From left to right: Julia Berman, Director of Development and Communications; Rebecca Skala, Development Coordinator; Ari Johnson, Chief Executive Officer; Isaac Kulimushi Hamuli, Chief Operations Officer; Rob Fore, Director of Finance and Administration; Aarti Shah, Graphic Designer.
This summer, I spent a month in the United States, working closely with our U.S. team and then joining my peers at the HEAL Initiative’s training program. It was important and valuable for me to meet colleagues I had never met before, and officially welcome Rob Fore, our Director of Finance and Administration, to the Muso team. During my time at Muso’s U.S. office, I had meetings with each of my colleagues as well as one of our longtime Board members to understand their roles and responsibilities and discuss how the organization can work better together to improve workflow and collaboration. The team showed great hospitality and took me around to visit iconic sites in San Francisco.
I completed my first experience with HEAL this summer. The HEAL Initiative offers a fellowship program that provides integrated training to health professionals committed to improving the health of underserved populations. It consisted of a two-week intensive global health training in Berkeley and Santa Cruz, California. This training gathered 35 fellows from all over the world, who spoke more than 20 languages. It was amazing learning from each other and sharing our own unique experiences.
Our primary training included: 1) understanding global health, 2) exercising leadership for community engagement, and 3) participating in specific clinical training.
For me, one of the most interesting parts of the program was to see how Muso and the HEAL Initiative’s vision for equity and social justice meet and how this partnership is complementary towards achieving this collective dream.
My ultimate goal for Muso is to continue helping the organization achieve our dream of equity and justice for all by eliminating preventable diseases and deaths in the world. This is possible. It’s possible by engaging governments, partners, and communities—and building sustainable and efficient evidence-based health systems in the world’s poorest countries.