This is the PAHO building where I work. After talking with some people, I realized that I never explained why I am in Barbados and what exactly I am doing. Currently, I am at BYU in the Masters of Public Health program. As part of the requirements for the program, I have to fulfill an internship. I'm in Barbados working for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), specifically the Eastern Caribbean Coordination (ECC) office. PAHO is the oldest international health organization and sometime in the 19050's joined with the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Organization. PAHO now acts as the regional organization for the WHO covering Latin America and the Caribbean. Specifically, I am working in the areas of non-communicable diseases (chronic diseases) and mental health, and we cover the 10 countries in the ECC. I just got my project finalized so I have something specific to work on. I will be working on a diabetes project that involves following up with the 5 participating countries to see where they are in implementing a program to improve the quality of diabetes care in the countries. I'll be writing a survey, sending it out to the ministries of health, analyzing the data and writing report on the findings. In addition, I"ll be learning about mental health and working on some mental health legislation for the islands. Should be pretty interesting. It's not quite like building learning centers out of bamboo and twine with machetes and hammers as your only tools, or like playing with little African orphans, but it's still part of saving the world--even office work and program planning and assessing needs to be done. I'm two full weeks into the internship and have another 6 weeks here in Barbados. This internship is helping me to see what public health is on a day to day basis and give me a feel of what a job might be like. I'll let you know how I like it.
Can you name the 10 eastern Caribbean countries (English speaking)? Next post will reveal the answers, prizes to those who can name them all! (Hint: Barbados is one of the 10 countries)
I actually have a huge cubicle and this is my workspace. I get my own computer, phone, drawers, and overhead cupboards. The chair doesn't look terribly comfortable to sit in for 8 hours/day, and it's not. Don't worry, I switched my chair last week to a comfy swirly one and it has made a world of difference! So far, I've mostly been reading and working on a lit review on the burden of diabetes in the Caribbean. Hopefully, I'll get to do some real work this week and get my project underway. I've also been working on writing a project proposal for my MPH project and doing more background research of the main health issues in the Caribbean. I was talking to a friend about what I do everyday and the response was, "So pretty much you're in school." My response back was, "Yes, it is a lot like school, but I'm going to school in Barbados, so that's makes all the difference." Yes, I research, write proposal, write lit reviews, and read a ton. Good thing I like school!
This is the PAHO building where I work. After talking with some people, I realized that I never explained why I am in Barbados and what exactly I am doing. Currently, I am at BYU in the Masters of Public Health program. As part of the requirements for the program, I have to fulfill an internship. I'm in Barbados working for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), specifically the Eastern Caribbean Coordination (ECC) office. PAHO is the oldest international health organization and sometime in the 19050's joined with the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Organization. PAHO now acts as the regional organization for the WHO covering Latin America and the Caribbean. Specifically, I am working in the areas of non-communicable diseases (chronic diseases) and mental health, and we cover the 10 countries in the ECC. I just got my project finalized so I have something specific to work on. I will be working on a diabetes project that involves following up with the 5 participating countries to see where they are in implementing a program to improve the quality of diabetes care in the countries. I'll be writing a survey, sending it out to the ministries of health, analyzing the data and writing report on the findings. In addition, I"ll be learning about mental health and working on some mental health legislation for the islands. Should be pretty interesting. It's not quite like building learning centers out of bamboo and twine with machetes and hammers as your only tools, or like playing with little African orphans, but it's still part of saving the world--even office work and program planning and assessing needs to be done. I'm two full weeks into the internship and have another 6 weeks here in Barbados. This internship is helping me to see what public health is on a day to day basis and give me a feel of what a job might be like. I'll let you know how I like it.
Can you name the 10 eastern Caribbean countries (English speaking)? Next post will reveal the answers, prizes to those who can name them all! (Hint: Barbados is one of the 10 countries)
I actually have a huge cubicle and this is my workspace. I get my own computer, phone, drawers, and overhead cupboards. The chair doesn't look terribly comfortable to sit in for 8 hours/day, and it's not. Don't worry, I switched my chair last week to a comfy swirly one and it has made a world of difference! So far, I've mostly been reading and working on a lit review on the burden of diabetes in the Caribbean. Hopefully, I'll get to do some real work this week and get my project underway. I've also been working on writing a project proposal for my MPH project and doing more background research of the main health issues in the Caribbean. I was talking to a friend about what I do everyday and the response was, "So pretty much you're in school." My response back was, "Yes, it is a lot like school, but I'm going to school in Barbados, so that's makes all the difference." Yes, I research, write proposal, write lit reviews, and read a ton. Good thing I like school!
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