This summer, the Maternal Health Task Force will support eight students at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health as they apply their skills and knowledge to internships in maternal health. Students will collaborate with partner organizations and receive a stipend to cover travel and accommodations. Project topics include maternal mental health, health equity and social determinants, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
The following were selected for the 2016 summer internship in maternal health travel awards:
- Emeka Agudile will travel to Nairobi, Kenya to work with the African Mental Health Foundation to document the prevalence of and factors associated with peri-partum depression in rural Kenya and a subsequent project on child development and maternal mental health status.
- Alexandra Bellows will travel to Rufiji, Tanzania to work with the Nutrition-Sensitive Homestead Food Production Project on a project to integrate agricultural, nutrition, and maternal health interventions and test a model for basic rural healthcare.
- Amiya Bhatia will travel to Pelotas, Brazil to work with the International Center for Equity in Health to measure progress in maternal and newborn health with an emphasis on equity and social determinants.
- Vanessa Brizuela will travel either to Geneva, Switzerland to work with the Human Reproduction Programme at the World Health Organization on research related to sexual and reproductive health or to Kigali, Rwanda to work with Ybank on a project focused on adolescent health and HIV.
- Adanna Chukwuma will travel to Enuga, Nigeria to work with University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital to conduct a qualitative study of barriers and facilitators of postnatal care among women in South-Eastern Nigeria.
- Adrienne Epstein will travel to Conakry, Guinea to work with RTI International and the President’s Malaria Initiative on a mixed methods study of malaria in pregnant women.
- Joshua Jeong will travel to Karachi, Pakistan to work with Aga Khan University on maternal and child health research.
- Osondu Ogbuoji will travel to Nassarawa, Nigeria to work with Pro-Health International to conduct a discrete choice experiment on women’s care-seeking related to PMTCT.
We are proud to help facilitate these innovative projects and look forward to learning about our students’ experiences, contributions, and insights!
If you or your organization is interested in working with a young leader in maternal health in the future, please contact us.