She plans to write her master's thesis on her summer experience and hopes to receive a Peace Corps assignment involving reproductive health. The lives of the women in the brothel could have been mind-boggling for a young American woman with no experience in a developing country. But the experience helped Gross learn to set aside her personal angst, plow ahead, and do what needs to be done. Her job was to find out why community health workers were quitting and find ways to keep them on board. The problem, McComb found, was economic.
Time caring for sick community members takes away from time in the fields.
It literally takes food from their families. I developed a system to find new ways to motivate and compensate community health workers, to begin a dialogue on this issue in the community. We even considered in-kind payments such as chickens or rice. Ultimately, this issue will affect the sustainability of this project. We had read all these case studies in class, and this summer I was a real part of a case study.