Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ARGENTINA
Rebecca Ochs, Summer 2012
This photo is from one of the Equisalud outreach projects in
Villa 31, the largest slum in Buenos Aires.
Rebecca spent ten weeks in Argentina working at Hospital
Bernadino Rivadavia, a public hospital in Buenos Aires that
treats mainly poor immigrants from other South American
countries. She rotated through various wards of the hospital
to shadow doctors in many different areas of healthcare and
to learn how the public healthcare system in Argentina
functions. She spent time in maternity and obstetrics,
pediatrics, gynecology, adolescent sexual and reproductive
health, and the emergency room. Although she found all
wards interesting, Rebecca spent a large portion of her time in adolescent sexual and reproductive health.
In this part of the hospital, she was able to work closely with doctors to provide healthcare to women
under the age of 21. Here, she was also able to teach weekly lessons on the female and male reproductive
systems, consensual sex and healthy relationships, and contraceptives.
Rebecca also joined Argentine medical students on capacity building projects in the urban slums through
Fundació n Equisalud. She volunteered at a free clinic on the edge of the largest slum in Buenos Aires and
participated in additional projects deep in the heart of the slum. These included vaccination clinics,
HIV/AIDS prevention, condom distribution, and safe sex awareness programs.
She lived with a host family for all ten weeks and on weekends traveled to many areas of the country.
Whether venturing into the high peaks of the Andes Mountains or whale watching in Patagonia, Rebecca
was able to experience the diversity Argentina has to offer, while at the same time gaining a deep
knowledge and understanding of Argentine culture and the hardships the country's poor urban
populations face on a daily basis.
BELIZE
Jill Hsia, Summer 2011
Jill Hsia spent eight weeks over the summer volunteering as a
health intern with ProWorld Service Corps in Belize. For the first
four weeks, she volunteered in the maternal and child health unit
at San Ignacio Regional Hospital, working with the nurses in triage
and assisting the OB/GYN and pediatrician. Since the services
offered by the government-funded hospital were free to the public,
the clinic was extremely busy, sometimes seeing over 80 patients
in 6 hours. During her second month in Belize, Jill worked in
Mopan Health Clinic, another government run health facility that is
near the border of Guatemala. At the health clinic, she assisted the
nurses in triage, worked in the pharmacy and the front desk. She
also worked in outreach clinics with ProWorld Belize. Members of
the community came into the outreach clinic to get screened for
diabetes and hypertension. Upon getting screened, patients were
given nutrition, fitness, blood pressure and sugar management education. Jill spent the last two weeks of
her field experience volunteering at a youth empowerment camp. Campers would attend a lecture in the
mornings and participate in organized sports tournaments in the afternoon. Lecture topics included
STD/STI education, hygiene, drug and alcohol abuse, disaster preparedness, and healthy eating. Jill and
several other ProWorld Belize volunteers had the opportunity to present a program on nutrition labels
and exercise to the campers.
Student Field Experiences 2011-2012
Jonathan Lin, Summer 2012
This picture was taken during Jonathan's time volunteering
at Northern Medical Specialty Plaza. On this day, a baby
named Chloe had just been born and the paediatrician was
checking her Apgar score and vitals.
Jonathan spent eight weeks during the summer of 2012 in
Orange Walk Town, Belize shadowing and assisting nurses
and doctors in three different healthcare settings. During his
first three weeks, Jonathan volunteered at a maternity clinic
where he was able to assist nurses, work at a pharmacy, and
observe strategies. What surprised him most was that
doctors in Belize often practiced outside their specialties.
For example, the Ob/Gyn at the maternity ward saw male
patients often and assisted in hysterectomy surgeries. Next, Jonathan volunteered at a clinical laboratory
for two weeks. Here, he assisted the lab technician with blood, chemistry, urine, stool and parasitology
tests. It was a great opportunity to integrate knowledge from his coursework with the various
biochemical tests.
For the last three weeks, Jonathan shadowed doctors and nurses at Northern Medical Specialty Plaza. He
had the opportunity to rotate between the reception, emergency room, in-patient rooms, and operating
room. Here, he saw the most cases, different kinds of illnesses, and variety of doctors! These
opportunities as well as immersion with a homestay family opened Jonathan's eyes to the different kinds
of culture and healthcare in the world.
CAMBODIA
Stephen Siu, Summer 2012
Stephen Siu spent eight weeks in Phnom Penh, Cambodia,
working with a local NGO (Khmer Women's Corporation for
Development) that focused on HIV/AIDS prevention and
education as well as human trafficking problems. He
accompanied the HIV/AIDS team out into the local community
to perform outreach and educational programs, which
involved going into beer gardens, massage parlors, karaoke
bars, and other entertainment establishments where many
indirect sex workers are employed, and gaining permission to
hold and lead group discussions and lessons about HIV/AIDS,
STIs, and other issues with willing employees. KWCD also
provided condoms and vouchers for treatment and testing.
Stephen also worked with another volunteer in writing the annual report for 2011 as well as the 2012-
2016 strategic plan, as well as grant applications for PSI and USAID, which involved data compilations,
interviews with participants and target groups, and other local staff. For two and a half weeks, he spent
additional time working with an HIV/AIDS orphanage (SFODA), helping care for the children and
working with the teacher to plan English lessons that were held throughout the day.
Student Field Experiences 2011-2012
CHINA
Philina Yee, Summer 2012
Philina Yee spent this past summer in Beijing, China as a study abroad
student in Peking University-Northwestern University's Public Health
program. She took three courses: Mandarin, Public Health in China, and
Traditional Chinese Medicine. Philina had taken Intro to Public Health at
Cornell the previous semester. Learning about major public health issues in
a different country supplemented her understanding about global health.
She noticed various common factors like income disparity, political
corruption, and poor allocation of resources that burden the health of many
countries. The lectures were presented by Peking U professors who were
also conducting research in medicine and public health.
COSTA RICA
Alysia Wiener, Summer 2012
Alysia volunteered in San Jose, Costa Rica volunteering in several health
related fields. For the first two weeks she worked with Clinica Mana, a
clinic that serves patients without medical insurance and performs
checkups and treatments at a reduced cost. In the mornings, she
volunteered with one of the nurses and performed routine checkups, i.e.
taking pulse, blood pressure, checking ears, throat, eyes, etc. In the
afternoons, she shadowed the doctors in the clinic meeting with patients.
For another two weeks, she and another volunteer worked on health
education projects. They made materials and posters and presented the
information on HIV/AIDS, nutrition specifically for HIV positive patients,
cuts and scrapes care, and hygiene to the HIV-positive residency
home, Hogar de la Esperanza. They did this for several other sites such as a
childcare facility run in a church in one of the slums, La Carpio, in the
surrounding area of San Jose. They gave parents and children that came in
to the childcare facility on soup kitchen day information on nutrition and hygiene as well as assisted
medical school students that came in and did routine checkups. For the remaining 4 weeks, she
shadowed paramedics at the Trasmedic Ambulance Service. The ambulance services in Costa Rica are
privatized so a person or company pays a certain ambulance service to provide care when needed. Most
of the calls we received were from companies, schools, and wealthier people and the cases varied from a
women with high blood pressure to trauma. The privatized system that they have also limited the
number of cases received each day so while waiting for calls the paramedics taught her how to put in an
IV and give injections. While responding to calls, she was able to assist with hospital transfers and taking
patients' blood pressure, pulse, etc. Lastly, she was able to see a great number of the hospitals in San Jose
through the hospital transfers as well as a tour through the children's hospital, Hospital Nacional de
Ninos. This opportunity to see and really appreciate so many different sectors of Costa Rican healthcare
was unforgettable.
Student Field Experiences 2011-2012
ECUADOR
Stephen Allegra, Summer 2011
Living and working on the northern coast of Ecuador was definitely a
change of pace compared to Stephen's usual summers in New Jersey.
Stephen shared a small biological reserve station bordering shrimp
farms and an estuary with a few volunteers and some local workers in
the province of Esmeraldas on the northern coast of Ecuador. His work
activities were extremely varied day to day. He assisted three days a
week at the local hospital in a few departments including triage,
outpatient, emergency services, laboratory, and in the delivery room.
Stephen usually shadowed one or two doctors who were in their last
year of residency, which in Ecuador is spent in rural settings
determined by the government, or worked in the lab. He also witnessed
three live births in the delivery room. With the two other days in his
week, Stephen worked alongside the other volunteers and local farmers
to promote environmentally friendly community practices. They
assisted in cocoa harvesting, clearing land with machetes, planted corn,
built fences, herded cattle, milked cows and constructed trash cans. In
addition to these projects, Stephen assisted a Peace Corps volunteer with implementing three sets of
sexual education workshops within the community for teenagers in order to discuss the social and
physical repercussions of being sexually active. Overall, Stephen's experience in Ecuador was one which
he will always fondly remember. Other than just solidifying his passion for volunteerism, he had a great
time exploring different places within Ecuador and eventually Peru, and his appreciation of Native South
American cultures has grown immensely.
GHANA
Margo Jacobsen, Summer 2012
Margo volunteered with a small local NGO, Care Net Ghana
(www.carenetghana.org) that worked in the Volta Region
of Ghana. During the first month she was there, she
assisted in conducting fieldwork and data collection for a
maternal and child health project run by the NGO. She
visited rural communities with the project manager and
spoke with TBAs who underwent trainings on proper ANC,
PNC, family planning, and delivery services to observe and
record how work in their communities has been since the
training sessions. Margo also worked closely with the
director of the NGO and project officers to develop new
programs, write proposals for funding, create videos,
organize fundraising venues, and write the NGOs annual
report.
HAITI
Heather Larkin, Summer 2012
Heather Larkin did her field experience in Petite Riviere de
Nippes, Haiti. She worked with Gift of Water, a non-profit which
works to provide clean water to rural communities through
point-of-use water purifiers. She was able to work as an
interpreter and international coordinator, collect demographic
information in the field, and design her own pilot health impact
study.
HONDURAS
Josh Sperling, Summer 2012
Josh spent most of summer 2012 completing an externship
in Honduras with the "Guardianes de Salud" program
through an international NGO, Global Brigades. Following
up on two weeks in temporary medical clinics in rural
areas, Josh had the opportunity to work with an amazing
group of community health workers (CHWs) in two rural
communities. Over the course of the summer, he and three
other interns facilitated community discussions, lead
review activities, and taught about diabetes and
cardiovascular issues. They were in turn instructed by the
CHWs in home births, natural remedies, and the realities of rural health provision. The highlight of the
experience was partnering together to teach health education classes in the local schools, followed by
cooking and sharing a meal in the homes of several CHWs. Overall, it was an incredible summer working
within a local health system and an incomparable experience. Contact: Josh Sperling.
INDIA
Tiffany Rose, Summer 2012
For her field experience this summer, Tiffany Rose went to
Madurai in the state of Tamil Nadu India where she was able
to shadow an OB/GYN by the name of Dr. R. Govindammal
in a Maternity Hospital that she operated there called
Booma Nursing Home. Mostly, Tiffany played the role of
an observer and a student. Mainly she was responsible for
shadowing the doctor through patient consultations,
diagnoses and treatments, and requesting and
reviewing individual case histories as well as researching
unfamiliar medical terms and conditions as necessary, in
order to self-facilitate the most enriching learning
experience in the clinical environment. Tiffany witnessed a
host of gynecological and obstetric procedures such as routine pelvic examinations and obstetric
consultations, vaginal deliveries, cesarean deliveries, dilation and curettage, sterilization procedures,
episiotomies and vaginal and abdominal hysterectomies. She was also able to see a circumcision, and an
anal sphincter repair as well.
Student Field Experiences 2011-2012
KENYA
Julie Mina, Summer 2012
This picture was taken at an orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya, that
doubled as a rehabilitation program for "street boys". The boys
taught Julie how to snap her fingers in an unconventional way, by
whipping her index finger against her middle finger.
Many children in Nairobi, including the boys in the picture, spend
most of their time begging for food and money in the streets. They
are taught to do this from a very young age, because it is more likely
that a foreigner will give money to a seemingly innocent child than
an adult. This program, titled "RAHA Kids", strives to make a change
in the lives of these children and aims to help build for them a better
future. RAHA Kids stands for Rehabilitating And Helping Abandoned
Kids, and the word "Raha" in Swahili means happiness, joy, comfort,
rest, contentment, and bliss. Julie spent approximately a month of
her two-and-a-half month stay in Africa at RAHA Kids. Here, she taught them hygiene and other basic
subjects like mathematics, science, English, and social studies.
During the rest of her time, Julie volunteered at the Hope Center in Nairobi, which provided for HIV/AIDS
patients. In addition to this, she also shadowed doctors in private clinics in the area and observed
surgeries.
Her field experience has helped her to see the need Kenya, and other African countries, have for better
medical attention and development. She hopes to begin a fundraising program for the RAHA Kids that
she met and all future RAHA Kids. If the program is successful, she would like to expand it to other areas
in Kenya and then other countries in Africa. She is studying to be a doctor, and currently sees her future
career bringing her back to Kenya.
MADAGASCAR
Emma Sheldon, Summer 2011
Emma studied abroad with SIT to learn about traditional medicine and
healthcare systems in Madagascar, one of the ten poorest countries in the
world. This work consisted of meeting and interviewing traditional
healers and birth attendants, hospital executives, Ministry of Health
officials, the director of an American NGO working in Madagascar and
local inhabitants. These interviews provided deep and multifaceted
insight about the health services and care-seeking behaviours that
Malagasy people, healers and doctors undertake, as well as the many
troubling healthcare problems this incredibly poor country faces. Emma
also took two classes at the University of Antananarivo, called Social and
Political Dimensions of Health and Healthcare Practices in Madagascar,
whose class materials were intermingled with and highly related to these
interviews. These lectures were given by a variety of professors and
healthcare professionals, covering topics from the history and political
climate of Madagascar to the uses and conservation of particularly
valuable medical plants that are endemic to the island. One part of Emma's class activities invalid writing
an independent research paper, for which she conducted private interviews with professionals and
inhabitants of a rural village regarding maternal mortality. This program also included time with the
University's graduate Pharmacology Department, whose students became her friends and translators in
different interviews for independent research. She additionally took key Malagasy lessons to help with
Student Field Experiences 2011-2012
her new Malagasy friends and wonderful homestay families.
MALI
Rye Ri Son, Spring 2012
During the spring semester of her junior year, Rye Ri went
to Mali to study women’s health, gender issues, and
community empowerment with the School for International
Training’s study abroad program. During her stay, she lived
with a host family, which enabled her to have six sisters,
two cousins, and countless aunts and uncles. Everyday, she
went to school and took classes taught by local Malians who
specialized in a particular health or socio-cultural field. As
the program greatly advocated a thorough immersion of its
students, classes were all taught in French—the official
language of the country. Rye Ri was able to shadow a
midwife in a rural clinic for 24 hours and therefore able to witness two live births. She also visited and
talked with local doctors, traditional healers, the Peace Corps, midwives, and women’s empowerment
organizations.
Unfortunately, her time abroad had to be cut short due to political unrest within the country. However,
this experience shaped her understanding of how an individual’s health is the product of many
underlying factors that are not only of nutritional origin, but also of social, cultural, political, and
economic origins. Mali also helped to solidify her passion to work globally in the maternal health field.
MEXICO
Jacqueline Riviera, Summer 2012
This photo was taken during the first workshop of the
Strengthening, Training, and Continuation of Midwives and
Community Health Promoters Program. The majority, if not
all, of the program participants are from local indigenous
communities. Here one of the youngest program
participants practices taking blood pressure.
Jacqueline (Jacky) spent ten weeks during the summer of
2012 in Chiapas, Mexico through Cornell's International
Agriculture & Rural Development (IARD) course, IARD
6010: Experience Latin America II: Chiapas Edition. The
course involved a two-week living experience in Chiapas--
tierra rica pueblo pobre (a land rich in natural resources
and yet it's people live in poverty)--during which Jacky and her classmates visited several communities
and organizations; learning and engaging with the various indigenous/non-indigenous peoples, cultures,
environments, ecologies, and development and social issues of the state. Afterwards, students were given
the opportunity to stay for an extra 8 weeks to intern with a local NGO or college on projects related to
their field of interest. Jacky interned at Fundacion Leon XIII, IAP--one of the first NGOs to arise in
response to the Zapatista Revolution in 1994. At the Fundacion, Jacky worked with the health team on
reintegrating an "Area of Nutrition" within the organization's clinic by writing up a work plan proposal
for the program. Her other responsibilities included assisting in the preparation and execution of
monthly workshops for midwives and community health promoters, and organizing the clinic's pharmacy
as well as creating a more organized system for filing patient clinical histories.
Student Field Experiences 2011-2012
MONGOLIA
Audrey Kingman, Summer 2012
This picture is of Audrey carrying one of the many newborns that she
observed being delivered. During her 8 weeks in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia,
Audrey shadowed numerous surgeons in three different hospitals - the
Shastin Hospital, Mother and Child Research Center, and the Railway
Hospital. She observed a myriad of surgeries, including, but not limited
to, cataract surgery, brain aneurysm clipping, spinal meningimoa
excision, multiple ovarian tumour and myoma excisions, caesarean
sections and even a finger amputation. While she wasn't busy in the
operating rooms, she would fold surgical bandages and gauze. She also
helped prepare intravenous injections and give muscular injections to
patients in surgical recovery. While working in the Mother and Child
Research Center, Audrey learnt how to give cervical exams and assisted in
multiple simple procedures like abortions. Along with other medical
volunteers, she visited numerous museums, including the Museum of
Traditional Mongolian Medicine and gave basic medical on patients at
Dolma Ling Community Center for the poor and homeless. As part of an effort to reduce infection
transmission within the surgical wards, Audrey and a group of medical volunteers initiated a hand-
sanitizing campaign in the Central Hospital to teach the staff and patients about how germs are spread
around a hospital and to emphasize the importance of hand washing. They were able to receive
sponsorship from friends and family to purchase a large supply of hand sanitizers that were passed out
during the presentation. On several weekends, Audrey took full advantage of being in the nomadic
country of Mongolia and had the wonderful opportunity to travel to the countryside with her new friends
to ride horses and camels, sleep in gers (traditional nomadic tents) and appreciate the beautiful
landscape of the Mongolian steppes and desert while eating traditional Mongolian barbecue.
NEPAL
Sarah Shearer, Spring 2011
During her study abroad in Nepal, Sarah spent a month in the rural
district of Pyuthan to study maternal health in the area. Considering
Nepal's recent progress toward reaching the Millennium Development
Goal of improving maternal health, her goals were to understand the
maternal health trends in Pyuthan and see how these trends relate to the
national trends. Sarah also wanted to develop some lessons that policy-
makers could take away from the situation in Pyuthan. She and her
translator stayed with a host family and traveled to the few health posts
and one district hospital in Pyuthan to conduct interviews. They also
interviewed people in the village they lived in. By the end of their stay,
Sarah and her translator had interviewed 26 women, 7 husbands or in-
laws, 9 health staff or volunteers, and 1 midwife. Sarah heard many
stories from incredibly strong women and learned so much about the
issues involved with improving maternal health. Her whole study abroad
experience was amazing, but the research part definitely taught her
invaluable lessons.
Student Field Experiences 2011-2012
NICARAGUA
Hillary Paulsen, Summer 2012
Hillary Paulsen spent two months in Nicaragua as a
research assistant for a prevalence study on Chronic
Kidney Disease (CKD) in southern Nicaragua. Data
collection consisted of traveling to a randomly
picked community in Rivas, visiting homes and asking as
many adults as possible to participate. Specifically,
individuals completed a 20 minute questionnaire about
health history, drinking habits, and labor history, as well
as blood and urine tests that she and other samplers
would complete in the field.
A couple weeks into the study, it became apparent that the population we were studying was particularly
useful for a cohort study, so Hillary took on the task of ensuring that they could revisit these homes in the
future. This was surprisingly difficult since a typical Nicaraguan address is "100 meters up from the
church." She became an untraditional cartographer, starting with hand drawn maps from other team
members, and using GPS coordinates, Google Earth screenshots, and photos to create labeled maps and
visual references of participating homes. Hillary hopes that her work helps to motivate and make it easier
for future groups to come down to Nicaragua and continue research on CKD.
PERU
Meredith Burcyk, Summer 2011
Meredith spent 8-weeks interning with the Special Olympics
Healthy Athletes program in Lima, Peru this summer. During
her stay, Meredith had the opportunity to volunteer at 3
different Health Athletes health-screening events, one in
Mexico and two in Peru. At each event, she organized the
volunteers and measured the weight and height of all of the
athletes. In addition to attending screening events, Meredith
created culturally appropriate presentations in Spanish to
illustrate the needs of people with intellectual disabilities and
the lack of adequate health care that they receive. The overall
message of each presentation was to inform others that people
with intellectual disabilities deserve to be treated with the
same dignity and respect as everyone else. Meredith also traveled to Panama City, Panama to the Special
Olympics Latin America headquarters where she learned all about the administrative side of the
program, fundraising and resource allocation.
The largest undertaking Meredith had while in Peru was initiating a research project to investigate the
health status and habits of people with intellectual disabilities in Latin America. Meredith created a
collaboration between Special Olympics and a local medical university in Peru to begin the project. She
wrote-up the research proposal, in Spanish, received ethical approval to begin working with the data, and
wrote all of the research questions to be investigated. The project is currently underway in Peru.
Meredith's experiences in interning with the Special Olympics have solidified her aspirations of working
to improve the health of underserved populations around the world.
Student Field Experiences 2011-2012
PHILIPPINES
Veronique Vicera, Summer 2011
During the first 4 weeks of her stay in the Philippines,
Veronique worked with the Immunization and Prenatal
Program and the TB DOTS/Rabies Control Program under
Cadiz City's Health Clinic. Here, she primarily assisted in the
daily referral flow of incoming patients. She also helped
conduct a citywide Feeding Program aimed at promoting
nutritional sustenance to the city's malnourished child
population through distribution of free dinner meals, twice a
week, to severely underweight children. While in Cadiz, she
additionally worked with students at the Philippine Normal
University, as they developed research project interventions
addressing various health and social conditions afflicting the
community. The second 2 weeks of Veronique's fieldwork involved assuming the role of caretaker to
some 22 children residing with an orphanage in Bacolod City. As part of her duty, she accompanied the
younger children to school, where she helped teach English lessons. A typical day routine at the
orphanage consisted of waking up at 5:30AM, preparing the children's breakfasts and packing their
lunches, feeding the babies, bathing the kids, and getting them dressed for school, going to school and
helping out with the lesson plans, assisting the children with their homework, preparing dinner, feeding
the babies, getting everyone ready for bed by 8:00PM, and then helping the older teens with their
homework assignments until about 9:00PM. The last 2 weeks of Veronique's fieldwork experience was
spent in a town called Cavite, where she worked alongside midwives in the child birthing clinic at the
Maragondon Rural Health Unit. Her role included cleaning up the just-born infant and checking vital
signs as soon as they baby was born. It was also with this infant clinic that she travelled with the unit's
Student Field Experiences 2011-2012
head doctor and several other midwives to a far-flung island accessible only by way of boat to administer
medical attention to the population residing there. Though the team daringly traveled in typhoon rains
to get to the island, the timeliness of this monthly endeavour was of utmost importance since the children
on this island required exact time follow-ups to their immunization sequence. After working on the field,
Veronique spent her last couple of days in the Philippines observing the decentralized healthcare policy
making process at the regional level as well as the national level within the Department of Health
Headquarters in Manilla. This was of special interest to her, since it allowed her to incorporate and apply
everything she'd seen on the field as well as what she's learned in the classroom setting to real-life
policies and programs.
SENEGAL
Victoria Starzyk, Summer 2012
Victoria spent eight weeks over the summer working with
talibéchildren, volunteering at the Red Cross (La Croix Rouge
Sénégalaise) and interning in a local hospital in St. Louis known as
District Sanitaire or in Wolof as Hopital Ousmane Ngom through a
medical placement by Projects Abroad. Her work with the
talibéchildren involved delivering basic medical care to the
children, teaching about hygiene and health to the children in
French, and bringing aid to the children both in the center (Centre
pour Jeunes en Difficultés) and in the daraas where the children
live. She most commonly treated external punctures, cuts, wounds,
and infections like scabies. She also treated many ear infections,
worked to ameliorate the pain of boys with inoperable cancer,
administered antiparasitic drugs, and treated burn victims over an
extended period of time. Skin conditions were the most common
reason for which children came to receive care. After talking with many of the children, and visiting the
locations where they live, it became clear that their open wounds most often resulted from beatings they
had taken from the marabout, and the consequent exposure of their open wounds to the squalor in which
they live. Often she would also teach the children about hygiene in French (with translations in Wolof as
well), giving talks about topics like diarrhea, dehydration, and preventing infection.
In the time she spent at the hospital and at the Red Cross, she started out by mostly observing, and as
time went on was allowed to do simple procedures, and interact more with patients. At the hospital she
spent time in maternity and pediatrics, and with the Red Cross she was working under the umbrella of
general and emergency medicine. Throughout her time in these locations, she was allowed to take blood
pressures, temperatures, heart rates, evaluate breathing, and listen to the baby's heartbeat in expectant
mothers. At the end of her internship at the Red Cross, she was able to give stitches to trauma victims and
treat simple external wounds. In these settings, the prevalence of malaria became most apparent to her
within only a few days of working there. By the end of her time working in theses settings, she was easily
able to recognize the symptoms of malaria in a patient, and helped to diagnose this most often in children
and mothers.
She is grateful for the opportunity she was given to pursue a global health field experience, and she will
never forget the talibéchildren with whom she worked.
Student Field Experiences 2011-2012
SOUTH AFRICA
Jessica Horst, Summer 2012
This is a picture of Jessica with 8 of the children she
worked with, along with one of the full time caregivers and
a fellow volunteer.
Jessica spent 8 weeks over the summer volunteering at
Baphumelele Children's home in Khayelitsha, a township in
Cape Town, South Africa. Baphumelele is home to over 100
local children (from newborns to 18 years old) who are
orphaned, abused, or neglected. Many of the children are
either affected by or infected with HIV/AIDS or have other
health issues that are commonly associated with global
health disparities. Jessica spent most of her time focusing
on the development of the youngest children, a group of 14
kids ranging in age from 6 months to 3 years old. She
learned about the social circumstances surrounding many global health issues and the disparities that are
rampant in this area of South Africa.
TANZANIA
Abigail Augarten, Summer 2012
During the summer of 2012, Abigail Augarten traveled
to Arusha, Tanzania with Global Service Corps (GSC).
GSC is working in Tanzania to implement community
development projects, as well as foster relationships
between U.S. student volunteers and the local NGO
staff. GSC created an integrated approach to
development, combining elements of health and
agriculture in its education seminars. Working in
schools in Arusha center and rural Maasai
communities in the surrounding Arusha area, the
volunteers and Tanzanian counterparts would teach
week-long education seminars. The health curriculum
focused on HIV/AIDS and nutrition. The agriculture curriculum was based on a form of bio-
intensive sustainable agriculture to create an organic approach to, primarily, vegetable
gardening. In addition, volunteers work with members of the rural communities to develop and
construct new technologies for improved water harvesting mechanisms and grain storage bins.
The picture is of Abigail and some of her students from GSC’s Day Camp. In addition to the week-
long seminars, GSC’s program also includes a 2 week-long day camp for 13-15 year olds. The
camp focuses on health (including the topics of HIV, puberty and sex education, nutrition and
overall health) as well as life skills to teach students important communication and decision
making skills. The camp gave volunteers time to play, sing, dance, and talk about life with the
students, creating a strong trustworthy bond and friendship. GSC housed volunteers with
homestay families in Arusha, providing an amazing cultural experience. During the weeks spent
teaching in Maasai rural communities, the trainers camped and were hosted by the community.
The weekends provided times to explore Tanzania: going on a safari, visiting Zanzibar, and
Student Field Experiences 2011-2012
spending time with their families to gain the real Tanzanian experience!
THAILAND
Narinta Limtrakul, Summer 2012
During the summer of 2012, Narinta spent eight weeks in
Thailand with the Mahidol Vivax Research Center (MVRC)
learning and assisting with research projects on malaria
under the guidance of Dr. Jetsumon Prachumsri and her team.
Narinta traveled to several northern villages in Tak Province
and Kanchanaburi Province with MVRC researchers. In the
villages, Narinta worked in malaria clinics, helping health
workers diagnose patients for malaria, learning about
microscopy as the standard of diagnosis, observing the drugs
given according to the type of malaria, and seeing how
medical ethics came into play as she assisted the MVRC team
collect patients' blood for research studies. Moreover, Narinta
was able to participate in active case surveillance and walk around villages collecting blood samples and
demographic data with the MVRC team. While not in the field, Narinta spent time in the MVRC field
laboratory in Kanchanaburi and main laboratory in Bangkok, where she was able to experience the
research side of malaria. Narinta learned about breeding mosquitoes in the lab, diagnostic methods, and
molecular techniques in regard to malaria. The understanding of these laboratory practices has given
Narinta insight as to how potential vectors are identified, how a more efficient diagnostic test could be
produced, and how a vaccine for malaria could potentially be developed. In her free time, Narinta enjoyed
improving her Thai language skills, eating Thai dishes, and walking through the many markets in
Thailand. She thoroughly loved the whole experience.
UGANDA
Danielle Vitalo, Summer 2011
Danielle traveled to a village outside of Jinja, Uganda in the
summer of 2011. She volunteered with an NGO called AOET
(AIDS Orphan Education Trust) that ran a medical clinic, school,
and orphanage. While working in the medical clinic, she was
able to test patients for HIV, malaria, TB, and other diseases, as
well as observe doctors and nurses, and work in the pharmacy. The
clinic also held multiple outreach events in which the staff
traveled to remote villages and brought the healthcare to the
patients. Danielle attended many outreach events, which provided an
exciting mix of traditional culture and modern medicine.
Student Field Experiences 2011-2012
Danielle's favourite part of the experience was spending time with the children in the orphanage and
conversing with patients in the waiting area. She was lucky to be able to attend a Ugandan wedding,
graduation ceremony, and other traditional celebrations, which got her fully immersed in the amazing
culture.