WWF Madagascar experience, finally up for viewing

http://www.tinyurl.com/wwfnora You can visit the link to the right to hear all about my experience. I finally wrote about my experience and send it to WWF- the global conservation organization.

CALL FOR OLD CELL PHONES - An SMS-based support group for HIV-positive pregnant women in South Africa

Yesterday at 08:46
A message from a friend:

As some of you know, I am currently in Tshwane (Pretoria) South Africa. I am on fellow status from Brown Medical School for the year as I am pursuing clinical research in HIV and the developing world under the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation International Clinical Research Fellowship. Under the supervision of physicians from Yale School of Medicine and University of Pretoria, I am studying ways to improve delivery of and adherence to Prevention of Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission (PMTCT) to improve outcomes for the mother-infant pair.

My own project here is to establish an intervention which uses text messaging (SMS) as a means for social networking among HIV positive pregnant women in South Africa. This intervention is designed with the understanding that HIV-positive women in South Africa face psychosocial factors and social isolation which make adherence to medication and PMTCT logistically difficult, as well as emotionally challenging. Therefore, it is necessary to provide women with support in order for these efforts to be effective. Basically, I will be running a support group which functions solely by way of SMS messaging in order to overcome the limitations of traditional “onsite” support groups in resource poor settings.

Ultimately, the goal of this intervention is to increase adherence to Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programs by providing women with ongoing social support during the most critical period of their pregnancy. This phase of my research is to create, implement and carry out the SMS-groups to provide evidence that the intervention is feasible and expandable. If I am successful, we will expand the intervention to more thoroughly evaluate its effectiveness at promoting PMTCT adherence and improving outcomes.

Please consider donating your old mobile phone to my project. I need 20 phones by the end of November and the project is likely to move beyond this so your phone will continue to be utilized for worthy purposes. The phones need to function using a SIM card (which should be all US operators except Sprint.) If you have a charger with the phone, that is great. If not, don’t worry, I still can use the phone. Phones can be given to Jason Lambrese (if you are in Providence, RI) to my mother or sent to her (Susan Lach, [address has been omitted for internet security], Plymouth, MN 55446) or contact me and we can figure something else out.

Remember: anything is helpful during this (very low budget) feasibility phase of my project!

For a longer and more detailed explanation of the problem and the intervention, go to my blog at Helping Mothers Saving Babies: http://alachdean.blogspot.com/2009/10/donate-your-old-cell-phone-help-mothers.html

You can email me at ALachDean(at)gmail.com or post comments to the blog if you have any questions at all. Feel free to forward on!

Thank you!
Andrea Lach Dean

Bastille Day: Lemonade Party & Discussion

Nothing is nicer to me then squeezing lemons and having discussions with friends. Let's meet and talk about the French Revolution, dance, make lemonade and collaborate on ideas for future projects.

The event is up on Facebook. Write me a comment to get info. on the specifics.

It is also a housewarming/goodbye for my current location as I shall be moving out of my Russian Hill apartment in the end of this month.

Hugs to all that have enjoyed my yellow walls.

To read more about Bastille day:
about.com version:
http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa071400.htm

wiki version:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastille_Day

chiff.com info.
http://www.chiff.com/home_life/holiday/bastille-day.htm

Took my First Action and took Halo Breast Test

I posted this on my FB, but wanted to share on here. Today I took my first test using the new unit that allows for a non-invasive way of detecting early risks of breast cancer in women that are under 40. This test is a detection type that shows if you have mutating cells. If this is seen, then it allows doctors to provide you with information of how you can prevent breast cancer from occurring and allows them to monitor your cells early on so that they can catch and help reduce the chances of mortality due to breast cancer.

I was astonished to know that there are a high number of women that die from breast cancer that are between 25-35, however mammograms are not given until you are 40!

My action: I decided based on this that I would like to promote this unit, and tomorrow I am going to go to speak to a doctor to buy a unit for his office.
If you know anyone who might be interested in this device, please view: www.breasttest.org (Understand the site is slightly still under construction, but if you feel an urge to learn how you can promote this unit and also make money do get a hold of me via this blog or the action to create Facebook group).

Thanks Nora

Just started The first Part

Hi,

I just created a blog on facebook so we can connect regarding actions we can take to motivate each other and share some things we are doing within my group of friends (and future friends).

Link to the Facebook Group:
http://www.facebook.com/norabean?ref=name#/group.php?gid=90891398659&ref=mf