Reflections On My First SOAP Meeting          

Kybele Friends and Family.  Back L to R:  Kimber Whanger, Dr. Emmanual Srofenyoh, Dr. Pere Owen, JoAnn Owen, Dr. Medge Owen, Floor:  Jozy Unal, Aubree Whanger, Sebnem Ucer

In the years since I started to volunteer and work for Kybele, SOAP 2013 was the first conference to which I traveled. For quite some time now, I have believed wholeheartedly in Kybele's culture- and country-specific educational model, and have witnessed Dr. Owen's personal sacrifices to make Kybele an effective organization for years, but being at the conference was a special experience.

Amazing teamwork with Ms. Kimber Whanger made the work part easy and delightful during the conference. Meeting with people most of whom I know only from e-mails and phone conversations was great, as it enabled me to finally be able to put a face to the name in many cases. I observed Kybele's good reputation in that medical community, and saw the attention and support from people who have never been involved in Kybele projects. It was amazing to see others eagerly waiting for Dr. Owen to start a program using the Kybele model in different countries. All of these made me very proud of our organization, but most importantly I realized that the relationships in the organization are very exceptional...

The morning that Dr. Srofenyoh was supposed to give his talk, I was not able to eat anything due to anxiety. On the night of conference banquet, we - as the Kybele team - were all counting the minutes while waiting for the announcements of the conference awards. When we heard of the awards given to Dr. Srofenyoh, we literally crashed the party to celebrate together with Dr. Owen and Dr. Srofenyoh. All of the Kybele trip participants stopped by, most of them multiple times, at our merchandise table to shop, talk to others about the items and trips, and even to help sell. During the conference Kybele's staff, president, board members, team leaders, trip participants and country hosts worked, rested, and ate together, like a big family... And, I am so honored to be a part of this family.

Meet Erin Pfeiffer - Kybele's Grant Writer and Project Manager             

 Article by Helen Akinc

Erin first became familiar with Kybele through a colleague who had worked closely with Kybele Board Member Rohit Ramaswamy during their time together at UNC. The organization's vision of improving childbirth outcomes around the world through evidence-based quality improvement initiatives resonated with Erin's passion for global maternal and child health and she felt an immediate connection to the people and work of Kybele. Erin approached Kybele to learn more about the innovative efforts to improve childbirth outcomes for women and children around the world and to share about her background in grant writing and grant management of global maternal and child health programs. With the exciting new opportunities Kybele was beginning and Erin's skills in some of the areas in which Kybele was growing, a working relationship was formed. Being a long-time resident of Winston-Salem, it also seemed like a perfect match that Kybele was based in her own backyard.

Erin is an only child and was born and raised in Indiana. She and her husband, Austin, live in West Salem with their highly-energetic dog and incredible one-year-old son, Silas. They are in the multi-year process of adopting a child from Ethiopia. In her (ever-diminishing) free time, Erin is an amateur triathlete and loves to bake and cook all things vegetarian...though has never met an olive she liked. She loves to travel, including backpacking through Europe, sleeping in the jungle of Liberia, and taking "chicken buses" through Guatemala. In her more adventurous days she hang-glided through the Swiss Alps and did bunging free-falling.

Volunteer Spotlight:  Dr. Fiona Bryce         

Article by Helen Akinc

Change does not come easily to most people. It takes courage to allow one's life experiences to change the direction of one's journey. Most people who are involved with Kybele in one way or another have that courage and have allowed the events of their lives to alter the direction and the decisions they make. Fiona Bryce is no exception. When I first contacted Fiona, she was not at home in the UK, but away on holiday. Even though she was on vacation, she graciously responded and asked if she could get back to me in a few weeks, which she did.  

Dr. Bryce first became involved with Kybele approximately three years ago. As she says, it is somewhat convoluted, but interesting. She was already travelling to Ghana on a regular basis through her participation in a church project involved with building a home for destitute children on the outskirts of Accra. Because of that project, Fiona and two midwives with whom she works, Liz Floyd and Kerry Morgan, visited and got to know staff in a maternity unit in Wjeija. The director of that unit asked them to develop a course in neonatal resuscitation, which they did. In so doing, it helped Fiona and her colleagues to more clearly understand Ghanaian maternity services. That led Dr. Bryce to seek ways to become more involved in a hands-on way. Her story and her insights are insightful and inspiring. Read on!

Our Friends at Duke University School of Medicine are Hosting the 6th Annual Alliance for Surgery and Anesthesia Presence Meeting (ASAP).            

Submitted by Holly Muir, MD. 

On September 6th - 8th of this year, Duke has the honor of hosting a multidisciplinary international meeting which focuses on pulling our teams together in global outreach activities. The organization is known as the Alliance for Surgery and Anesthesia Presence - ASAP. This is a collaborative effort between ASAP, our Departments of Anesthesia, Surgery, Obstetrics and the Duke Global Health Institute. Members of the Program and Planning Committee have organized an exciting program where you would have an opportunity to interact with many of the international leaders in Global Health.

We Thank The Following for Their Support    

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www.kybeleworldwide.org   |  3524 Yadkinville Road #124 Winston-Salem, NC 27106