Gillings Around the globe – Page 3 – Local is Global. Global is Local.

Occupational and Environmental Preventative Public Health Workshop in Conde, Bahia Brazil

Posted on September 11, 2023 by cmckay1

My name is Jaquayla Hodges, and I am an approaching second-year MPH student at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health in the Applied Epidemiology concentration. Within my public health career, my main foci are health inequities that exist across the African Diaspora, Latinx, and rural communities.

My last update of my practicum in Salvador, Bahia Brazil centered the work completed by myself and the Entre Mares Research Group while stationed in the city. The second half of my practicum moved the team to a town three hours north of Salvador, Sítio do Conde.

Fishing boats in the mangrove near Conde — *Fishing boats cruising through the mangroves along Conde and neighboring towns.*

This trip was not originally planned for my participation during the practicum, but my practicum preceptor saw this as a great experience for me to connect my data analysis to reality. Afterall, the principal of epidemiology is the use of participant data from real people to improve health conditions and outcomes. My work involved data analysis of responses collected from a questionnaire distributed by the research team of fellow UNC and Universidade Federal da Bahia professors and students. I analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data including variables such as household income for each municipal city in Southern Bahia with the use of R Studio and Excel. Most of this work was remote, so it was nice to meet the people in my dataset. Members of the team from other parts of Brazil, including Pernambuco and indigenous towns, came along for this workshop as well.

Members of the research group and Condo residents smile and pose on the beach — *Members of the Entre Mares Research Group and a few Conde residents following the first day of the workshop.*

The motive of this workshop was to relay the health impact of the 2019 oil spill, connect the residents to the team’s progress, and assess the knowledge of preventative methods and behaviors for future environmental crises. We used data analyzed from the team to provide fishing communities knowledge and reasonable personal protective equipment (PPE) tips according to what everyone found accessible. For example, most people in the area wore shorts and flip flops daily. Something as simple as wearing long sleeved shirts and pants contributed to better protection during the cleaning processes. Alternatives to expensive store products were also discussed, acknowledging the reality of accessibility of costs for PPE. There were games like “Facto ou Mito (Fact or Myth)”, where participants would break into two teams and answer whether the statement on the screen about preventative environmental disaster behaviors were a fact or myth. None of the teams answered incorrectly! Both teams ended up winning prizes at the end of the game.

Conde residents are seated indoors playing Facto ou Mito — *Residents of Conde and neighboring cities in the workshop, playing Facto ou Mito.*

A handwritten flowchart depicts how the fishing colony was impacted by the oil spill disaster — *A flowchart created by the participants shows how the fishing colony is affected by the disaster. This organizes the event and its real-life effect according to those impacted.*

The team’s analyses, along with a few other studies on oil disasters around the world, aided in providing statistics for the workshop. Analyses are key to protecting communities from future occupational and environmental disasters through the workshops our team developed over the summer. The Entre Mares Research Group has grown to observe, engage and protect fishing communities in Salvador, and other affected communities in northeastern Brazil. I took over 300 photos and videos (see below), with community permission, for use of advocacy in future text or social media posts and the creation of a banner to be displayed in the fisher’s post in Conde. Future workshops with the team will focus on fisher’s occupational health and aims to expand to other important health outcomes for those living across northeastern Brazil.

Materials for participants with the logo I designed!

A close up shot of colored pencils, part of a pair of scissors, and colorful pieces of paper on a table — *Free childcare was provided with games that increased their awareness of the environment and their importance as families who fish to support the economy and themselves.*

A shot from behind a boy who holds a fish net nera the shore — *The son of the leader of the fishing site shows us his fish net making skills.*

A man holds a fish out to the camera — *A proud fisher shows me his catch of the day.*

Lightning Talks about Diagnostics

Posted on August 31, 2023August 25, 2023 by cmckay1

Hello everyone! My name is Sophie Nachman and I am an MPH student in the EQUITY concentration. This summer for my practicum I have been working with the Mérieux Foundation, an organization based in Lyon, France which focuses on access to diagnostics and other public health research around the globe. Each year they host the Advanced Course in Diagnostics (ACDx), a week-long event dedicated to discussing diagnostics policy, development, and implementation to address public health issues. Participants include laboratory scientists, health professionals, decision-makers, and researchers from around the world, mostly from LMICs.

One of the core goals of the course is to spur collaboration and networking. To aid in this goal, one of my projects this summer has been to organize a series of video lightning talks with the incoming cohort of participants. For this series, we asked participants to record a three-minute video presentation about a topic of their choosing related to diagnostics. Historically, participants do not meet each other before ACDx in the fall so our primary goal for this project was to start building community among the incoming cohort in the months leading up to ACDx. Our secondary goal was to identify participants to speak on panels or round-table discussions during ACDx in September. We identified three topics from the ACDx agenda to serve as guides, and invited participants to record lightning talks related to those topics if they were interested in participating in those panel discussions.

We hosted a Zoom meeting in June to introduce the lightning talks project where we discussed our goals, potential topics, and covered open access and widely available presentation tools. We then gave participants one month to record their presentation. Of the 35 participants, we received 16 lightning talks about a variety of topics, including COVID-19, malaria, polio, climate change and diagnostics, domestic manufacturing of diagnostics, and tools and policies to increase access in rural communities and conflict zones. Since receiving the videos, we have started posting the videos in a WhatsApp group for the current cohort a few times per week and invited folks to post questions and comments. We will continue to post these videos regularly for the next several weeks to build community within the incoming cohort, start conversations about innovative research in diagnostics, and get people excited about ACDx in September.

Based on the topics participants chose, we have invited people to participate in panel discussions in ACDx. We also intend to build on the video project during a session about designing videos for health communication during ACDx, and I appreciate the support from Gillings that will enable me to attend the course in September. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the ACDx team so far, and learning about the interesting work that ACDx participants are doing to improve availability and access to diagnostics all over the world.

-Sophie Nachman

My Final Weeks in Bangkok: Thoughts, Lessons, and Takeaways

Posted on August 28, 2023August 25, 2023 by cmckay1

As I wrap up the final weeks of my practicum with the Kenan Foundation Asia, I’ve also been reflecting on my time in Thailand and lessons I’ve learned from living in Bangkok.

My experience working with Kenan has taught me a lot about the unexpected challenges that public health workers face and how finding solutions for them isn’t always clear-cut. For example, during one weekend, my team visited one of the Burmese migrant communities living in Thailand (I was unfortunately out with COVID and devastated to have not been able to go) to get to know them and discuss potential sexual and reproductive health (SRH) interventions. The original plan had been to introduce SRH concepts through pamphlets or workshops, but upon meeting with the community, my team found out that some of the members were illiterate. Literacy was something we had never considered to be a potential challenge, and we had to modify some of the ideas we had to include activities that didn’t require literacy.

One of my deliverables was to write a recommendations report for how Kenan could communicate and disseminate SRH concepts and materials to the migrant and factory worker communities. After my team shared their experience from visiting the migrant community, I had to change some of my recommendations to be more equitable for all members of each community. One method I found while researching SRH education activities was an exercise called body-mapping, which consisted of participants each using a life-sized body diagram to label the anatomical body parts used in reproduction and sexual activities and answering questions pertaining to their beliefs and knowledge in SRH topics. This activity could be performed by the literate members writing down the labels and answers to the questions and illiterate members using an interpreter or discussion facilitator to explain their reasoning. I found body-mapping to be an interesting and unique approach to introducing communities to SRH topics because it allows public health practitioners to gain insight on the communities’ initial beliefs and potential misconceptions about SRH.

The deliverable that I am currently finishing is the creation of nutrition education modules for people across all life stages living in Thailand. I’ve included topics such as pregnancy nutrition, postpartum nutrition, infant nutrition, and child/adolescent nutrition. I first had to do research on what kinds of nutritional challenges Thailand was facing, which I found to be really interesting comparing Thailand to the U.S. and seeing how different food policies impact certain areas of nutritional health. For example, many of the packaged foods in Thailand do not have comprehensive nutritional labeling and often only provide information on the entire package rather than serving size. Thailand, along with other low and middle-income countries, is also currently experiencing a concept called the “double burden of malnutrition”, which occurs when there is a coexistence of undernutrition (stunting and wasting) and overnutrition (overweight/obesity). These issues all contribute to poor nutritional status, especially in children and pregnant people. Using the information I found from my research, I was able to tailor the modules to address specific nutrition concerns for people living in Thailand.

Through my practicum experience with the Kenan Foundation Asia, I began to truly enjoy research in nutrition policy and nutrition education dissemination. As an MPH student with a concentration in Nutrition, I am confident that the concepts I’ve learned while working on my deliverables will allow me to succeed in my future career in public health nutrition. I am particularly excited to delve deeper into nutrition policy in my Nutrition Policy class (NUTR 805) this fall semester.

Overall, my experience living and working in Bangkok has been extremely positive, and I’m immensely grateful for the opportunity and resources that helped bring me here. Bangkok is a city that is one-of-a-kind, with its diverse population, abundant street food options, and rich history. The people living here are exceptionally warm and will go out of their way to make you feel comfortable and welcomed. As I transition back to living in Carrboro, my heart will always have a soft spot for Thailand and the wonderful memories I made in Bangkok.

-Michelle Lee