THE PROFESSORS

- Ivy Tuason and Quannetta T. Edwards -

By Standing Voice

February 9^th, 2017

A chance meeting led two nursing professionals on the journey of a lifetime to an island in the heart of Lake Victoria

Ivy Tuason’s fortuitous meeting with Dr. Becky Kammer, Standing Voice’s Vision Programme Director, occurred in California in the waiting room of the College of Optometry office. While waiting to discuss her plans for projects inside the office, Ivy began chatting with Becky, who at the time was building an optometry programme to transform the visual health of people with albinism in Tanzania. Immediately, Ivy was struck by the issue and taken by the idea of adding her nursing perspective to the public health struggles faced by people with albinism. Becky explained how Ivy, as a graduate school professor and administrator, could partner with Standing Voice to see the struggle of persons with albinism for herself and understand what nursing could do for albinism in that region.

Over the next few years, Becky encouraged Ivy to join her on a trip to Tanzania, and this trip finally came about in 2015. Before the trip, Ivy and Dr. Quannetta Edwards (Quin), a fellow nursing professional, spoke with Jamie Walling from Standing Voice about how they might lend their research interests and public health expertise to the charity’s mission.

“Standing Voice has been so open to our ideas, so receptive to new approaches and angles. It’s part of what makes their interventions sustainable.” (Ivy and Quin)

Ivy and Quin gained their introduction to the issue on the ground at the Pan-African Albinism Conference in Dar es Salaam on November 15, 2015. During this conference, they were exposed to a holistic overview of the difficulties faced by people with albinism across many African societies. For Ivy, “seeing leaders of the community of persons with albinism making a difference, truly touched me.”

Following the conference, Ivy and Quin travelled to Mwanza, and began assessing the community to establish a baseline of care, and figure out “what was going on.” This was the beginning of their extensive research in the region.

Ivy and Quin have three ongoing studies. The first is qualitative, examining how people with albinism experience public health in Tanzania. The second will look back at gathered data to evaluate predictive factors of cancer in persons with albinism, and examine how existing health systems can be mobilised to provide preventative measures. The third and final study will survey the experiences of mothers of children with albinism.

Quin’s expertise in women’s, children’s, family, and global health influences her work, while Ivy’s background in haematology and oncology shapes the nature of her research into the prevalence and subsequent prevention of cancer.

Ivy and Quin’s hopes are profound: to establish public health norms in Tanzania and elsewhere that would facilitate greater understanding and care for those with albinism. They aim to relay findings to their students in the US, and in doing so, imbue the next generation of public health professionals with an internationally oriented curiosity. Going forward, they aim to establish a global health programme at the Western University of Health Sciences, in the College of Graduate Nursing.

For Ivy, “when you’re able to go to areas that are the most vulnerable, it truly does change you.” For Quin, working with Standing Voice is a “humbling experience”. Her ultimate hope is to “give something back, big or small, that will be meaningful to the people of Tanzania.”

We are proud to support all of our volunteers and researchers, in Tanzania and elsewhere. We treasure their continued commitment and contributions, which are creating better futures for so many disadvantaged persons across Tanzania and throughout Africa.