When I was working at a school for disabled children in Fiji with the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, I saw with my own eyes the dire need that the local people have toward living a healthy life, regardless of whether they are disabled or not. My desire to do something about this is what brought me to this Graduate School.
Being among classmates with medical backgrounds, I worried about what I could do in this field, and during classes on medical subjects, I had many questions filling my head. It was a difficult first year for me.
In my second year, I interned with the Nagasaki University Overseas Research Station Fijian Branch/JICA Project for Strengthening EPI in the Pacific Region, where I received practical training, and then conducted investigation and research on “Factors influencing the uptake of childhood immunization in Fiji.” Being on-site involved with international cooperation for eight months was a valuable experience, enabling me to see the reality of good things, things that need improvement, and how powerless I am.
Right now I work as an NPO employee in Tajikistan, which is in Central Asia, where I create ideas, manage projects, etc. in the fields of support for disabled persons and healthcare. The days spent with my classmates at the Graduate School with the support of the professors and office staff were mind-boggling. With this memory close to my heart, I intend to fulfill my responsibilities in this new environment.
Prior to graduation, I was dispatched to the JICA Kenya office as a healthcare planning and research staffer in March 2010. Before enrolling in the Graduate School of International Health Development, I worked in Japan as a nurse, and at the same time, served as a medical coordinator of a Japanese NGO for 17 years, involved in a wide range of activities such as slum district development in Kenya, emergency medical support in refugee camps, and healthcare activities targeting nomads. However, having so much practice and experience with no academic knowledge to back them up, I gradually began to question my international healthcare activities. This is why I enrolled in this Graduate School to earn my MPH. An MPH is currently an essential passport in the field of international healthcare, but having to learn various subjects from statistics to cultural anthropology is very difficult. However, this is what provides students the ability to handle any worksite and any situation. In my case, my place of internship was UNICEF Kenya, but the only long-term experience and knowledge I had were with my NGO. In JICA, an unknown territory that is my current workplace as well, the size and target of projects were different, and in addition, planning and research staff are required to do all sorts of things outside the field of international healthcare, such as logistics and accounting.
However, I am equipped with the knowledge learned at the Graduate School of International Health Development; the experience gained through field trip and internship program; the network of classmates and professors; and the willpower that allowed me to manage housework, child rearing and studies all at the same time. I hope that these tools will help me grow into someone who can handle difficult situations and is needed in the international healthcare scene.
(Photo: A child’s classroom)
Hello. I am currently in Tanzania, doing my second-year internship program as a GTZ intern at one of the project sites under the healthcare program with German bilateral assistance. I am experiencing many things with the help of so many people. In the second half of my internship, I plan to move my field to a rural area for my themed research. The curriculum of this Graduate School provides lectures from professors who study healthcare and medicine as well as communities and societies from various perspectives, and sets up an environment where even a research beginner like me can receive careful, step-by-step instruction. There is also a strong team of university staffers who support this curriculum. This enables students to design their two-year studies according to their capabilities and needs, and to concentrate on executing such design. This is a great aspect of this Graduate School. I do admit that in some points, the Graduate School falls behind some graduate schools in other countries or in metropolitan parts of Japan, but this Graduate School offers different values to its students. I am enjoying my studies here. Karibu sana. P.S.: Nagasaki has a wealth of great fish and shochu.
2005. At the time, I was working as a nurse in the emergency room. On hospital orders, I experienced disaster medical care support in Pakistan, where an earthquake had occurred. This triggered my interest in developing countries, and enabled me to realize first-hand the importance of healthcare and public hygiene. That’s why I decided to come to this Graduate School. What attracts me to this Graduate School is that the period of practical training in the form of internship is very long. For those who aim to work on-site, a program that allows students to learn and work at the same time as an intern is a dream come true. Currently, I am interning at TICO, a Japanese NGO, through JICA, and am getting to experience such various things. I am satisfied with my fulfilling days. Another great thing about this Graduate School is that it teaches about international healthcare in Japanese. This is a plus for both speakers and non-speakers of English. (I regret to admit that I am the latter…) Further, in the classroom lectures concentrated in the first year, international lecturers come from overseas to teach international healthcare in English. Such an opportunity is another plus of this Graduate School.
Participation in Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers triggered in me an interest toward people’s health, and this is why I am now here earning my MPH. My first year consisted of stuffing myself full of knowledge every day, and I was still anxious as to how much I had actually attained when I took off to my internship in my second year. And now, being on-site is such an excitement. One can learn much just by tagging along with specialists, and gain firsthand feel of the way projects are moving. What I have seen and felt on-site, and the knowledge I have crammed into my head are mixing and churning, trying to create something new. I am struggling every day, but am also being helped through letters from my classmates who are somewhere in this world as well as the people related to the projects. There is much to be absorbed every day.
The reason I chose the Graduate School of International Health Development is because it is a multidisciplinary program that cultivates practical human resources, and because there are teachers with ample field experiences in Asia and Africa. After working at a hospital as a nurse, I participated in the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) in the Republic of Ghana as a public health nurse. While helping out at a rural healthcare center, I became involved with school healthcare education and training of traditional midwives, and realized how the status of healthcare in these districts are influenced by so many elements including public policies, poverty, the environment, and culture. Right now, in my first semester of my first year, I am attending courses in various fields, finding clues to the unanswered questions I had during my JOCV activities, and learning and realizing new things every day. In my first semester, there will be the short-term field training as well as applied courses in international healthcare policies, management, etc., and I expect to learn many things that will help in my future practice. Nagasaki has much history, and is a great environment to be in. I intend to fully utilize these two advantageous years to improve myself and find my future path.
What triggered me to go into this field was the realization I had of the importance of international healthcare when I was an undergraduate student. After much thinking on what I can do and what I must do, the conclusion I reached was the Graduate School of International Health Development. I think that the curriculum of the Graduate School of International Health Development, where students first learn specialized knowledge and then experience on-site training, is very meaningful in that it prepares students for future involvement in international healthcare. I was a humanities major and fresh out of college, with very little experience, and I was very anxious when I first enrolled. However, the professors are gracious and thorough in their teachings, enabling me to keep up with my courses. They also lend sympathetic ears to matters outside of classes, which is very encouraging to me. Various students with professions/experiences such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers are studying here, and I feel that the opportunity to share information and knowledge with such people is very valuable. Being in such an environment gives me the confidence that even a beginner like me can do it! I intend to make every effort to make these two years my first important step in my future involvement in international healthcare.