Flattening the Curve
"It's a heart issue. If you don't really feel, empathize with people who need care, it's not possible." – Innocent Nwosu '19
Editor's Note: This profile also appears in the Fall 2020 issue of HCC's Alumni Connection magazine as part of a series of stories about HCC alumni managing life and work during the pandemic.
As a young man in Nigeria, Innocent Nwosu worked for an organization called Hope Worldwide as an HIV counselor and program facilitator.
As a volunteer and later as an employee, he conducted pre-test and post-test counseling and provided care and support to people with AIDS and their children.
"It was quite the pandemic," he said, "quite widespread as you can imagine in many African countries, such as Nigeria."
Fast forward to the present day. Nwosu, now 62, works in western Massachusetts for a nonprofit called Partners in Health, coordinating health care and deliveries of food, personal protection equipment and other essential items to people in quarantine due to COVID-19.
"I like to say I am part of the Massachusetts COVID care and contact tracing collaborative," said Nwosu, who lives in Ludlow with his wife and their 3½-year-old son. "I want to proudly say I have been working on the situation we have here to flatten the curve."
As a care resource coordinator, Nwosu consults directly with contact tracers to identify the basic needs of people who have tested positive for COVID-19.
"We work together to make sure their needs are met so they are not tempted to break quarantine or their isolation out of frustration, and they are encouraged to stay where they are and not infect other people," he said.
Nwosu started with Partners in Health in May as the coronavirus outbreak was well underway, recommended for the job by staff from HCC's Community Health Worker program, which he completed in 2019. While his previous college studies focused on science – he has a master's degree in zoology – Nwosu has always been drawn to community work, in particular programs that promote the relationship between good food and good health.
In western Massachusetts, where he has lived since 2010, Nwosu ran outreach and awareness campaigns for Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, which is based in South Deerfield. As a special projects coordinator, he worked with local farmers to supply fresh fruit and vegetables to low-income communities in Hampden County and with low-income individuals to make sure they used their food subsidies to buy more healthy produce.
When the grant funding for that position expired, Nwosu, on the recommendation of his wife, a nurse, enrolled in the CHW program at HCC, which was free, thanks to a grant from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.
"I am very grateful," he said. "The training is quite good. They talk a lot about cultural humility. Being compassionate. It's a heart issue. If you don't really feel, empathize with people who need care, it's not possible."
For his practicum, part of the CHW training, Nwosu was posted to the Springfield Dept. of Health and Human Services, where he educated homeless individuals on how to address health issues such as diabetes through better nutrition.
He knows that his present position might not last. The more successful the effort is to control the virus, the less his services will be required. But that's ok, he says.
"It's fulfilling to see you can really help somebody," Nwosu said. "If you are helping people to keep safe, you are also helping to keep yourself safe, because if you don't help that person, somebody you know might get it, and they come and give it to you too."
STORY and PHOTO by CHRIS YURKO: Innocent Nwosu '19, a graduate of HCC's Community Health Worker program, is a care resource coordinator for Partners in Health, working to control the spread of COVID-19.
