My secondment journey with ARISE in Lisbon

My name is Amayah Jirai Shalom a communications specialist, I worked under work package 7 of the ARISE project which is focused on Dissemination and Communication.
My hosting institution was Escola de Superior Tecnologia de Saude de Lisboa, Lisbon Portugal where I worked with Prof. Miguel Brito and his team.
In this work package we are expected to come up with various communication methods to spread information about sickle cell disease across various media platforms.
In this work package I took a course on Good Clinical Practice course, I worked on a collaborated interview with my teammate concerning a patient living with sickle cell disease and how it affects his daily life, which was interesting to know how our daily life varies from each other this was uploaded to the ARISE website.
I wrote a poem to sickle cell warriors in honour of the sickle cell awareness month to encourage them to keep up the fight knowing that their struggles are seen and validated.
This program exposed my mind not just to the disease but to the effect it has on it’s individuals which has been intriguing in the last couple of months from team meetings to speaking with warriors like I call them it has been a great experience which I will hold dear to me.
I am so elated I was selected for this program and having to see it through to the end has been a splendid experience for me.
I would like to express my profound gratitude to ARISE Initiative for this amazing opportunity to work here in Lisbon, my stay here has been exceptional with the splendid help of Prof. Miguel Brito, Catarina and my fellow colleagues Syntyche and Nzallah and my Portuguese colleagues it was nice meeting each of you.
I was able to speak a bit of Portuguese which was great, and interact with different nationalities, the environment is very pleasing and accommodating which I loved from the magnificent building infrastructures to great weather to good people it could not have gotten any better.
I am pleased to see what the future holds for each of us, once again it was a delight to be in Lisbon and let it pass through me this great experience will not be forgotten and you will all be missed dearly.