Grace Akello

“When 'My Dear Brother' was published in Viva,^ I spent a lot of time feeling that I had committed a serious crime. My friends feared for my marriage. My senior officer was reported to have said, 'This means divorce, doesn't it?' It did not mean divorce. What it did mean was that I started from then on to realise that telling the truth, even disguised truth through poetry, short stories, or even folklore, alienates you. My friends at Viva were of course delighted with the poem, especially as it generated quite a number of letters to the editor for a number of issues after it appeared.”

“Key findings include distrust in the MOH is prevalent among FRHWs, there is a lack of trust in the organization’s coordination role in service delivery and this affects health care delivery to patients, interrelations, and provider cooperation.”

“We employed qualitative research techniques, including interviews and participant observation, over a 9-month period to examine FRHWs’ viewpoints about how the MOH should address these challenges in service delivery. One hundred and sixty-five FRHWs, of whom 48 were recruited for extensive follow-up, participated in our study.”

“We assessed how the everyday work challenges that frontline health workers (FRHWs) face in the government health sector in northern Uganda influence their trust in the Ministry of Health (MOH).”