Pregnant, don't know what to do?

Contact me with any of your sexual or maternal health questions or concerns. Together we’ll make a plan of action that you are comfortable with. My aim is to support you and assist you to meet your personal goals through the transformation of adolescence, womanhood, and childbirth. 

 

About me

Christie Johnson is a women’s health consultant presently managing training and educational services in the Bronx, NY. Professional experiences in varied settings have provided her the hands on expertise and tools necessary to manage complicated and sensitive maternal and sexual health needs. Having worked in the United States, the Philippines, and Tanzania, Ms. Johnson has excelled as a peer educator, lecturer, research advisor, and capacity building technical expert.

My philosophy

     Informed women make the best choices for themselves.

     Empowerment means having the confidence, the support and the material resources to actually enact those choices.

     A woman has the right to chose what to do with her body.

     Every woman that needs support should have access to it.

     Every woman, even superwomen, needs support.

After carefully analyzing data that I collected in the Philippines as part of a programmatic assessment of a government sponsored family planning program, I observed a positive relationship between informed contraceptive choice and having access to an empowered peer educator. From this research, I developed and refined a model of empowerment for peer health educators promoting sexual health services.

Biography

I have worked to empower women, families, and communities for over a decade. I have served this mission in a variety of capacities, as a Congressional Liaison for the Department of Health and Human Services; as a researcher for nongovernmental agencies, and governments; as a lecturer; and as a peer educator. Most recently, I provided advisement of governmental capacity building activities aiming to strengthen support for persons living with HIV/AIDS in rural Tanzania. As a social worker in the Bronx, New York, I have developed and implemented personalized treatment plans to prevent the removal of children from vulnerable households impacted by domestic violence, incest, and poverty. I am particularly an proud of my work as a lecturer at a leading Social Work Institute in Tanzania, where I developed the ‘Technician Certificate Course in Social Work and HIV/AIDS Intervention’, which was approved by the Tanzanian National Council for Technical Education (NACTE).

Eggplants for sale in Salasala Kunduchi, Tanzania!

Ms. Urio and her eggplants

Workers toiling on Ms. Urio's farm

Workers toiling on Ms. Urio's farm + the cutest baby

Ms. Urio

I met a wonderfully colorful character, Ms. Rose Aveny Urio from Salasala Kunduchi, an area outside of Dar es Salaam. Ms. Urio asked me to audio-visually document and share online the following information about her eggplant farm.

Ms. Urio, featured in the video, purchased this plot of land to support her family. On this plot she grows various vegetables and livestock. 

She asked me to share this impromptu “commercial” advertisement in order to expand her market. If you are interested in purchasing large orders of eggplants, in particular, or other vegetables or livestock, please contact Ms. Urio directly at +255-754-695-411.

The following are directions to the Urio farm from Dar es Salaam: 

1.  Take Old Bagamoyo Road (out of Dar es Salaam) towards Kunduchi Beach Hotel.
2.  At the junction at Kunduchi Beach Hotel, make a right turn onto Salasala Road.
3. Continue on this road past the CCM Branch building. Keep on this road until you reach Magwaza Road.
4. Follow Magwaza Road two meters until you reach Ms. Urio’s Farm. 

Ms. Urio has been selling small orders of eggplants thus far (household sized orders), because according to her, people don’t know about her farm and there isn't a large enough market in the immediate area.Despite poor earnings, she shared “I do this because I love working in the garden.” Although Ms. Urio has little access to water and only a few farmers to assist her, she aspires to expand and grow her business.

Ms. Urio also said that it is her mission to “help poor women in the community to plot vegetables like me. To teach them. After making a profit I want to buy more land for women’s projects. To do like me all of us together.” 

I hope to post the English language version of the video soon. In the meantime, enjoy a little Swahili language practice.

Beautiful Artwork inside the Slave Fortress: Bagamoyo, Tanzania

Mr. Mrisho J. Magwamluhe

During my trip to Bagamoyo, about 40 minutes (travel by Bajaji) outside of Dar Es Salaam, I was privileged to meet two artists, Mr. Mrisho J. Magwamluhe, a sculpter and painter (whose preferred tool is the knife) and Mr. Ali S. Chambuso, a fellow artist of the Bagamoyo Art Studio. The Studio, which is located across the Old Postal/Millenium Hotel Hotel, features an artists cooperative inside of an old slave fortress.  The artists display their work for profit. You may purchase one of a kind paintings, sculptures, and handwoven artifacts. 

These artists are making a difference daily in the lives of their communities. Many artists volunteer as teachers at an adjacent school serving local children or donate a portion of their wages in order to provide salaries to the teachers. Mr. Magwamluhe  received formal training as an artist at the International School of Tanganyika. Mr. Ali S. Chambuso is another artist working at the Bagamoyo Art Studio. 

These folks make beautiful art. For further information, including an interest in buying art directly from Tanzania, please contact Mr. Magwamluhe magwamluke@yahoo.com, Mr. Ali S. Chambuso alichambuso@yahoo.com, or you may also contact BronxKigoma.

For more photos of artwork featured at the Studio, please check out this previous post. 

Can a Pill a Day Keep HIV Away?

Daily Pill Greatly Lowers AIDS Risk, 

Study Finds

 

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

In a development that could change the battle against AIDS, researchers have found that taking a daily antiretroviral pill greatly lowers the chances of getting infected with the fatal virus.

In the study, published Tuesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that the hundreds of gay men randomly assigned to take the drugs were 44 percent less likely to get infected than the equal number assigned to take a placebo.

But when only the men whose blood tests showed they had taken their pill faithfully every day were considered, the pill was more than 90 percent effective, said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, head of the division of the National Institutes of Health, which paid for the study along with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
“That’s huge,” Dr. Fauci said. “That says it all for me.”

Read more at NYtimes.com

Slave Fortress turned Artist Studio, Bagamoyo, Tanzania

Here are my visual memories from my visit to the slave port in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. Actually, this site is just one of the many slave ports on the mainland – there are several more, particularly on the islands off of the eastern coast. The native populace of the region, now present day Tanzania, was a major source of slave labor for centuries.  

During colonialism – the first wave nearly a millennium ago, occurred in the form of enslavement by Arab traders, and in more modern times, via the German government. After slavery was abolished, the fortress was still in use, transitioning into an ordinary community market where various food stuffs were sold, including vegetables and other fresh produce.

During my visit, I met artist Mrisho J. Magwamluhe who provided me an intimate look inside the fortress and surrounding areas, the artwork, and the ancient concrete blocks (very different from the modern variety) which remain embedded with rusted shackles and chains. These concrete cylinders, now covered by artwork, were once the auction blocks that slaves stood upon to be sold to the highest bidder. 

Mr. Magwamluhe shared with me the story of the struggles facing the artists working at the new Bagamoyo Art Studio. Despite their efforts to transform such a haunting space into a beautiful source of creativity and employment for talented Tanzanians, the Studio remains dusty, undeveloped, and under financed. The artists do what they can with their limited means. Since the artists took over this abandoned space two years ago the Bagamoyo Art Studio is asking for—but has yet to receive— financial support from the Tanzanian government.

  

Food for thought, I’ve said it before and I'll say it again -- many mainland Tanzanians share remarkably similar facial characteristics to African Americans. African Americans have good reason to be more than a little curious about ancestral origins across the Continent on the Eastern side of Africa.

Bagamoyo Art Studio, Bagamoyo, Tanzania

Artwork featured inside a former Slave Fortress

Tunnel, a relic of the Slave Fortress

Bagamoyo Art Studio. Structures of Slave Fortress Intact.

Bagamoyo Art Studio. Structures of Slave Fortress Intact.

Artwork Displayed inside renovated Slave Fortress.

Beautiful artwork of The Bagamoyo Art Studio.

Beautiful artwork of The Bagamoyo Art Studio.

Beautiful artwork of The Bagamoyo Art Studio.

Bagamoyo Art Studio. Structures of Slave Fortress Intact.

Beautiful artwork of The Bagamoyo Art Studio. One of my favorite pieces.

School adjacent to The Bagamoyo Art Studio. Many artists volunteer here as instructors or provide financial support to the teachers.

Just outside the Bagamoyo Art Studio.

Just outside the Bagamoyo Art Studio.

Just outside the Bagamoyo Art Studio.

Just outside the Bagamoyo Art Studio.

Just outside the Bagamoyo Art Studio.

The ‘Demand-Creation Approach’ to Development

It rests on the sound assumption that members of the community are best able to identify the problems facing them and to make demands of those whose responsibility it is to deliver services to the community. This approach follows from a recognition that the era of the ‘supply approach’ has passed. Now is the time to empower community members to change their own behaviours and to demand and realise their rights to access the services to which they are entitled. 

UNICEF believes that some previous interventions have not had the desired impact principally because of a failure to achieve necessary levels of community ownership.


Read the rest at Unicef India

COMMUNITY ACTION PLANNING (MicroPlanning): A Participatory Development Methodology

Community Action Planning empowers communities to design, implement and manage their own settlement programs. Its methods are participatory, community-based, problem-driven, fast, and designed to inform policy from the grassroots. 

  

Read the rest at Sigus Research

Supporting Community Endeavors to Save Children

Many community based organizations could use your technical and financial support to assist in the care of orphans and vulnerable children. This report was prepared by one such organization located in Kigoma, TZ. If you are interested in providing support to an organization working with this vulnerable population in Kigoma, TZ, please contact me.

Notice: BronxKigoma had no role in preparing this report and cannot validate the details provided within.