Summer 2022 – Page 20 – Gillings Around the globe

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Summer in Sacramento

Posted on June 17, 2022June 6, 2022 by

Hi all,

I am an MPH student in the global health concentration at UNC. Prior to starting my MPH at UNC, I graduated from The University of Virginia with a BSEd in kinesiology. Some of the areas that I’m passionate about include contraceptive access, abortion care, and menstrual health.

For my summer practicum, I am working with EngenderHealth as an Impact, Research, and Evaluation Intern. EngenderHealth is “a global organization committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender equality”. They work around the world to support individuals, communities, healthcare systems in delivering high-quality, gender-equitable programs and services. Through the internship, I will support EngenderHealth’s team to develop a manuscript and run data analyses on a project currently being carried out in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The manuscript will serve to synthesize information collected from in-school and out-of-school adolescents on perceptions of knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes related to sexual and reproductive health. Currently, I am in the processes of finalizing the data in hopes of moving to the literature review and manuscript writing phase in the next few weeks. My hopes for this internship are to be able to apply many of the skills that I learned in my first year of the MPH such as statistical skills as well as health communication. I also hope to gain an understanding of how non-profit organizations carry out their goals and how they center the communities they work in throughout that work.

Outside of the practicum, I have been enjoying my summer break, exploring Sacramento and the other parts of California while visiting with my sister.

-Lara

Digital Health Interventions in Sichuan, China

Posted on June 17, 2022June 15, 2022 by

It was my first time travelling since the pandemic and of course I didn’t need to bring a coat. I had been diligently watching the forecast for San Francisco for a week, and I was certain that I could weather 68°F and sunny with only a light cardigan and short sleeves. Yet as I watched the sun set on Crissy Field (a beach on the northern tip of San Fran) and took pictures of the Golden Gate bridge, I was nearly blown over by the staggering wind. I really wish I had brought a jacket.

The view of the Golden Gate bridge from the hiking trails near Crissy Field

I spent the weekend in San Francisco before taking the BART (a subway system that was delayed several times), waiting for the Caltrain (which was also delayed), and then booking an Uber to Palo Alto for my summer practicum. In Palo Alto, I spent the week with Stanford’s Rural Education Action Program (REAP), which works with rural, low-income populations in China. As a (now) second year MPH student with a Global Health concentration, I was excited to find an opportunity to work with populations in China, which is my area of interest. I began learning Chinese during undergrad at UNC, and the various study abroad trips and classes since then have been equal parts fun, academic, and a way to learn about my own heritage. Within public health, I also have interests in maternal child health and health policy, as well as digital health.

REAP’s research utilizes new technology to target children’s health, nutrition, and education, which is a perfect fit for my interests. Specifically, I will be working on the Healthy Future project, which uses an app to provide modular education sessions for new mothers and caregivers, delivered by community health workers. These home visits cover everything from breastfeeding, maternal nutrition, prenatal care, and preventative health and daily care, all depending on the age of the fetus/baby. The Healthy Future app itself is directly utilized by community health workers, who book, manage, and conduct these home visits.

Chinatown and the Transamerica Pyramid building

Currently, Healthy Future is at a midpoint in their intervention: the home-visits have been ongoing for almost a year now and midline surveys are complete. A good next step is to update the app; a particularly interesting update that is being considered is “adaptable” home-visits. This is where I come in: my role is to conduct interviews with community health workers, caregivers, and supervisors to identify ways to improve the app and its adaptability. Adaptability, or the ability for the app to tailor itself to every family’s differing needs (i.e. more/fewer visits, different content, and different content for different caregivers), will inform the next step of the project. I am excited to draw upon my language skills, cultural knowledge, and Gillings coursework for this summer practicum. This will be my first qualitative experience outside of Gillings and I am eager for hands on experience with NVivo. I am excited to work with the team at REAP and their partners in China and learn how to run my own (mini) project across countries. I hope to build connections within organization and I am interested to learn more about how Healthy Future is changing the landscape in rural China. At the very least, I’ve learned that I should always bring a jacket.

-Sam

On-site sanitation in North Carolina

Posted on June 16, 2022June 7, 2022 by

My name is Amy, and I’m an MPH student in the global health concentration. Prior to the program, I worked as a civil engineer and conducted research relating to cholera in rural Bangladesh and transboundary water policy of the Ganges River. I’m excited to use the MPH to broaden my knowledge base and deepen my knowledge in topics including WaSH, environmental justice, and the impacts of climate change on health. This summer, I’m working with Drs. Musa Manga and Courtney Woods through the UNC Water Institute and the Environmental Justice Action Research Clinic to explore the use of on-site sanitation in North Carolina.

On-site sanitation (think septic tanks!), in which household waste is not conveyed through a centralized management system like a sewer, is hugely prevalent in North Carolina. In fact, the state comes in at number 2 in the nation for proportion of residential households using septic systems, with approximately 50% of the population reliant on them. When such systems malfunction, they can pose potential health risks. We are particularly interested in the social determinants behind usage of septic systems and those that contribute to prolonged states of disrepair and, thus, prolonged states of increased health risk. On-site sanitation is greatly under-studied in the United States, and so we look forward to filling this gap through a literature review. We are also working to develop partnerships with local stakeholders, including county health departments and septic tank users, and gathering data for use in the upcoming academic year.

I’m excited to be working on this project, which we hope will provide stakeholders with data and information that can be used to apply to funding to improve sanitation and reduce adverse health outcomes in marginalized communities. I am also looking forward to beginning a Haitian Creole course this summer!

-Amy K.