Gillings Around the globe

We are back for another summer of blogging!

We have 14 students blogging from 10 countries! Thanks to generous donors,  these students received travel funds to put what they’ve learned in the classroom into practice.

Follow our blog this summer to hear firsthand from our students about what they are working on and how their global experiences are going!

Now an introduction to our new bloggers and their thanks to donors for the opportunity to receive funding for their global practicum:

Hunter Davis – Exploring the social and emotional impact of living with Type 2 diabetes  among adults in the Galapagos

“I’m so excited to be using this funding to return to a country where I have spent a formative part of my life and made so many friends and connections. I have lived in the Amazon of Ecuador, the Andes, and now will be able to live in the Galapagos for a time. Ecuador is one of my passions, and I’m so grateful that thanks to the Global Practice Award I am able to continue learning about a new part of the country and culture I have grown to love. This has also allowed me to work with an incredible research team and learn from Dr. Clare Barrington, an expert in qualitative research, about the process and expectations for qualitative research.”

Fatima Guerrab – International Organization for Migration in Switzerland

“Being selected for a Global Practice Award has opened up many doors and removed many barriers. With these funds, I will be able to work with a leading United Nations agency and learn how to tackle the most pressing policy challenges on a global scale.”

Krista Scheffey – UNC-Wits-Right to Care Partnership for Cervical Cancer Prevention in South Africa

“This funding is incredibly helpful. There are a lot of upfront costs associated with going to South Africa, and knowing that I have this funding is hugely helpful as I make those preparations. Receiving funding has also helped me focus on being a student without worrying about financing my practicum. For a while I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to go abroad, but ultimately I was able to choose a practicum that really aligned with my interests. I’m grateful for ​financial support to pursue this opportunity.”

Nicole Gonzalez – Health Future Program in China

“I feel really lucky to be selected for the Global Practice Award. My practicum would not have been possible without this funding. I would have had to take out loans if I did want to pursue this practicum. It’s definitely really helpful. I’ve always wanted to work in Asia, and it’s one of my careers goals. This is really meaningful and I feel privileged to have been awarded this money.”

Kay Schaffer – Curamericas Global in Guatemala

“Being able to work and travel abroad is really a privilege and having this financial support is going to enable me to do that. Working abroad in public health is something I’ve seen colleagues do and has been a dream of mine to actually get to do myself. This money is really meaningful to me and is going to make this experience possible. I’m excited for my practicum, as maternal mortality prevention has been an interest of mine, but getting to see how it is practiced in the field with vulnerable populations from different cultural backgrounds is going to be really informative to my education and allow me to bring best practices back to the Chapel Hill community.”

Yovania Dechtiar – Gender Links in Mauritius

“Receiving this funding is an incredible opportunity for me as it allows me to give back to my home country! I am excited to go back home and to use knowledge and skills that I developed in recent years and learn how to adapt them within the context of Mauritius. I will be working with Gender Links, an NGO that strongly advocates for the advancement of women. I left Mauritius since I was 18, mostly oblivious of the challenges that women face. As I have grown and developed into a woman myself within the North American context, I have often reflected on what being a woman means within the Mauritian context. I am especially grateful that the funding will allow me to better understand the realities of the Mauritian women and contribute to her advancement.”

Dana Corbett – Curamericas Global in Kenya

“When I found out that I received the Global Practice Award to support my practicum, I felt an enormous amount of relief! I am so grateful for the generosity of funders so that I can prepare for and fully embrace my practicum in Kenya without being overly-concerned about finances.”

Erin Case – Save the Children in Washington, D.C.

“Receiving the Global Practice Award for my practicum with Save the Children allows me the space to truly focus on my work rather than worrying about working a second job. Knowing that I have the funding means I can put all of my energy into my work, take on additional projects, and professional development opportunities at Save the Children that will help me build towards the career that I want.”

Emily Berns – Curamericas Global in Guatemala

“Receiving the Global Practice Award is a major support and encouragement in accepting a practicum that excites me, develops a variety of public health skills, and offers the privilege of collaborating in new community and cultural contexts. It shows how the school and alumni value our opportunities and ambitions to engage in meaningful global health work.”

Casey Watters – National University of Ireland – Galway, Health Promotion Research Centre & WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promotion in Ireland

“Receiving the Global Practice Award is incredibly meaningful. It has allowed me the opportunity to focus on my work in adolescent mental health while gathering the necessary quantitative evaluation skills for my continued career in global public health—and I couldn’t do that without this incredibly generous funding.”

UNC Gillings Zambia Hub students:

Gillings Global Hubs are meant to increase students’ skills, faculty opportunities and the Gillings School’s impact.  A consistent presence at particular sites, working with a select group of partners, allows us to provide quality experiences and deliver on strategic themes to improve public health. We are pleased to have the first cohort of students in the Zambia Hub this summer and blogging!

Enam Aidam – Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Lusaka, Zambia

“This practicum grants me the unique opportunity to meet, work and learn from the amazing team of researchers, clinicians and technicians working to advance women’s health in Zambia and other low and middle income countries. Additionally, I will benefit from their guidance and mentorship to publish what will be my first scientific paper!”

Taylor Craig – Lusaka, Zambia

“I am so excited to live in Zambia this summer and work on a cost-effectiveness analysis for the Improving Pregnancy Outcomes with Progesterone Study within the Zambia Hub. I am grateful for this wonderful opportunity and I am looking forward to all I will learn.”

Munguntsetseg Khuyag-Ochir – Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Lusaka, Zambia

“I am so excited to be an intern in the Zambia Hub FAMLI project this summer. I think  the Zambia FAMLI project will help me gain real-life maternal and child health practical experience in a global setting. I am sure that interning in the Mothers and Newborn hospital in Lusaka, Zambia will be a great experience for me to learn about challenges and solutions of global maternal and child health problems. I have two goals this summer. First, to gain more knowledge about implementation science and management skills of global public health programs. Hopefully, I will have opportunities to explore more about Gates Foundation projects. Second, I wish to improve inter-professional communication and collaboration skills, which are main competencies of a MPH degree. I am sure that during this internship I can strengthen these skills from senior public health, medical and other professionals in the Zambia Hub.”

Rebekah Daniel – Lusaka, Zambia

“This past semester I have delved deeper in exploring HIV prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) interventions and am extremely excited to apply my background knowledge and course work in this topic in a real-world setting. Additionally, since I have an interest in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) work, being able to hop on board during the process stage of the Methods for Prevention Packages Program (MP3) has allowed me to monitor and review validated data collection instruments which are a great way for me to begin applying the M&E skills I hope to foster as a public health professional. Last but not least, I am truly excited to be in Lusaka, Zambia this summer! There is always something so invigorating and eye-opening when you leave your comfort zone and step into a setting you may not be as familiar with!”

 

Greetings from Montevideo, Uruguay! This summer my practicum is with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), more specifically their Center for Latin American Perinatology and Women’s Reproductive Health (or in its more efficient Spanish acronym, CLAP/SMR). While PAHO is headquartered in Washington DC, the CLAP/SMR office is home to the region’s MUSA data base (the Spanish acronym for “women in situations of abortion”), which compiles data from 40 sentinel health centers across 13 countries in Latin America. (You can check out a quick video about MUSA here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxqt01BTQ6E).

PAHO’s Perinatal Information System (SIP) maintains a wealth of data regarding maternal and neonatal health outcomes, including a specific database, SIP-A, that is dedicated to clinical information about abortion, miscarriage management, and post-abortion care. Unsafe abortion, while completely preventable, is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality globally, and contributes to 13% of maternal deaths in Latin American and the Caribbean. At the 40 sentinel health centers across the region, whether a person is accessing a legal abortion, seeking medical treatment following an unsafe abortion, or experiencing a miscarriage, their clinical and sociodemographic data will be collected in SIP-A. These data include the presence of any complications, a near miss or maternal death, as well as whether or not a pregnancy was planned, whether the pregnancy was a result of a contraceptive method failure, and whether the person begins a contraceptive method as part of their post-abortion care. My practicum this summer is focused on analyzing data from SIP-A.

Thus far, I’ve had the chance to sit in on a meeting with the Uruguayan Ministry of Public Health and CLAP/SMR staff in order to see how SIP-A works with the Uruguayan health system’s protocols around abortion and miscarriage. As one of the only countries in the region where abortion is legally available without restriction as to reason (the other two are Cuba and Guyana), Uruguay provides a unique context both for my practicum and for working with the data in SIP-A. Using this regional database, I’ve been analyzing contraceptive counseling and service provision as a part of post-abortion care. This includes looking at what type of contraceptive method patients request, as well what methods doctors provide. Depending on the context, these contraceptive methods may include long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), or other methods, such as pills, injectables, or sterilization.

As I wrap up my time in Montevideo, it is now clearer to me than ever before how important accurate data is in making informed public health decisions. Working alongside experts in reproductive health, research, epidemiology, and medicine over the past few weeks has been an incredible way to see how bringing together a wealth of perspectives and approaches can be used to improve health at every level, whether it is a patient-provider interaction or a region-wide policy change.

-Mallory

Since my last blog post, I have jumped into the deep end of process evaluation. Shifra used a human centered design methodology to create their app. (As a reminder- Shifra uses mhealth technology to connect refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers with sexual and reproductive health services in Melbourne, Australia) Human centered design prioritizes empathizing with the end user and getting a deep understanding of their lived experience, designing solutions that arise from the insights gained through empathy exercises, and then prototyping those solutions with the target population. However, most evaluation work has focused on evaluating the solutions generated rather than the process itself. In exploring how to evaluate whether Shifra engaged in a true human centered design process, I did a lot of research and talked with experts in the field including public health professors at UNC and design experts at Monash University in Melbourne.

I ended up creating a checklist of requisite steps involved in a human centered design process and interviewed refugee end users, developers, and subject matter experts who all contributed to the creation of the app. My next step is to review Shifra’s records to help me understand the process and the steps they took. Then I’ll analyze the interviews to help me understand different co-designers’ experiences creating the app. Finally, I’ll synthesize the results and write up my findings. (Hello master’s paper!)

Throughout this evaluation process, I have been so impressed by Shifra staff’s openness and desire to learn from their experiences. They truly adopt several mindsets of human centered design: to learn from failure, embrace curiosity, and stay optimistic. I am so thankful for the chance to learn from this organization and I look forward to staying in touch with them in the future. 🙂

-Jess