Building Partnerships to Improve Community Health in Rural Malawi

Presented By

Kelsey Streeter

Presentation Date

03/27/2019

Penn Nursing Degree(s)

MSN ’19

Kelsey first visited Malawi in 2007 during a summer internship with a non-profit that provided support to orphaned children and their communities. During this internship, Kelsey partnered in the development of a women’s support group that focused on skills to improve health outcomes at the household family level.

Utilizing the relationships developed in her first trip, Kelsey later returned on multiple occasions to assist in developing community health programs. These trips focused on educating members of the local community to become experts in a particular topic or skill. Primary focuses included HIV/AIDS, wound care in rural communities, and training female community members to become first aid champions in their individual neighborhoods.

After graduation, Kelsey plans to return to Malawi full-time, working with the community of Chawantha in the rural Western region of the country. She will partner with village leaders in the development of community health programs that support the existing government clinic in the region. She also has aspirations of teaching at Kamuzu College of Nursing, University of Malawi, in the capitol of Lilongwe.