Partners in Health
Hannah Burnett, 2010
During the month of January I volunteered at Partners In Health, an international non-profit based in Boston, MA. Partners In Health (PIH) is dedicated to providing a preferential option for the poor, providing medical care as well as addressing socioeconomic issues, from a position of solidarity and social justice. PIH works in nine different countries around the world, including Haiti, Rwanda, Malawi, Lesotho, Peru, USA, Russia, and supports programs in Chiapas, Mexico and Guatemala. I was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to volunteer at Partners In Health last January, which gave me a good chance to familiarize myself with the organization, their work, and various departments within PIH. I spent the majority of my time working with the development and training teams, doing various short term projects and made some really strong connections with the organization. This year I had the opportunity to work directly with the training team on a specific project, the HIV Curriculum for Physicians and Nurses. This curriculum is part of a grant from the Gates Foundation that included two other curricula, as well as the construction of a new training facility for PIH in Rwinkwavu, Rwanda.
The goal of this curriculum is to train local physicians and nurses about addressing HIV education, identification, treatment and associated problems. This curriculum is based on the PIH Model of Care, which is used in all of their programs but adapted for each particular site and community. Initially, this curriculum will be used by Inshuti Mu Buzima (Partners In Health in Kinyarwanda) in rural Rwanda, where one of the main goals of PIH is to scale up HIV treatment and care in rural Rwanda and develop and disseminate a rural care model for HIV that can be replication and used throughout Rwanda and sub-Saharan Africa. The curriculum will be made up of 12 modules and will eventually be translated and revised to be put into use at all of PIH’s sites where HIV is a major problem.
During my internship, I worked on two units of the curriculum: managing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and human rights and the PIH Model of Care. For the unit on STIs, I made basic revisions, tested the activities as if I was a trainer, and had the opportunities to write a few training activities for the unit. During this process created accompanying PowerPoint presentations and participant activity manuals, as well as doing some epidemiological and medical research for the content. After completing this unit, I worked on creating a curriculum about human rights and their role in health care and more specifically through the PIH model of care. This was a really challenging assignment, but tied together what I had learned about PIH as an organization as well as applied what I had learned about training and curriculum writing. In addition to my work with the curriculum, I had the opportunity to attend several lectures about PIH’s programs around the world, as well as a few lectures by Paul Farmer, one of the founders of the organization, and one of my personal heroes for his work in global health and social justice. During this experience, I was also able to plan a lecture by Paul Farmer at Middlebury, as well as plan an exhibition of their photo exhibit, On the Same Map: Hope is a Human Right, which will be on display in Bicentennial Hall for a month this spring, in conjunction with the global health symposium.
This internship was an incredible opportunity for me to get some practical experience in the field of global health and apply some of my coursework as an independent scholar in medical anthropology and international public health. I already knew that I would love being at PIH, because of my volunteer position last year, but it reinforced the fact that this is where my passion lies and is the type of work I hope to be doing in the future. Everyday I woke up excited to go to work and left at 5:30 in disbelief that the day was already over; I think I have found my dream job!
During this experience, I had a lot of opportunities to talk with various staff members and volunteers about their experiences in the field of global health, as well as the paths they took to get there. I came to realize that there really isn’t a set path to a career in this field, and that although there is much to be said about planning ahead, it is so important to be flexible, to take opportunities as they come, and to keep networking! It has come to my attention that field experience, either with an NGO, through a fellowship, or a program like the Peace Corps is a necessary step, as is some sort of graduate program. I am very appreciative of the opportunity to get many different suggestions and ideas, but am also walking away from the experience with an understanding that this journey is very personal, and I need to be true to myself and my interests as I pursue a career in the field.
During this internship, through organizing a lecture at Middlebury by Paul Farmer, as well as a visiting display of the PIH photo exhibit in Bicentennial Hall, I spent a lot of time talking about advocacy, raising awareness, and how to present issues of health, social justice, and human rights to university students. These conversations were not only instrumental in helping the organization of these events, but also the 2009 Spring Symposium on Global Health and creating the framework for a social justice and global health movement on campus. These discussions really challenged me to identify how I relate to the field, as well as begin thinking about the broader context of Middlebury, and the role of global health and social justice in our curriculum and in the college community, something I have been hoping to be a part of since applying to be an independent scholar. The importance of raising awareness and increasing activism for global issues is something that I feel is very much a part of Middlebury, and having the opportunity to begin to really think about the importance of how this impact is made has really clarified many of my experiences at Middlebury, studying abroad, and at PIH. I have come to realize that much of my interest in global health lies in this need to shift the paradigm about these issues, to raise awareness, promote activism, and create change through developing a perspective of solidarity and social justice, something I hope to be able to continue on campus as well as at PIH this summer.
For more information about this internship visit www.pih.org or contact the Career Services Office!
