Popmed grad student heads to Kenya
Published
June 17, 2011
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She's already packed her limit of three suitcases' worth of kids' books. But there's one book Natalie Carter plans to carry in her hand luggage to peruse during this month's flight to Africa: a Swahili-English dictionary. A master's student in population medicine, she figures the volume will be useful for her planned six-week stay in a remote village in eastern Kenya.
During her second trip to the East African country in as many years, she will divide her time between research and development work.
Carter began graduate studies last fall with Prof. Cate Dewey, chair of Population Medicine. Working with smallholder farmers in Kenya, they are formulating pig rations using locally grown foodstuffs. Many farmers raising up to three pigs on less than two hectares of land need help finding cheap, nutritious feed for their livestock.
That work will see Carter visiting farmers – along with an interpreter – to discuss their lives and livelihoods. She'll be based in a village called Kikule. That's the hometown of her Kenyan collaborator, Florence Mutua, who completed a PhD in Population Medicine last year and now teaches at the University of Nairobi. Together, they will also work with women's groups to help develop small businesses.
Carter plans to stay with Mutua's family during the trip, from mid-June to mid-July.
For more, read the profile in At Guelph.
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