Lecture in Kampala

Post for June 21, 2018

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Today all of us, joined by some Ndejje students went to a public lecture in Kampala. Dr. Cathorall, Mrs. Deborah, and Dr. Brady were each spoke about their work. The first was about public health classes offered at SIUE. The purpose of these is to prepare students to work with a community, starting with a needs assessment and culminating in the students implementing their projects in that community. Two students, Arné Burns and Haley Adrian, gave a demonstration on their project to help illustrate this.

Mrs. Deborah then spoke on speech disorders. Opening with a detailed explanation of what a speech disorder is and identifying some causes. For me, it was most her interesting to hear her identify some challenges faced by people with speech disorders in Uganda. Some we had expected after our various visits with her: not enough staffing in schools or lack of access to medical care. Others were a bit surprising to me, like some general attitudes towards those while speech disorders.

Lastly, Dr. Brady gave an overview of speech-language pathology and what the curriculum at SIUE looks like. This part was familiar and a bit fun for me to hear. I couldn’t help but think how great Speech Path is and I’m so happy that I chose to pursue this.