Founder's Story: Marie Long, MD

In 2009, my journey took me to Nepal where I was greatly impressed by the skill and dedication of Nepali physicians and nurses. Together we noticed a public health problem directly related to my neurosurgical specialty. Many children seen in the outpatient clinic had terrible birth defects call Neural Tube Defects. This problem which leaves children paralyzed for life, is preventable if mothers take prenatal vitamins containing folic acid prior to conception.  A group of Nepali physicians, nurses and community members thought we should try to tackle this issue by introducing preconception prenatal vitamins to women in Nepal. How hard could this be?  I can hear those familiar with public health policy chuckling.

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In Nepal, a group was formed, and in Corvallis GNE became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Together we worked diligently with many communities and organizations in Nepal. Prenatal vitamins were generously donated and shipped to Nepal by Vitamin Angels. Over 20,000 women were entered into a study and over 50,000 one-year supplies of prenatal vitamins were distributed over 4 years. During this time, the need to provide education to explain why these pills should be taken became obvious. Wise people in the beautiful rural villages of Nepal demanded an explanation to understand why they should take pills, and what their effects were. Due to the traditional family structure, this information needed to be conveyed to husbands and mothers-in-law. Once we began educating women of ALL ages, not just young women the program was a success. People wanted good, detailed information delivered in an understandable manner. In fact, the more information the better!  Unfortunately, just as this program was taking off, a terrible earthquake struck, effecting many of villages in which we had worked.  GNE switched to earthquake recovery and rebuilding. Narayan Bhandari, the GNE logistics director gathered many of the GNE volunteers plus many others and constructed 23 temporary schools, and then 2 permanent school. GNE raised the funds for these efforts.

 

This took us to 2017, and the GNE team was tired. I was tired. It seemed like a good time to quit. But the board said no, let’s try to restart. Our momentum in Nepal was lost though. Nepali team members had found other jobs, some had begun grad school, and the country was still consumed with earthquake reconstruction. However, fortuitously, Vitamin Angels was partnering with a Regency Public Health Department on the Island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. They thought the GNE education material would be ideal to supplement a preconception micronutrient supplementation trial to reduce childhood stunting in Luwuk. Three animated videos were created to help inform women about the importance of nutrition for themselves and their children. A study was developed to show the impact of education an intervention in addition to providing the supplements. Two years of this project were completed, and the team was on its way to Indonesia just as all airport were closed in March 2020 due to the COVID epidemic.

 

So, another opportunity to re-evaluate. At this point, the GNE team had gained a lot of valuable experience developing teaching materials for low literacy populations. Besides the Indonesia project, the videos were translated and recorded in Tagalog for the Philippines and Spanish for Guatemala. Principles of adult learning were sought, learned and applied to all the GNE material. Many of our experienced international volunteers had noticed the severity and high incidence of diabetes over the years. As we searched for good educational material, we were struck that although the information was excellent, the presentation was difficult for adult learners with limited English skills. This seemed like a problem that GNE experience and skills could contribute to.

 

Sweet Talk/Conversación Dulce was born. Several Diabetes Educators, Registered Dieticians, Population health experts and premed students were gathered. For two years the group wrote scripts, developed characters, created animations, did voice recordings, trialed, practiced, rewrote, re-recorded until we had a polished 3 hr. diabetes education program, we were all proud of. It is fun, practical, evidence based, accessible and relevant. It has been trialed in Guatemala twice, at the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic in Salem, and is now an active program at the Geary Street Clinic in Albany. Thanks to IHN-CCO funding, at least 500 people who otherwise would not be eligible for diabetes education have received an understanding of diabetes, and now have tools to self-manage their diabetes. The program is open to those with pre-diabetes and interested family members, who usually are not included in Diabetes Ed. Hopefully, this will give people and families tools to prevent and manage diabetes.

 

Global Nutrition Empowerment has had an amazing journey the past 13 years. The Board, hundreds of volunteers in 5 countries with many different skills have all spent thousands of hours creating a program they can be proud of.  I am so appreciative of all the skills and dedication everyone has shown.  The next 13 years will likely be equally exciting – I hope you join us on the journey.

 

With deep appreciation and respect,

 

Marie