and were more laggard in their attempts to
eradicate it than any other region.
The research conducted progressed to a
point where she was able to cede control
of it to local scientists and public health
officials. As her responsibilities eased as
Principal Investigator, she was drawn to
the Internally Displaced Camps (IDPs)
in Uganda that had sprung up as a result
of Joseph Kony, the African warlord made
famous by the viral social media campaign:
KONY2012. While the camps she worked
in were far from reported conflict zones, the
camp's inhabitants remained as remnants
of a war-torn region. Primarily, they were
senior citizens, young women, and former
child soldiers. In the patriarchal society of
Uganda, the former child soldiers' choice
to remain in an IDP camp and not seek
land inheritance or right was regarded with
contempt but, according to Sonita, many
simply could not return to a normal life.
"What the former child soldiers displayed,
by all measures, was intense Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD)," she said. "Many
were so internally broken by what they
had been forced to do as part of the Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA), that they could
not force themselves to return to life."
To help reduce the number of camp
members, Sonita began working with the
International Telecommunication Union,
a branch of the United Nations, to teach
Information Communication Technology
for Development (ICT4D) to assist
residents by providing relevant training
with cheap, renewable forms of technology.
"I couldn't help change the structure of
society or the way Uganda worked with its
patriarchal system," she said, "but what I
could do was use what I'd learned in my
travels to help these people help themselves
become economically independent."
Returning from Africa to finish her Doctoral
studies at Tulane, Sonita resumed her work
in Anti-Recidivism. As a more experienced,
professional version of the person she was
when she had first begun working with
ex-convicts nearly 17 years before, she
started her own non-profit organization,
the Institute for the Sustainable Transfer of
Advanced Renewable Resource Technology
(I-STARRT) with the help of the Tulane
Center for Public Service, to couple with
the work she did with the New Orleans
Bureau of Justice Affairs. The classes taught
at I-STARRT, which she has encouraged
many of her recidivism program adherents
to attend, are free and share the combined
knowledge of over 20 years of international
travel and study. Based on the international
teaching program PROMETRA, a
program designed to respond to the
poor health conditions and inadequate
modern health services in third world
countries by teaching traditional medicine
in any setting to any willing participant,
I-STARRT teaches its students everything
from African Diaspora to Community and
Ecosystem Resilience. "When I first saw
PROMETRA in action, it was in a forest
miles and miles away from civilization,"
she said. "The students present ranged
from members of African Bush tribes
to university-educated students. They all
gathered, set out blankets and tarps in the
middle of a clearing, and learned from
each other which got me to think why this
communal education wasn't applicable
worldwide." The program synthesizes a
lifelong thirst for learning, experience,
charity, and spirituality.
Despite her achievements, Sonita is reticent
to boast about them. "You can't ever have
an ego about public health," she said. "You
have the power to change lives and see
situations improved for the better, but with
that power you also have the responsibility.
I believe that with every fiber of my being."
The fundamental value for Sonita, as it
was when she was a child being raised by
her mother, a teenager seeking shelter at
La Reine, or a professional discovering
her passions in the developing regions of
Africa, has always been an intense feeling
of love for others. "I believe in the yogi
perspective," she said. "I believe that we
are all one entity and that when one of us
suffers, we are all worse for it. My work
comes from an incredibly spiritual place,
where there is no distinguishable difference
between what I feel spiritually and what I
do physically. There are many pathways to
God, and I choose to walk the one that
goes alongside the less fortunate."
Before Dr. Sonita Singh, second from the right in the top row, ever explored the world, she walked the halls of La Reine High School
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THE MUSTANG MESSENGER