Refugee Health

[Newt23]

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I am looking forward to beginning the process of accumulating international experiences.

my hope is to intern for a big international agency like the WHO or UNICEF-or something along these lines.

My particular interest is in refugee health. Do you have any advice on how to pursue an internship with a focus on refugee health? Whom should I try to work?

 

[Newt23]

Or if you have any advice for a summer internship with an international organization that works with the underserved..I would like to hear your thoughts

 

[MolBio]

I believe that the UN agency you are thinking of is the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR: http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c49d.html). The other is the International Organization for Migration: http://www.iom.int/jahia/page1402.html

To my knowledge, WHO does not do a lot of work in refugee health, while UNICEF does do some child health activities in emergency settings, that is not its primary activity.

If you can't find anything international at first from having no experience, you might want to start with domestic experience dealing with health of refugees coming to the US; try International Rescue Committee (IRC: http://www.rescue.org/volunteering). They're a solid NGO and I've known people who interned and worked there and enjoyed it. And c'mon, their celebrity spokesperson is Rashida Jones.

MB

 

[EpiWin]

And c'mon, their celebrity spokesperson is Rashida Jones.

MB

Did somebody mention my future wife? 😀

Also check out centers at some of the public health schools. For example, Johns Hopkins has professors that are doing domestic and international research in refugee health, which could be a good building block (their Center can be found here: http://www.jhsph.edu/refugee/). It's a good alternative to working with NGOs if that's a direction you're interested in.

 

[Newt23]

Thanks so much...I do think that I would rather work with an academic center or an international institution, if possible.

It seems that these experiences will be very difficult to come by though. Should I just email places to see if there are any opportunities? How early-before the summer- should I do this?

 

[EpiWin]

Thanks so much...I do think that I would rather work with an academic center or an international institution, if possible.

It seems that these experiences will be very difficult to come by though. Should I just email places to see if there are any opportunities? How early-before the summer- should I do this?

The tough thing with a lot of positions working as RAs with professors is that availability doesn't tend to open up until the spring and summer. One thing to do is do some research on the professors that interest you, and then target them with emails introducing yourself, expressing interest in the work that they carry out, and asking them if they might have some opportunities closer to graduation. Most will likely tell you to email them back later on next year, but some may have more knowledge about fellowships/programs that may have earlier deadlines that you can jump on.

 

[Newt23]

That is good advice. here is another question. If you were in my shoes-a young med student with a goal to do international work in the future- what experiences would you begin to collect.

I know there are a lot of options, but I also know that I will have to become more narrow in my scope. I just wonder if you have advice on what types of opportunities to look for in order to narrow my scope.

 

[member 13588]

Newt23, as a future physician you are in a position to choose where you want to be (at some point anyway) in the future. In my opinion, experiences to prepare you for a career in international health could range from the most intense, like getting an MD and a PhD in medical anthropology like Dr. Paul Farmer, who went on to start Partners in Health (read Mountains Beyond Mountains, decent book), to looking at Global Health masters, to just using your future medical degree by itself to get where you want to be. A standalone medical degree is a great tool to have and tends to open doors. Besides education, it is advantageous to be multilingual and of course physically fit. As a current med student your future is fairly open-ended and up to you as far as how intense you want be about it.

 

[Newt23]

Thank you once again for the input!

It seems that you are right; physicians have a particular flexibility when approaching their role in global health.

That is exactly my inquiry. How does one begin to narrow the scope? I am particularly interested in which types of organizations I should begin to focus my attention for gaining experience.

I think I will apply to main office internships at:
WHO
UNHCR
UNICEF
Perhaps Red Cross

And then focus on a couple countries of particular interest to see whether I can get involved with academic projects in a particular country.

I was hoping that you guys could help me add to the list of potential internships in the field of global health in either an international body or academic project. It need not only be refugee care, it can be global health in general.

Also, if you have any advice on how to narrow my scope (ie. how determine between policy vs. mental health, etc.) I would appreciate your ideas (like what are really good grounding opportunities in GH).

 

[RH2011]

Newt,

Being a a med student gives you more opportunities (in my opinion) than just a "regular" mph student. In regards to narrowing your scope, I would suggest looking for a general international internship and seeking what interests spike up..

Here is a list of other NGOs/associations you should look into regarding refugees:
CARE - based in atlanta www.care.org
American Refugee Committee based in Minnesota www.arcrelief.org
Catholic relief services www.crs.org
International rescue committee.. www.rescue.org (has a lot of internships available stateside and programs that take international interns)
World relief
Doctors without Borders (esp. good for med students! as it is medically focused)

These are competitive programs.. If you dont have much experience yet.. I would suggest doing a search for "refugee" programs on Idealist.org to see what kind of smaller orgs are out there.

Good luck!

 

[Newt23]

So these would be the organizations you would recommend in order to get a good introductory understudying to global health?

Also, do you guys have any thoughts on good opportunities for domestic health inequity research or other type of work?

Thanks again!

 

[Dannyjoy]

I am looking forward to beginning the process of accumulating international experiences.

my hope is to intern for a big international agency like the WHO or UNICEF-or something along these lines.

My particular interest is in refugee health. Do you have any advice on how to pursue an internship with a focus on refugee health? Whom should I try to work?

There is my friend who is doing internship from York University, you can have a look of it.

 

[Newt23]

Would anyone be willing to discuss talk about the organization you interned for, and your experience with that organization?

Or does anyone know where I can find "reviews" of interns experience?

Thanks

 

[Newt23]

Anyone with ideas??

 

[mphplease]

Anyone with ideas??

Last week, I was at a talk given by the founder of refugepoint. Check it out!