Question: Are you welcomed into the places you stay in Africa or has anyone been hostile towards you and your work?

Anouk Gouvras answered on 18 Jun 2012:

Good questions nadiaeg,

I have been very lucky in that I have always been welcomed to the places I go. In Niger, in Kenya, in Tanzania and Zanzibar etc. But it is something that we have to consider whenever we go some place new. And I know of other scientists that have had problems with this before.

There are certain things you have to do when doing fieldwork in other countries. You have to have a good research proposal which has to be approved by the ethical committee of your institutions country and also in the country you want to work in. You have to collaborate (work with) a relevant organisation in the country you want to work in (with our work it is often the ministry of public health and the associated medical research institutes). You have to get permissions from the relevant ministries to do with your project (for us this is the ministry of health because we work on a parasitic disease that is a public health problem in these countries) and the ministry of education (because we collect our samples from infected school children). Then you have to get permission from the schools and the parents of the school children. In order to get this it is also very, very important in African villages to go to the chief of the village and get his permission as well. With his blessing most of the villagers feel much happier to help you. If you do not visit and ask the permission of the chief of the village then you might offend him, and if you offend him he can tell the village not to help you. Then you are in trouble. This is the same with the the head teacher. Both these people are very important in making our work a success.

You should also make sure that the parents, schools teachers and chief of villages understand what you are doing, what it is for, why you are doing it and how it will help them. A lot of research or health programs have been unsuccessful in particular villages because the organisations did not take the time to properly explain and hence the villagers did not trust the organisations.

Thankfully so far I have not had any experience of people being hostile to my work or to me. I have had a bit of a hiccup here and there regarding the fact that I am a woman scientist but it has never been hostile. It’s just a little bit annoying at first, then it stops being a problem the longer you work there.