Augustine Fellowship, Connector Articles
Augustine Fellow Expands Skills and Experience
We checked in with Steven Mukawa to see how he is doing in his post at SIM’s ELWA Hospital in Paynesville, Liberia. Steven is an IT Officer at St. Luke’s College of Nursing in Zomba, Malawi and is the first recipient in the Augustine Fellowship program. He is serving at ELWA from March 22 until mid-July.
When asked what a typical day is like for Steven, he said, “My day always starts with a morning prayer. It’s really nice to wake up in the morning realizing that God almighty has given me another day to live; it’s something that I don’t take for granted. The hospital administrator or the technical advisor will normally assign my work for the day and I always have an objective to accomplish for the day, as well as a weekly work plan.”
“So far I have connected computers in the pharmacy, and the records, business, and nursing/midwifery offices to the network so they can access the file server, internet, intranet and also share resources across the network,” said Steven. “To make sure there is effective use of computers, I have also scheduled weekend computer sessions with staff as a way of building capacity every Saturday from 9:00 to 11:00 am. The idea is to have those who have little knowledge of computers understand the basic computer fundamentals and how to use various software.”
Steven says he is grateful for all he has learned by practicing his profession in a new environment, including a system to share resources among different departments at the hospital which he hopes to implement at his workplace to enable resource sharing with students. “In addition to helping ELWA this experience has strengthened my skills. I have been introduced to new technologies and St. Luke’s College of Nursing and St. Luke’s Hospital will benefit from that.”
In addition to all the professional development, Steven has enjoyed experiencing a different climate for a while. “I have been enjoying the breeze coming from the Atlantic ocean,” he said. “It’s really nice!”
Steven will share his experiences on the opening night of the CCIH 2018 Conference July 13-15 at Johns Hopkins University.
About the Augustine Fellowship Program
CCIH and American Leprosy Missions partnered to offer fellowships exclusively for Christian, service-minded non-medical professionals with technical, logistical, managerial or administrative expertise to share in developing countries who work at health care, NGO, educational and mission facilities, check out https://azlimo.com/. If selected, he or she will be placed into a similar role in another country for a temporary period (up to six months).
How to Apply