Amber Alverson, an occupational therapy doctoral student (class of 2012), was chosen as a Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities 2011 Long Term Trainee recipient and will be awarded a $10,000 scholarship. Each Long Term Trainee must serve a minimum of 300 hours in activities to promote advocacy, leadership, and development of culturally competent care.
Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities focuses on preparing health professionals to assume leadership roles and develop interdisciplinary team skills, advanced clinical skills and research skills, in order to meet the complex needs of children with neuro-developmental related disabilities. The program is federally funded by the Department of Health and Human Services through the Maternal and Child Health Bureau LEND Grant. It is administered through Vanderbilt University’s Kennedy Center which collaborates with Belmont University (faculty advisor Lorry Liotta-Kleinfeld), Meharry Medical College, Tennessee State University, Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities, Tennessee Disabilities Coalition and the University of Tennessee, Nashville campus.
We arrived safely back in Nashville about 7:30 this morning after a long flight, a little tired and in need of a shower. Who would have thought that we would have needed to go to West Africa to get out of the Nashville heat! We are looking forward to Doritos, diet cokes, salad, bacon egg and cheese biscuits, bacon cheeseburgers and some sleep, as well as seeing our family and friends.
What an exciting day full of new experiences!! We woke up bright and early to take a Tro-Tro ride provided by Nana Yaw (our driver for the week) to Kakum National Forest. It took about 4 hours to get there because of traffic but we safely arrived shortly before lunch. We took a guided tour up to the top of the rainforest. Our guide told us that there are over 300 species of identified animals in Kakum including insect, birds, bongos, not the drums, and a small herd of elephants. Kakum is famous for their wildlife and their suspension bridge canopy walk over the top of the rainforest!
The suspension system consists of 7 bridges connected by platforms at the top of the rainforest. The tallest bridge was 130 ft above the floor of the forest!!! We all survived!
We ate lunch there and then headed toward the coast. Because it was a little later in the afternoon, we opted to go to Elmina Slave Castle because it was closer than Cape Coast Slave Castle. Elmina Castle is the oldest European building in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was a Portuguese fort for about 150 years then it was taken over by the Dutch and then 100 years later the British had rule over it.
We toured the castle and listened to the horrific and humbling stories the tour guide had to tell. It started off as a place to ship goods to Europe and soon it became a place to ship Africans to Europe and the new world. The Africans would march for weeks from surrounding countries before they would get to Elmina or Cape Coast. Upon arrival to Elmina they would be kept for 1-2 months before they passed through the “door of no return.” Many would die before they left the castle and many more would die on the ships as they were transported to the various countries. It was an eye opening experience that words cannot describe.