Friday, April 13, 2012

SOMA's Birth

Continuing with updates. During our training period, myself and other volunteers came up with the idea of publishing a journal to capture our PC service. We wanted a professional looking journal with official feel to it. Here's the proposal letter I put together and sent to the PC Country Director, John, and his deputy, Biba. (Original Date, April 29th, 2009)

John and Biba,

A group of the volunteers expressed interest in putting together a Peace Corps/Rwanda Magazine/News Letter. We set up two meetings to brain storm on content and structure and came up with this DRAFT proposal that we would like to share with you.

We would like to initiate a quarterly Peace Corps Rwanda journal publication, journal title that we came up with is, “SOMA: Stories, Opinions, Messages, Art”. SOMA also means “READ” in Kinyarwanda. The publication will serve the purpose of capturing the experiences and stories of interested volunteers. The journal will be a montage of free-form entries both professional and personal that could include articles, poetry, photographs, and shared lessons and experiences from the field. The journal will eventually serve as a documentary for current and future volunteers, as well as any interested readers. Publication guidelines will be in place and enforced by the managing editor, ensuring the adherence to Peace Corps policies.

Journal publication will be as followed:

• PCVs submit free-form entry via email or mail (ie: poem, drawing, article, photo, story, etc.)
• Submissions must be received by managing editor one month prior to publication date
• Submissions will be reviewed and approved by managing editor according to the set guidelines
• Entries may be in Ikinyarwanda or English
• Publication dates will be the first week of:
o Aug 09, Nov 09, Feb 10, May 10, Aug 10, Nov 10, Feb 10
• Estimated cost per print copy is 500 rwf.
• An E-copy may be made available free of charge.

Sample Format:
Below is a sample of the titles that will be included in this publication along with responsible party for content review.
I. Index
II. Letter from Editor-in-Chief
III. Letter from Country Director/APCD
IV. Featured Partner Organization - Ahmed
V. Free-Form Articles and Stories
a. Lessons learned and active projects – Anna
b. Book Reviews – Katie
c. Kinyarwanda Page – Bryna
i. Fact sheet
ii. Dictionary
iii. Culture review
d. Travel Section – Ahmed
i. Places to visit, eat and stay
VI. Entertainment section
a. Fashion Review – Jacelyn
b. Music Review - Brandon
c. Word on the Street from Kigali – Raechel
d. Advice Column “Words from Felician” – Felician
e. Poetry – Emmet
f. Horoscope – Chrissi
g. How to… - Taylor
VII. Arts and Photography - Malcolm
VIII. Comics – Tom and Emmet
a. Where’s Mup?!

Logistics:
I. Production
Main form of production will be in paper form. Volume size will range from 20-30 pages with estimated number of copies (50)
Number of pages 25
Print cost per page 15 RWF
Binding cost per copy = 75 RWF
Other Cost per copy = 100 RWF

Total cost per copy (est.) = 500 RWF
Number of copies 50
Total print Cost (est.) = 25,000 RWF

Electronic form will also be available and can be sent via email.

II. Delivery
Mode of delivery will need to be finalized. Several options are available
a. Using mail boxes at the PC office in Kigali for pick up during site visit
b. Mail delivery
c. Delivery by PC staff visiting PCV sites
d. Electronic copy to be sent via email

III. Accounting
Average cost per copy is estimated at 500RWF

Sources for funding this publication will vary:

• Application for PEPFAR funding for issues covering HIV/AIDS and other PEPFAR related projects
• Application for funding from NGOs and/or other organization featured in the publication
• Charging recipient of publication the estimated cost of 500 rwf.

Stories from the Field

I'm slowly updating my blog with missing time lines from my Peace Corps service in Rwanda. Here's a draft publication that I sent to my NGO following one of my work projects on the field. (original date July 24, 2009)

Access Project and GE Collaboration Brings Much Needed Equipments to Nemba
Hospital in Rwanda

Another successful collaboration between Access Project and GE Global Health brings
valuable instruments to Nemba Hospital, District of Gakenke, Northern Province,
Rwanda. Access Project through its partnership with GE secured the donation of new
patient Anesthesia monitors and other equipments worth more than ($ADD VALUE HERE). Nemba Hospital surgeons operate in two theatre rooms and perform up to 4 procedures a day. One of the two theatre rooms is equipped with old generation anesthesia monitoring system that is limited in capabilities. The second room lacked any anesthesia monitoring system and could only be used for minor procedures. Today,
surgeons at Nemba can perform up to 6 operations a day and include pediatric patients
instead of transferring pediatric cases to other hospitals.

With the new acquisition, the hospital now is has two theatrical rooms equipped with
essential patient monitoring instruments. In addition to the added operating room
capacity, the new GE Datex-Ohmeda 7100 comes with many bells and whistles. The
new equipment is outfitted with an intuitive user interface that displays all the patient information needed for assessing the clinical status of the patient. It also features the ability to set and personalize vital sign parameters appropriate for the patient age and gender. An intelligent alarm system offers preset alarm limits for different parameters and adjusts the alarms in critical situations by sensing the duration, severity and the combination of different alarms. “this new equipment gives me confidence. The surgeon is feeling more confident and secured being informed of the patient clinical status” says Marcel (LAST NAME and TITLE HERE), anesthesiologist at Nemba Hospital.

The new GE equipment empowers surgeons during operations and enables fast and
accurate decision making. It increased theatre throughput, efficiency, and improved
patient outcomes through comprehensive monitoring and automated administration of
anesthesia drugs.