Discovering the Beauty and Challenges of Language

Posted on by cmckay1

Hello again! My name is Emily Benson, and I am a second-year MPH student in the global health concentration. I did my practicum this summer with Refugee Community Partnership (RCP), a non-profit organization in Carrboro, NC. RCP works alongside local refugee and immigrant communities to connect them to the resources and social connections they need to thrive and to mobilize organizations to eliminate barriers to accessing these resources.

I recently completed my practicum with RCP, and I have learned so much! I have been working with them on a research project that aims to identify the main barriers to health care among local refugee and immigrant communities. This practicum experience has not only deepened my passion for healthcare access and the social determinants of health but has also revealed a health barrier to me that is not often discussed in public health – language barriers.

Ler, another UNC Gillings intern at RCP, and I working in the RCP office.

The Importance (and Beauty!) of Language

The research project I was working on is a community-led research project that is analyzing language access in medical settings. This research consists of data from RCP’s Language Navigator Program (discussed in my previous blog post!) and community health forums. The research team is currently working to host community forums with six language communities: Arabic, Karen, Burmese, Pashto, Dari, and Spanish.

For my practicum, I have been working on two main tasks: (1) Analyzing the qualitative data from the language navigator program feedback surveys and (2) Working to organize the research data to effectively present the research findings to local healthcare institutions and professionals.

Through these tasks and working with individuals of various language communities, I have learned so much. I have particularly discovered a lot about my personal implicit biases around languages other than English. Working with RCP has opened my mind to the beauty and importance of different languages that are spoken here in the US and around the world. Enabling individuals to communicate in their own language is vitally important, as it has an enormous impact on many aspects of life – most prominently, an individual’s overall health. Specifically, lack of language access in medical settings has potentially detrimental effects including, but not limited to, critical information missed in a health appointment, miscommunication between the patient and provider, misdiagnosis of the patient, and/or incorrect or ineffective treatment.

Because of this internship, I can gratefully say that I will never take for granted language access again and have a new-found appreciation for all languages worldwide. I hope this research project will bring to light the health inequities that exist among refugee and immigrant communities in the US and pave a path to changes in medical institutions to reduce the impact of language barriers.

The Afghan Women’s Sewing Group

Over the course of my internship with RCP, I also had the opportunity to become involved with an Afghan Women’s Sewing Group. Being able to help with this pilot program has been very eye-opening for me. I have been able to meet, interact with, and get to know some amazingly brave and courageous women from Afghanistan and hear some of their stories.

It has been really cool to see them create community and share culture, experiences, and knowledge with each other through this group. Many of these women are incredibly talented when it comes to sewing and embroidery. Through this group, they have all made incredibly beautiful pieces!!

An embroidery piece made by a member of the sewing group

One of the biggest challenges that this experience presented to me was that I could not fully communicate directly with many of these women as we do not speak the same language. However, the most prominent thing I learned from this challenge is this:

A smile and acts of kindness are the same in every language.

I fully believe that these two things have the potential to be the bridge between all cultures and people around the world and can be the beginning of dismantling these language barriers. I have absolutely loved being able to connect with these women and experience a little bit of their beautiful culture and am grateful for all of the things I have learned along the way. I am very excited to see where this group goes in the future!

I want to end this blog with a quote that has changed my whole perspective on the importance and beauty of languages, and I hope it inspires each of you reading this blog as well.

“We dream in language, we sing in language, we think in language. It is tied to our lands, to our bodies, to our relationships, and to our knowledge. It is important that we feel respected as speakers—not just for what we have to say, but also how we say it.”  – Antena Aire

 Thanks for reading and following along as I completed my practicum!

– Emily

That’s a wrap on RAP!

Posted on by nayavill

Hey everyone!

My time in Bangkok with the Water Program team at the Food and Agriculture Organization Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAORAP) is finally coming to an end. While my practicum officially wraps up on August 11, I am confident that I’ll take the skills, lessons, and knowledge that I’ve gained here with me for the rest of my career.

This summer was certainly a busy one. I wrote 1 Letter of Intent to collaborate between UNICEF and FAORAP on strengthening cooperation between agricultural and water for sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sectors across the Asia and Pacific region, 3 Concept Notes on land-based sources of ocean pollution causing eutrophication in large marine ecosystems (LMEs) in China, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, 1 policy brief on gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI) in water resources management, 1 mission brief on non-profits working in the agricultural and WASH sectors in Timor-Leste, 1 speech for World Food Day’s guest speaker, Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand, and 3 partner contracts for the Water Scarcity Program (WSP). I also had the opportunity to attend 2 workshops hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and its partners, including FAORAP. Both workshops focused on water, but the one co-hosted between ADB and FAORAP was specifically on water scarcity and how to manage it from a policy level. Participating delegations came from various ministries (Water, Natural Resources, Meteorology, etc.) in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. During the workshop, I took notes on the presentations from FAO technical experts and other guest speakers, and I had the opportunity to participate in and take notes for the breakout discussions of the Lao PDR delegation. I learned a lot about water-related issues in Lao PDR and how many of them stem not only from prolonged drought, but from poor collaboration between water-using ministries, which leads to overuse and competition. This has dangerous consequences for crop yield and by result, people’s nutrition, as many people living in Lao PDR depend on agriculture for their personal use and for their livelihoods: about 61% of people in the country live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for survival (IFAD, n.d.).

ADB’s workshop with Ramboll and the Stockholm Environment Institute on the Greater Mekong Subregion.
A member of Vietnam’s delegation presents at the FAORAP-ADB joint workshop on water scarcity.

Lao PDR’s main issue with water and agriculture is very similar to that of other Southeast Asian countries – rapid urbanization and population growth is putting pressure on dwindling water sources all while agricultural sectors must produce more food with less water to feed more people. This challenge will shape how countries develop agricultural and nutrition policy, and I recently learned that FAO also has a team that focuses on advising member countries on producing nutrition-sensitive crops. One root cause of many nutrition-related diseases, if you go back far enough, is decreased agricultural yield from water scarcity. While at first glance, the Water Program at FAORAP seems disconnected from public health, but its goal and mandate under FAO is to support better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life for all.

Participating in this year’s United Nations Responsible Business and Human Rights Forum hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Saying goodbye to Bangkok will be difficult, to say the least. I learned so much about the UN system here and got to meet so many like-minded interns from around the world. I ate the most delicious food every day, worked with incredibly passionate and determined people, learned a lot about Thai culture, and even had the opportunity to visit Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, which I researched for my assignments in SPHG 721! My perspectives on international, systems-level work were immensely shaped by my practicum experience, and getting to actually experience the funding mechanisms, agenda setting, and program development we read about in Gillings was invaluable to say the least. Living in Bangkok, a city where my own grandmother was born and lived in until she was 13, really had me feeling สบาย สบาย/sabai sabai this summer, and I feel extremely lucky to have had the opportunity of a lifetime to work in these spaces.

ขอบคุณค่ะ/kop khun ka, Thailand. It’s been a time and hopefully I’ll see you again soon.

~Leeann

The Research Continues

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After three months of working at Ipas, my internship has come to an end, although my involvement with Ipas certainly has not. While my team and I faced unforeseen obstacles in our analysis timeline, I was nevertheless able to produce four deliverables and have been invited to continue assisting in research dissemination. The deliverables I have produced include a community validation presentation; Samburu County, Kenya climate policy desk review; climate resilience and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) codebook; and research impact plan. As our study of intersecting climate resilience and SRHR in Samburu County is still ongoing, I will further contribute to data analysis during my enrollment in Advanced Qualitative Research Methods (HBEH 754), as well as to dissemination through involvement in Ipas webinars and manuscript-writing.

Skill Development: I consistently focused on strengthening and developing my skills throughout this internship. In particular, my qualitative research skills have significantly improved, such that I am more familiar with codebook creation and using Dedoose. Moreover, I had never conducted a desk review nor crafted a research impact plan prior to this internship, both of which I am now able to do. Finally, I strengthened my communication and organization skills, as I mainly worked independently and needed to keep my team informed and myself on schedule.

Mentorship: Sally Dijkerman, MPH was an invaluable mentor throughout my internship. While she guided me on how I could contribute to the project, she permitted me to work independently to complete those tasks. Furthermore, I appreciated that Sally always ensured I had a voice. Whether it was welcoming me into group meetings or asking for my input on her methods and reasoning, her mentorship allowed me to feel seen and heard, despite the subordination typically associated with intern status. I could not have asked for a better mentor to formally introduce me to the field of global SRHR research.

Overall Experience: I cannot speak highly enough of this practicum experience. I find it has not only solidified my interest in global SRHR research but also given me a greater understanding of the role climate change plays in all aspects of life. I am proud of the impact my team and I have already made through our research and look forward to expanding our reach in aims to influence the next climate change policy in Samburu County, Kenya and beyond.

– Caroline