Featured Person: Daniel Erchick
Daniel Erchick, an American graduate of Rice University who uses a prosthesis, earned a scholarship to support his volunteer work in Sierra Leone. Dan worked in a clinic in the West African nation, building and fitting prostheses for people with disabilities, and also established relationships in his community through his work with local schools and Disabled Persons Organizations (DPOs).
Disability: Amputee
Program Country: Sierra Leone
Program Length: Two years
Program Type: Volunteer
About Me: My professional interests are in the field of international public health. I have enjoyed living and traveling within Africa, doing my best to learn local languages as I go. Most recently, I volunteer with the Sierra Leone Union on Disabilities Issues to build an advocacy platform to improve access to education, employment, and health care for the disabled community in the Bombali District of Sierra Leone.
I have also begun work on a project to establish a specialist training program for teachers of visually impaired students and create development plans for schools for hearing and visually impaired students.
Was your international exchange experience arranged through an exchange organization?
In planning my trip, I searched for countries with significant underserved populations of disabled individuals, particularly amputees. This research brought me to a number of organizations focusing on livelihoods or health care. One of these organizations was the Prosthetics Outreach Foundation (POF). The POF Rehabilitation Center in Makeni, Sierra Leone seemed an excellent place to volunteer.
If you received any scholarships, stipends, or other funding for your exchange, who provided them?
I was awarded a Wagoner Foreign Study Scholarship through Rice University. This scholarship funds research, internships, and study abroad for Rice undergraduates, alumni, and graduate students.
What were your concerns as you prepared to travel? What kinds of resources did you use to address these concerns (website, advisor, book, etc)?
Travel guides can provide some useful information, but it was most insightful to seek advice from someone who has traveled to the same cities before. Through sheer luck, I stumbled upon two mutual friends that had previously lived in Makeni who were able to offer advice on my proposed travel, including tips on living without electricity or running water.
What was your experience living in the host country? Please share your impressions of housing, transportation, activities, cultural attitudes towards disability, and your strategies for navigating abroad.
Sierra Leone has virtually no special accommodations for disabled people. Civil war and poverty have pushed disability issues to the background. Advocates for disabled rights are currently promoting the first disability bill in parliament; passage of this bill into law would be a great achievement in their fight to reduce discrimination.
Cultural attitudes towards people who are disabled are poor but improving. With very limited resources, schools like St. Joseph’s School for the Hearing Impaired and the Bombali School for the Blind are supporting disabled children in pursuit of confidence and self-reliance. Over time, communities and families see the intelligence, hard work, and productivity of their disabled children and their attitudes change.
At POF, I worked alongside their staff, many of whom are amputees
themselves, to introduce locally constructed prosthetic and orthotic
components. POF provides a great service to the disabled community in
Sierra Leone through quality prosthetic and orthotic care and some
services that cannot be found elsewhere in the country.
If you used assistive devices or service animals during your exchange program, were they helpful to you in your new environment?
Like contact lens solution and fine coffee, spare parts for a prosthesis are not available in Sierra Leone. Best to bring these things along in your suitcase.
What would have been helpful to have known before you began your journey?
It would be helpful to have readily available information about which organizations are doing disability-related work in Sierra Leone. There is little coordination between organizations doing similar work, which leads to overlap and missed opportunities.
What were the benefits of the experience, and how has your international experience informed your future plans?
Most rewarding was my work with local disabled persons’ organizations and schools for the disabled community like the Sierra Leone Union on Disabilities Issues and St. Joseph’s School for the Hearing Impaired. The people who manage these organizations, some disabled, some not, are the most interesting and inspiring people you will ever meet. For years, they have labored tirelessly and without thanks in a struggle to provide disabled individuals with equal access to basic services. I have learned a tremendous amount from working alongside them and will take this experience forward in my future careers.
Read the online article, "Rice Alum Takes a Stand" (Rice News, May 2010), to learn about Daniel's role as an advocate for disabled communities in Haiti and Sierra Leone, and how these communities' perception of Dan differed from his self-identity. Do you have an exchange or disability-related question for Daniel? Email clearinghouse@miusa.org to get in touch with him.
Visit our "Featured People" page to meet other international exchange alumni.
