Deeply Proud, Immenselly Grateful to be Part of this Project

"The way to do field work is never to come up for air until it is all over" ~ Margaret Mead. It has been a wonderful learning experience for me, being a part of the Research Team for the BanStopPrevent project. For 2 weeks now, we have been deeply immersed in this project of gathering raw data from the field on mental health treatment in the chosen localities of Apumiri, Mgbarakuma and Nsukwe.

One particularly interesting aspect of this project for me was the introduction of Kobotoolbox app - an app for collecting and transmitting data real time. When I was informed about the project initially and learnt that the organising body was based in United Kingdom, I was wondering how we were going to transmit the collected Questionnaires to them. Not only have I learnt about a modernized method of real time data collection and transmission, I have also become very skilled in use of Kobotoolbox. Another key experience for me was the opportunity to explore my environment. Haven lived in Umuahia for 5 years, I never knew of a town called Nsukwe. Now, I have traversed the 9 villages of Nsukwe, interacted with the regent King and his Cabinet, met and Interviewed the Villagers and even attended and spoke at a village meeting where we introduced our selves and our mission.

I thank Walk347 and NAS MCD for this project. It is one thing to carry out an advocacy project, it's an entirely different thing to carry out an advocacy project underpinned by factual data collected from the field. I am deeply proud and immensely grateful to be a part of this project. I look forward to being a part of more projects from Walk347 and NAS MCD in the future.