RAAB Senior Trainer Observation in Liberia
The RAAB Trainer, Dr Nazaradden Ibrahim explaining the RAAB protocol during an in-class session.
In February 2024, I took up my first assignment to conduct Senior Trainer Observation (STO) of a RAAB (Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness).
The STO forms part of a sequence of activities aimed at assessing the trainer's ability to perform preparation, training, and data collection monitoring independently as a certified RAAB trainer. A total of 18 trainees completed a six-module online training programme, hosted by the RAAB team at the International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH) at the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. I was one of the "senior trainers" during the training programmes, led by Associate Professor Islay MacTaggart, the Principal Investigator for the RAAB project and Mr Ian McCormick, research fellow at ICEH.
The RAAB team approached me to be the STO for a RAAB to be conducted in Liberia by Dr Nazaradden Ibrahim, the technical advisor for Sightsavers International, West-African region. After having agreed on the terms of our engagement, I observed Dr Ibrahim as he was going through the preparation steps, giving advice and providing support, when required. In May, the training plans were finalised and ethical approval for the RAAB study was anticipated. The in-country support and facilitation ensured this was to be the easiest trip I would plan for, from the perspective of visa application: they had it all sorted out!
I travelled to Monrovia on the weekend before the training, and took a further inland road trip of near four hours to a town in the northwest called Ganta (aka Gompa city) near the border with Guinea. The training was held there, in a nice business centre-like compound, where we also had most of our meals, and enjoyed one relatively good boarding and lodging.
Despite a late start, the trainer caught up with the time lost, albeit by stretching the training days to end after 18:00 most of the nights. The Inter-observer variation test and the field pilot went well. On the final training day, the trainer provided the necessary leadership to facilitate planning of the data collection. The newly trained RAAB field team members' concerns, including late training times, uncertainty about logistics and field work start dates, were addressed by an excellent motivational speech by the principal investigator, Dr Joseph Kerkula. I delivered my customary "Risk Management for field workers" session..
The trainer and I departed for Monrovia, from where we continued our respective homeward journeys. The WhatsApp group set up by Dr Kerkula was buzzing with excitement as the teams were preparing to start their fieldwork. The following Monday, the first enrolments were synced to the cloud: data collection has begun!
It's early days yet; the fieldwork is scheduled to take about four weeks. This is the rainy season in Liberia, so it is not surprising that the teams have already encountered some problems in the field: vehicle breakdowns, muddy roads, impromptu bridges over rivers... I have seen some heavy showers going on for six hours without end. I hope these do not occur too often, because they will greatly affect the progress of data collection.
Go Team Liberia, go!
