ABOUT

The world is truly in the palm of our hands. Hey everyone, my name is Ka'la Drayton and I'm a current 4th-year medical student at the Medical University of South Carolina. I'm originally from Charleston, SC and have the privilege of being trained right in my backyard. I now have the opportunity to take my training from my backyard across the ocean to another continent and country. This winter, February 2020 I received a scholarship and got the opportunity to participate in Child Family Health International’s program Hospital Medicine in Coastal Ghana. It was very important for me to experience global health in a setting that was more than a clinic that is only open for a few weeks at a time. I decided to work with CFHI because of their extensive network of programs and hospitals that students would have the opportunity to rotate through. As an aspiring General Surgeon who will spend most of her life in a hospital I wanted to experience what a different hospital system is like in another country. I had the opportunity to learn about different healthcare issues and various diseases rare to the United States but common to Ghana. I truly believe that every healthcare worker should experience healthcare in another country, specifically within a hospital. Having the opportunity to see first hand how Ghana was addressing man public health issues to keep it's community healthy and providing programs and resources, was something that we all can learn from.

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Ghana provided me with many emotions and knowledge that is very hard to put into words. My time in Cape Coast, gave me the ability to reach out into the community, while working in the hospital and also learning part of my own heritage that was lost. I saw first hand the challenges beyond their healthcare system such as their sanitation, water supply and electrical outages. It was an incredible experience that will be impossible to forget, and I am so thankful for the scholarship I got from CFHI.