Gillings Around the globe – Page 81 – Local is Global. Global is Local.

Once in a lifetime learning experience

Posted on July 24, 2019 by nayavill

Guest blog post by Caroline Nelson, MPH-RD student, Kenan Foundation Asia Joan Gillings Public Health Intern

This summer I’ve had the opportunity to live in Bangkok, Thailand for ten weeks to participate in the Kenan Foundation Asia Joan Gillings Public Health Internship in Asia NextGen Healthy Aging Program. Though challenging at times, this internship has been a once in a lifetime learning experience that I am very thankful to have accomplished.

When I arrived in Bangkok, I was rather nervous to spend ten weeks in a completely new environment, surrounded by a different language, culture, and way of life . This soon changed once I was introduced to the incredibly warm and kind people that make up this beautiful country. As soon as the other interns and I entered the Kenan Foundation Asia office on our first day, we were immediately welcomed with open arms. My preceptor, nicknamed K. Pop, has been very supportive of this educational experience, and has included me on several important projects and events.

My favorite event was a community health event that took place in the Khlong Toei community of Bangkok. This district contains some of the largest wealth gaps in Bangkok and a goal of the Kenan Foundation Asia is to improve health disparities for refugees and lower socioeconomic citizens. This event was led by community leaders and change agents who are working to provide better public health resources to their elderly neighbors. Thailand will be a super-aged society by 2030 and the geriatric population already is struggling with obesity, type two diabetes, and hypertension, so Kenan is aiding communities in preventative healthcare education. The community leaders led aerobics classes, meditation sessions, provided blood glucose and blood pressure checks, and massages. It was very informative to observe this health event and see how engaged the community is on their collective health. Participating in this event helped me realize that listening to the community and understanding their personal needs is more impactful than instilling one’s own desires or goals as an outsider.

Khlong Toei Community Health Event sponsored by the Kenan Foundation Asia. Pictured are community leaders and their families, Kenan employees, and the Khlong Toei district representative.

My main project as an intern is to create a Health Literacy Training Event for key change agents in Khlong Toei. This falls under the Pfizer Healthy Aging Project in which Kenan has focused on providing preventative interventions to the super-aging population in Thailand.

When we are not in the office, the other interns and I travel around Southeast Asia. So far, I have visited Laos, Cambodia, and various cities in Thailand such as Phuket, Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, and Ayutthaya. The other interns and I get along very well, and we have enjoyed traveling throughout the area together.

(L-R) Jack Deering, Andrea Prego, Jessie La Masse, Alexa Young, Caroline Nelson, Catherine Sugg. All are UNC students interning with the Kenan Foundation Asia. Alexa and Caroline are master’s Students at Gillings and the others are undergraduate business students at Kenan-Flagler. Here we are visiting the temple ruins of Ayutthaya in Thailand.

Here we are attending the ASEAN SMEs Regional Conference on Health Tourism in Bangkok. These are various employees of the Kenan Foundation Asia, including the President, K. Piyabutr Cholvijarn. We are making the Korean hand sign known as the ‘mini chi’, aka small heart, that is very popular in Bangkok.

– Caroline

From Thailand to India to Home

Posted on July 23, 2019 by nayavill

It’s been a whirlwind of a summer so far! About a week after my last exam, I flew to Thailand and then spent two weeks exploring in Thailand and southern India. I ate so much delicious food, met a ton of people from all over the world, and got to explore beautiful temples and palaces! I may have gotten the worst sunburn of my life but I think it was worth it to be surrounded by this much natural beauty.

After the two weeks were up, I went to Kalpetta in India to start my first practicum, which was with SEEDS, an organization working in disaster relief and recovery. I supported their Community Health Empowerment program, which serves tribal youth in the Wayanad district through community improvement programs. While I was there, I had a chance to visit several of the tribal communities and assist with documentation of their project activities. However, I spent the majority of my time researching Kudumbashree, as SEEDS was hoping to get more of the tribal communities involved in this program. Kudumbashree is a program that serves low-income women in Kerala (the Indian state which Wayanad sits in) through financial opportunity—job training, business creation, and microloans—as well as health, environment, and community programming. It was really interesting to have a chance to both read about it and to interview local government officials within the Kudumbashree offices about their work.

A pre-school in one of the tribal communities which the adolescents of the community rebuilt.

I was lucky enough to be working with a UNC alum, and it was great to have a piece of home when I was so far away. I was also very lucky to be surrounded by kind co-workers who set up fun things for us to do, taught me more about their culture, and welcomed me to India. In my first week there, my co-workers band had a concert on the hotel rooftop, and afterwards they all sang traditional songs together. We were also invited to the home of another co-worker, Harris, for Eid, to break the fast after Ramadan. His mom cooked us a ton of delicious chicken biryani and spicy lamb and would not take no for an answer when she offered seconds. On my last day in Kalpetta, I almost missed my bus to start my trip home, and wouldn’t have made it if one of my co-workers, Abu, hadn’t chased down the bus on his scooter and made it wait for me, while another, Tonia, grabbed us an auto to speed over to the bus. Getting to know them was absolutely one of the best parts of my practicum, and I am so grateful for everything they did for me.

My coworkers breaking fast after Ramadan.

Now, I’m back at home in the Washington, D.C. area, working as the Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) Intern for Save the Children US. My primary job is supporting the Interagency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crises (IAWG) on a revamp of the ASRH Toolkit for Humanitarian Settings. I’m also helping to update some resources, and I’ll be supporting a team in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh as they lead their first Training of Trainers around ASRH in Emergencies. As someone who is interested in working on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in humanitarian crises, Save the Children is a really great place to be. I have access to information and updates on crises happening around the world and can follow the humanitarian response as it develops. I’ve also had a chance to complete a lot of e-learning courses focused around SRH in crises from various perspectives, which have helped me to get a better understanding of what this work looks like on the ground. It’s also been wonderful to meet people from all over the world who are doing the work I want to do, and to learn about their work. I’m excited to continue to learn and to be able to play even a small role in this very important sector of Public Health!

– Erin

Go raibh maith agat, HPRC! See you soon

Posted on July 22, 2019 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/) ?

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