Dissertation Research: The Reconstruction of Indigenous Health Systems in a West African Refugee Camp

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This project supports the dissertation research of an anthropology student from Southern Methodist University, studying the use of traditional medicine in a refugee camp in Sierra Leone, Africa. The research will study the extent to which native, traditional healing is available in the camp, and the impact of such healing on health practices in general and the use of western medicine as provided by relief agency authorities. In thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in a displaced persons camp, involving a preliminary census, a random sample of 150 families as well as 20-30 administrators and biomedical camp personnel and 20 traditional healers, the student will conduct semi-structured interviews, illness histories, general oral life histories, as well as participant observation. This data will be supplemented by information from aid agency documents. This project is important because it will analyze how health care actually functions in a refugee camp. Since over 45% of the world's 27 million refugees are in Africa, this case study will be important in addressing how agencies can improve health care by working with, rather than against the traditional healing systems of the impacted societies. Through addressing the refugees' own role in constructing their health care systems, the study will correct the bias of western agencies' assumption that refugee populations are passive, helpless masses. Thus the knowledge from this project will include the refugees own understanding of themselves and their situation. This will provide valuable information for planners to draw upon in designing aid programs. In addition the project will add to the nation's expertise about this important region of the world.