No Borders
Ghana Research Trip Inspires Students
While it’s been said that words can change the world, one Georgia Southern University public health professor is using his work to accomplish that task.
Recognizing a need both with Georgia Southern students and his native homeland of Ghana, Evans Afriyie-Gyawu, coordinator of the Environmental Health Sciences Discipline in the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health (JPHCOPH) initiated a plan. “I had a vision,” said Afriyie-Gyawu, “that it would be great for our University students to gain their practical learning experience in an environment or a country whereby their contributions could help improve the health conditions of the people. The students were very excited about this idea!”
Last summer, he and a group of 10 graduate students spent five weeks in the West African nation engaging in HIV/AIDS prevention work, disease control issues and studying environmental health concerns across the three regions in the country. It was the University’s first graduate student oriented Study Abroad group to journey to Ghana, and also the first trip for any graduate students in the JPHCOPH.
“In this College, practicum experience combined with capstone research (for master’s students) and preceptorship (doctoral students) experiences are requirements for students, and these are a reflection of what they’ve studied here.” Afriyie-Gyawu came up with the idea of a study abroad trip after realizing that the JPHCOPH students were having a difficult time finding sites and areas in Statesboro and in the state of Georgia to complete these requirements.
“I thought it would be a good idea to visit Ghana, because not only will students fulfill their academic mandates, but they will also travel to a peaceful country in Africa (in dire need for public health services) and experience other cultures as well,” he said.
In addition to his familiarity with the region, Afriyie-Gyawu felt that the peaceful, English-speaking country would be an easy transition for students.
“Ghana is one of the most stable countries in Africa right now,” he said, “and the students were able to easily communicate with residents.”
A faculty member for the past three years at Georgia Southern, Afriyie-Gyawu holds a Master of Public Health degree in epidemiology/biostatistics and a doctorate in toxicology from Texas A&M University. His research background in food safety and toxicology focuses on strategies to protect humans and animals against contaminants in foods/feeds.
For Afriyie-Gyawu, Ghana presented a prime opportunity for his students to conduct research on one of the most pressing health concerns in that country – local meat processing. Slaughterhouses in the region –known as abbatoirs – use scrap tires as a fuel source for smoking meat intended for human consumption. Workers follow the practice of burning scrap tires over an open fire to singe the fur of slaughtered goats and cattle before cooking and eating.
“This is their process of smoking the meat. The abbatoir operators use tires because they are 
readily available, and are either free or cheap. The disposal of tires in Ghana is not as controlled as it is in the United States,” said Afriyie-Gyawu.
The health risks to the abbatoir workers and nearby residents are significant, he said. Tires are made of chemicals and materials that are hazardous to the public’s health when they are released. When tires are burned, the ashes usually contain high levels of heavy/toxic metals (including arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, etc.) that can be washed through water runoffs, so Ghana’s water sources could also be polluted with these toxic chemicals.
“We looked at the chemical composition of tires to determine what was emitted on a daily basis,” said Afriyie-Gyawu, discovering that dangerous chemicals (for example, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons – heavy/toxic metals) were polluting the area, and that the meat was also exposed to these chemicals. “These emissions could have toxic effects among humans via the food systems and some of the chemicals have been classified as either carcinogens (cancer causing) or probable carcinogens in the U.S.,” he said.
The group conducted surveys of workers and consumers to determine their knowledge of the scrap tire-based meat processing procedures and the potential dangers presented. “We found that the residents wanted safer practices to be used,” he said. Afriyie-Gyawu and the students subsequently presented their preliminary findings at an American Public Health Association conference in Washington, D.C., and at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington last November.
Another group of Afriyie-Gyawu’s students, including Kimberly Curtis, focused on HIV/AIDS prevention in Ghana. “With a population of 24 million people, approximately two percent have been diagnosed with HIV,” said Curtis, who worked closely with nurses counseling patients in local hospitals. “We were exposed to real-life situations that we wouldn’t necessarily have the opportunity to work with in the United States,” she said, about Ghana’s open-door system in regard to HIV/AIDS. “Thursdays were clinic days, and we discovered that a lot of HIV patients were malnourished, so we provided them with supplements and also dietary recommendations to address the disease.”
Curtis found that life in Ghana is drastically different than life in the United States. “The trip taught me to be happy with what I have,” said Curtis, revealing that residents don’t have amenities such as air conditioning and hot showers. “It has influenced me to help more, and I am trying to figure out other ways to give back to the people of Ghana,” she said, eager to return in hopes of making a small difference in the lives of other residents.
Word of the successful Ghana trip spread throughout campus, and students are requesting spots for the summer 2012 journey to the West African country. Afriyie-Gyawu also sees endless possibilities and the potential for a partnership between Georgia Southern and its sister university, the University of the Cape Coast, through student research programs and funding opportunities.
“There are benefits for Georgia Southern students and also Ghana,” he said. “Our students learn all of the aspects of a different culture, while immersing themselves in hands-on experience. They will have this experience for a lifetime.”
—Mary Beth Spence