Case Study: Cross-Cultural Leadership for Maternal and Child Health Promotion in Sierra Leone

Abstract

I was born in Sierra Leone, in Jimmi Bagbo, a headquarter of Bargo Chiefdom. Jimmi can be accessed by 36 miles of dirt road from the nearest town of Bo. I grew up in a polygamous family and my mother was the last wife of my father. My mother is a homemaker who worked as a traditional birth attendant/TBA in our village. I was delivered by a TBA. I came to the USA in 1983 after my father allowed me to leave and pursue further education despite the cultural belief that a girl’s role is to bear children and prepare a home for her family. Previously, my father only sent his sons to school. I was the first of his daughters to go to school who finished high school. I was not born in wealth but was spared from poverty and risk of early marriage like many girls in my community. I emigrated alone and stayed initially with a family friend who looked after her children. Later, I worked as a nurse’s aide in a long-term care facility that provided tuition support for my BSN degree. I subsequently completed my MSN and DNP and have been practicing as a primary care provider in the ambulatory clinic of a large urban hospital in a metropolitan area in the northeast.