Kenneth Maes - The Lives of Community Health Workers: Local Labor and Global Health in Urban Ethiopia

First published 2017
by Routledge
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2017 Taylor and Francis

The right of Kenneth Maes to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Maes, Kenneth, author.
Title: The lives of community health workers : local labor and global

health in urban Ethiopia / Kenneth Maes.

Other titles: Anthropology and global public health.

Description: New York : Routledge, 2016. | Series: Anthropology and

global public health | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016025353 | ISBN 9781611323603 (hardback : alk.

paper) | ISBN 9781611323610 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: CaregiversEthiopiaAddis Ababa. | Public health

personnelEthiopiaAddis Ababa. | Home care servicesEthiopia

Addis Ababa. | HIV-positive personsServices forEthiopiaAddis

Ababa.

Classification: LCC RA645.37.E8 M34 2016 | DDC 362.1409633dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016025353

ISBN: 978-1-61132-360-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-61132-361-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-40078-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

This book is made possible, first and foremost, by the extraordinary openness and generosity of the community health workers and nurses whom I encountered in Addis Ababa. These women and men were welcoming and sympathetic to my attempts to understand intimate aspects of their lives. They also provided uplifting models of compassion and equanimity.

The directors and staff at the Hiwot HIV/AIDS Prevention, Control and Support Organization, the Medhen Social Center, and the HIV/AIDS Department at ALERT Hospital in Addis Ababa generously granted me access to conduct research and facilitated so many of my efforts to collect data and understand their programs. I am forever grateful in particular to Sister Regat Tesfamariam, Sister Tibebe Maco, Dr. Yigeremu Abebe, Dr. Berhanu Gebremichael, Dr. Bisrat Taye, Tenagne Kebede, Shimeles Girma, and Michael Hailu.

The research on which this book is based would not have been possible without funding from multiple sources. A dissertation award from the National Science Foundation (BCS-67062516) supported much of the fieldwork in Addis Ababa. A senior NSF award (BCS-1155271/1153926) has funded my more recent efforts to understand the role of community health workers in Ethiopias national health system, as have fellowships and awards from the National Institutes of Health (D43 TW01042 and T32 HD00733823), Emory Universitys Global Health Institute, and Emorys AIDS International Training and Research Program. Most recently, an award from Oregon State Universitys Center for the Humanities provided crucial support that allowed me to develop this book manuscript. To all of these sponsors, I am deeply grateful.

Dr. Fikru Tesfaye (then at the Addis Ababa University School of Public Health), Professor Yemane Berhane at the Addis Continental Institute of Public Health, and Hailom Banteyerga and Aklilu Kidanu at the Miz-Hasab Research Center provided essential mentoring and institutional support during my fieldwork in Addis Ababa. Charlotte Hanlon, Atalay Alem, Georges Reniers, Sister Takebash Araya, and Yilma Melkamu also provided helpful guidance during the early stages of my research. Selamawit Shifferaw, Yihenew Alemu Tesfaye, and Meseret Meressa provided both friendship and exceptional assistance in data collection and research design. Yihenew has continued to be an invaluable source of insight into so many spheres of economic, political, and social life in Ethiopia. Meli, Tamrat, and Wintana provided a home and incredible moral support for more than a year in Addis Ababa, as well as a window into their day-to-day lives. I could not have asked for a better host family. Meli also provided crucial research assistance, not to mention great care when I fell ill. My deep gratitude also goes to Melkam Hailom, whose kindness, humor, and spirit have been truly precious to me. She is the first reason I always look forward to returning to Addis Ababa. I would also think twice about repeating my fieldwork experience in Addis Ababa without Jed Stevenson, whose camaraderie was always just an eight-hour bus ride or phone call away. Through the years, I have benefited in countless ways from our friendship.

At Emory University, I received advice and support from many mentors, teachers, students, and staff. These people include Bradd Shore, Joseph Hen-rich, Dan Sellen, Chikako Ozawa-de Silva, Carol Worthman, Mel Konner, Dorothy Fitzmaurice, Lynn Sibley, Pamela Scully, Sita Ranchod-Nilsson, Ulf Nilsson, Debra Keyes, Sybil Bridges, Sally Pattison-Cisna, Dredge Kang, Sarah Barks, Sarah Davis, Michelle Parsons, Julie Solomon, Brandie Littlefield, Dan Hruschka, Dan Lende, Ryan Brown, Ben Junge, Eric Lindland, Erin Finley, Sarah Willen, Amanda Thompson, Bethany Turner, Jennifer Kuzara, Brandon Kohrt, James Broesch, Tanya Macgillivray, Leonardo Marques, Tyralynn Frazier, Amanda Seider, Kwame Phillips, Bonnie Kaiser, Jennifer Sweeney Tookes, Amber Campbell, Molly Zuckerman, Jo Weaver, Michelle Dynes, and Jenny Mascaro. I cannot imagine better advisors than Craig Hadley, Peter Brown, Ron Barrett, and Joyce Murrayexceedingly generous with their wisdom, energy, and time. Long live the legacy and our memories of George Armelagos, friend and mentor to many students and colleagues at Emory and beyond.