Go raibh maith agat, HPRC! See you soon

Posted on by nayavill

Greetings from Corcaigh (Cork)! It’s hard to believe that I’m officially done with my internship in Galway and back with my partner in Cork. The 6 weeks with NUIG HPRC absolutely blew by and left me with so many meaningful, lasting connections. Things changed a bit since my last blog post—I was originally hoping to explore health outcomes among Traveller school-children and immigrant school-children, but due to a bit of a delay with the data cleaning around the immigrant variable, I ended up focusing solely on health outcomes among Traveller school-children. Although I’m disappointed I didn’t have time to explore the data on 1st and 2nd generation immigrant school-children in Ireland, the delay allowed me to dedicate all of my efforts to the Traveller data—and I got so much more out of it because of that. I was able to finish analyzing the mental health outcomes and had time to run bullying perpetration and victimization statistics, as well. I wrote up a report on Traveller school-children mental health outcomes compared to non-Traveller school-children, and am excited to hopefully get it published! We’ll be sharing it on the NUIG HPRC website and submitting it to the NIHS bulletin—unfortunately, I can’t tell y’all what we found until the National Report is published this fall. Check back into their website in October and read my report on Traveller School-Children Mental Health & Wellbeing to see what we found (nuigalway.ie/hbsc/)  ?

Shout-out to the amazing team at HPRC!

With the newfound time I had without the immigrant data, I ended up reaching out to a few Traveller advocacy organizations around Ireland in an effort to find outlets for disseminating our findings. Their response was incredible—they’re hoping to get access to the infographics as soon as they can and use the data to spread awareness about health inequities in Ireland. I created about 20 infographics with a variety of data around bullying, social support, sexual health, and mental health. I can’t wait to share them with the community organizations once I’m allowed!

One of the (blinded) infographics about Traveller well-being.

Although I’m no longer in the HPRC office at NUIG, I know that it is not the end of my work with them. I am so incredibly grateful to the team’s dedication to improving the health and well-being of all of Ireland’s population. Their dedication to conducting research which ultimately informs policies and programs across Ireland is truly inspiring. Before my time with HPRC, I had conducted research in the private sector for pharmaceutical companies, and in the public sector at UNC. However, this was my first time working at the intersection of research and policy with an international organization, and I absolutely loved it. I’ll miss the friendly faces of the research team at HPRC, and the cows and horses I passed by each day on my walk to work. I’ll be back, HPRC! Until then, I’ve got one more Irish adventure camping on the coast of the Gaelic-speaking island of Cape Clear.

Camping in Clifden at Ireland’s only carbon-neutral accommodation.

Wish me luck!

– Casey

Dear, Zambia

Posted on by nayavill
Victoria Falls

This summer, I have been working as a research intern for the NIH-funded Methods for Prevention Packages Program (MP3) study. This multi-component intervention study is at its formative stage and primarily aims to explore if the secondary distribution of HIV self-test kits (SD-HIVST) to pregnant women will increase HIV testing among their male partners. It also plans to explore if the integration of adherence supporters and integrated next step counselling will improve ART and PrEP adherence among pregnant women in Lusaka, Zambia. As a result, I’ve spent most my time here strengthening data collection instruments, assessing questionnaire items, designing semi-structured interview guides, creating training materials for study protocols, and outlining the study’s logic model and timeline plan.

That said, I’ve learned a lot in terms of research design and HIV prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) in Zambia, but have also learned a lot about Zambian culture over the past 6 weeks.

If you read my first blog, The Path You Must Take, it may have seemed as though my bad luck with a missed connection flight turned into an amazing unexpected journey and phenomenal arrival to Zambia, which it did. However, if I tell you that this was not an isolated incident you may begin to think that I just have bad luck with transportation.

Well, this was not an isolated incident (ha ha).

12 p.m., June 21 – Two friends and I began our supposed 8-hour bus journey to Livingstone, Zambia, more famously known as one of the cities bordering Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and being in Zambia, it was a given that I must go to visit.

8 p.m., June 21 – This is the moment where I should be detailing my first impression of the city, but given my adventurous destiny, this is actually the moment where I realize we are in a conundrum.

At around sunset, our #1 recommended bus company breaks down. Now you may think “well these things happen all the time”, apparently not (which is probably a good thing in general but a bad thing for us).

Wall from Café Zambezi – Livingstone, Zambia

Where I have circled in yellow is approximately where I believe the bus broke down and what also appears to be the halfway point between Lusaka and Livingstone.

The bus.

As I mentioned earlier, it is around sunset when the bus breaks down so what you see here is about all I could see in person as well (I promise this story has a happy ending).

At this point, it’s pitch black outside with nothing nearby, extremely cold given its winter season in Zambia, poor signal and to top it off my friends and I hadn’t eaten for approximately 7 hours. The bus company informs us that they are trying to dispatch the nearest bus but that it would be a couple of hours. That said, the bus drivers attempted to help all of us get on passing buses that were on the way to various destinations.

My friends and I befriended a man by the name of Isaac who helped us drastically when it came to which bus to hop on and where to get off. By the time we arrived to Livingstone it was close to 1 a.m. and Isaac called us a cab to make sure we got to our hostel safely.

In front of the Devil Pools at Victoria Falls

This trip as a whole has not only shown me how to improve my analytical research skills but has also shown me the amazing familial-like ties people in Zambia are so quick to form. From being brought in to a baby shower like family, to being called “mama” out of respect everywhere I go, to then being protected and escorted by new friends on the bus – Zambia has been a phenomenal place with phenomenal people. I will truly miss it but let this not be goodbye forever.

Toki sio [see you later].

– Rebekah

Two Weeks of Fancy Research at Stanford University

Posted on by nayavill

It’s getting close to the end of my practicum and I’ve had a well-rounded experience to what global health research is like. My practicum began in Palo Alto, California where I became part of the REAP, Rural Action Education Program, research team at Stanford. This team of talented individuals works on policy change and research to help the poor communities in China. As part of the team for the summer, I focus on building and adding new material to the Healthy Future curriculum, a program to be given by Community Health Workers in rural China to improve maternal and infant nutrition as well as prevent infant injury. China’s rural infants too often suffer from malnutrition but providing such an education program will help improve conditions for them. With this in mind, I’ve enjoyed working on the curriculum knowing that it will make a difference for many individuals once it is implemented.

City view from Twin Peaks.

Outside of the practicum work and research environment, I enjoyed exploring northern California for the first time. I definitely got to feel what it’s like to live locally and stayed two doors down from Mark Zuckerberg! I was also lucky enough to have a bike rental during my time there so that I was able to travel to and from Stanford as well as around town! The flexibility of the work allowed me to work at coffee shops where I ordered my first mint mojito, a sweet and creamy latte with mint, at the very popular Peet’s. Lastly, I was able to rent a car and travel to San Francisco and visit the many well-known places such as China Town, Fisherman’s Warf, and of course the Golden Gate Bridge. I greatly enjoyed my time in Palo Alto and would definitely recommend considering a practicum on the West Coast!

The Golden Gate Bridge.

While I was scheduled to travel to China for the rest of my practicum, my trip has been delayed, I continue to work and will hopefully be able to visit the university in the future. While, I’m saddened that my trip has been delayed, I have received a well-rounded experience of global health research and I know that the work that I have been doing this summer will make a difference in foreign communities and I believe that I have gained global experience to prepare me for future endeavors.

– Nicole