leaders can use them to make all kinds of decisions that can improve the health of Zimbabweans—from influencing health workforce policy to improving the delivery of clinical services.

Author's name:

Carol Bales

Publication Date:

August 2014

Out of Midwifery School and Hard at Work

Sarah Dwyer — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 13:46:28 +0000

This post originally appeared on IntraHealth International’s Tumblr.

Now that smile is contagious!

Rosaline Osanebi delivered these beautiful twins during her clinical rotation at the Zuma Memorial School of Midwifery in Edo State, Nigeria.

She’s one of 2,065 students who earned scholarships from CapacityPlus.

Author's name:

Carol Bales

Publication Date:

July 2014

Greater Support for the DRC’s Social Service Workers Leads to Better Care for Children

Carol Bales — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 20:03:28 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Frontline Health Workers Coalition blog.

A young boy—we’ll call him Mani—was living on the streets of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He had no one to look after him, nowhere to go. He was just nine years old.

Mani’s situation is not unique. One quarter of all Congolese youth under age 18 are considered to be orphans and/or vulnerable children, according to the most recent Demographic and Health Survey. And nine out of ten don’t receive adequate financial, emotional, or other types of support.

Author's name:

Sarah Dwyer and Carol Bales

Publication Date:

June 2014

Meet Eight Health Workers Who Love Their Jobs

Carol Bales — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 15:44:27 +0000

This post originally appeared on VITAL, the blog of IntraHealth International.

“I love my job!” says one enthusiastic health worker in Laos. And he backs up his statement with a solid reason: “I like to save my patient’s life.”

Kenechanh Chanthapadith relates a typical day on the job, sharing an example about a woman who complained of abdominal pain. “I examined her and I found that she had an ectopic pregnancy,” he says. “I sent her immediately to Mahosot Hospital to get an operation. And she’s alive now!”

Author's name:

Sarah Dwyer and Carol Bales

Publication Date:

April 2014

At the Source of Health Care, Health Workers

Carol Bales — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 20:53:51 +0000

This post was originally published on VITAL, the blog of IntraHealth International.

Malik Jaffer is the deputy director of human resources for health and health systems strengthening for the IntraHealth International-led CapacityPlus project. I recently interviewed him about health worker heroes and what it’ll take to make more of them.

You’ve met a lot of amazing health workers over the past 20 years. Any who really inspired you?
Absolutely. For example, there’s a team of health workers in Soweto, South Africa, that work in a hospice. When I visited, the facility was full of men and women and a lot of children. I remember one baby that was suffering from AIDS. She looked about three months old and weighed only 10 or 12 pounds. She was tiny. But I came to find out she was a year old.

Author's name:

Carol Bales with Malik Jaffer

Publication Date:

December 2013

Two Projects Working Together to Strengthen the Health Workforce in Uganda

Carol Bales — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 16:47:38 +0000

How can a global project and a country-specific project work together to strengthen the health workforce and increase access to quality care? What about in Uganda, where there are only 14 doctors, nurses, and midwives for every 10,000 people?

The CapacityPlus global project and the Uganda Capacity Program are both funded by USAID and led by IntraHealth International. CapacityPlus has worked in over 20 countries to address the health workforce shortage, and offers tools that can be adapted for any country. The Uganda Capacity Program builds the capacity of local Ugandan institutions—like ministries, professional health councils, and universities—to plan for, develop, and strengthen the management of health workers.

Author's name:

Carol Bales

Publication Date:

November 2013

Strengthening Health Workforce Data for Improved Health Service Delivery

Carol Bales — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 13:33:35 +0000

To improve health services, Uganda is focusing on the people that provide quality care. In our new video, Ugandan health workers, managers, and leaders show how the country’s efforts are paying off—and how service delivery has improved. The following story highlights one aspect of this work.

“My office is like a web. All information about human resources is needed in my office,” explains Ojulun Joreme. He’s the principal personnel officer for Dokolo District in Uganda. “Left and right I have to keep giving out information about each individual.”

Author's name:

Carol Bales

Publication Date:

October 2013

A Human Being as a Human Being

Carol Bales — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 16:12:36 +0000

This post was originally published on the IntraHealth International blog.

One of the things I like best about my job at IntraHealth International is that I’ve been able to incorporate photography into my work to support health workers around the world. Recently I was overjoyed to see one of my photos included in an article about frontline health workers in the Huffington Post. Here’s the story behind the photo.

Author's name:

Carol Bales

Publication Date:

September 2013

Another Reason We’re Focusing on Health Workers: Ruth Wanyama

Carol Bales — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 16:03:19 +0000

“Me, I was born a premature. And if it wasn’t [for] the work of the midwives, I would not be alive. That’s why,” says Nabirye Ruth Wanyama.

Ever wonder why someone decides to become a health worker and dedicate their lives to helping others? We sure do. It’s one of the standard questions for “I’m a Health Worker,” an informal video series that CapacityPlus produces to highlight how we place health workers at the center of everything we do. We know it takes a qualified and motivated health worker like Ruth to deliver life-saving health services.

Author's name:

Carol Bales with Crystal Ng

Publication Date:

August 2013