In the rich and vivid cultural landscape of Oman this past winter break, Lambert junior Eshawnvie Kallu passionately led informational workshops at community centers and schools, aiming to increase medical literacy. Kallu was inspired by her experience volunteering at hospitals and wanted to use her knowledge for something bigger. Starting through a simple cold email, she created the opportunity for herself to work with Oman’s Ministry of Health to coordinate these workshops, which covered medical literacy as well as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education. She worked with a wide range of ages, from elementary school children to elderly seniors alike, spreading awareness of potentially life-saving knowledge regarding emergency preparedness, healthy living and sustainability.
“I was not expecting a reply back at all, but I got one about a week later, and they were like, ‘Hey, we have a couple towns that I think would really like those resources,’” Kallu said.
Kallu first started her work to increase accessibility to medical knowledge by organizing local workshops throughout Forsyth County. She initially discovered her passion for this project while volunteering at Atlanta’s Grady Hospital.
“A social worker was just telling me about how hard it is to give a lot of the underprivileged populations the fundamental knowledge about how to be healthy and how to navigate the healthcare system,” Kallu explained.
This has been a big step in pursuing her goal of increasing accessibility. Kallu conducted workshops throughout Oman in three cities, six healthcare centers and five schools in Oman. These lessons specifically focused on healthy living and emergency preparedness. Kallu prepared presentations, hands-on demonstrations and lectures about eating a balanced diet, the importance of vitamins, sleep cycles and exercises for elderly people. She also hosted a STEM education program, working mainly with elementary schoolers and utilizing an hands-on learning curriculum, making projects from Snap Circuit Kits, lava lamps and boat floating challenges.
One challenge Kallu faced was the wide language barrier from English to Arabic. Even with a translator by her side, she had to find new ways to communicate and bond with the kids such as shortening her lessons and using more hands-on and visual techniques.
“I thought that it would be very hard to communicate with the kids, especially because I don’t think they have the attention spans to wait for a whole translation of a lesson,” Kallu described. “So I had to kind of adapt my teaching
style that way, but in the end, it ended up being effective.”
As she continues growing her passion project, Kallu wants to continue her passion of bringing medical knowledge to disadvantaged communities. She plans to create an online resource hub to further expand access to the medical literacy materials she has gathered. She is also considering pursuing a career in psychiatry in hopes of learning more about the field in order to continue spreading accurate knowledge. Driven by her passion to learn and serve others through the medical field, Eshawnvie Kallu is set to continue making an impact on disadvantaged communities.
