Before I started at this school, I felt like the world was full of things that I did not know. After I graduated, I still do not know anything about the world. I feel like the world that I do not know has expanded. Many different types of people have completely different awarenesses. Even with those differences, the world keeps going.
That is it. But that is why it is interesting. I want to know more. I want to explore the things that are not going well. At Nagasaki University, there are many interesting people, both students and professors. The past two years seemed like a small project with a group of 11 students with an aim to trying to obtaining MPH degrees. It was a valuable experience to be able to meet and talk to people who live in a completely different region than me.
There are various perspectives in this unknown world, and we all have to live in different places while believing in ourselves. However, whether or not we know about these perspectives makes a huge difference. I have gained some hints on what I need to think about and what to believe and with what goal in this world from everyone I met in the past two years, and I was able to move forward a bit. With this in mind, I am thinking what I am going to do next.
I started at this school after working as a physician for five years in Japan. Since the first and second training to be a physician was so busy, this next two years seems like such a luxurious time. Right now, I can spend time studying things that I want to learn and receive guidance from professors who are specialized in various fields. What I take from this is up to me, but it has been an eye‐opening experience every day to encounter various perspectives for the first time. Also, the curriculum, with its heavy emphasis on the field, which this school offers is very attractive. Since I did not have any experience working in a developing country, it was quite significant for me to experience the public health system and development situation of Bangladesh during my short‐term field trip. From April 2012, I will start the long‐term internship in the Philippines. This internship program during the second year is a major selling point for this graduate school. I am very excited that it will impact me greatly going forward. After graduation, I hope that I can return something to society from these two years of experience.
Hello. It has been a week since I started my long‐term internship in the provincial department of health in Laos. Although it has been a short time, I had many moments when I realized that what I have learned in my first year is useful. This school offers lectures in a wide variety of fields in small classes. It is a wonderful environment where we can ask questions and talk about our concerns with experienced professors. I have never previously had any experience related to public health. I had some worries about whether I would be able to apply what I have learned in practice while I was learning the wide variety of subjects at this school. However, now that I am actually in the field, I realize that I have more perspectives than previously. I often notice that what I am seeing is related to what my professors have said and what was written in the material that was given. Because of these things, I can actually “compare what I see in front of my eyes to other events”. Of course, what I need to produce from this is a challenge for me, and I am in the midst of training right now. I
truly wish that I could give something in return every time I sense the warmth of my professors in Nagasaki and here. I would like to maximize this opportunity as a student and do what I can during this time.
People can make a decision, have the courage to throw away what they have, and can change their beliefs to accept new concepts because of their will‐defined fundamental beliefs During my experience as a nurse in Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, I had many opportunities to describe my surroundings using my personal awareness, my field senses, and my sympathy . Here, on the other hand, I have many opportunities to train myself to view a
situation calmly from various points of view. I am active in Kenya and am seeing the connections among various things that I have been feeling while learning the basics of various academic subjects at this school.
I have heard that only in Japan and South America, public health is taught in the major language spoken in the country(Japanese for Japan and Spanish for South American countries). Although language is an obstacle in the actual field, one of the reasons that we can understand public health more deeply and acquire the necessary knowledge is that classes are not taught in a foreign language, such as English. However, this school offers an internship program where we can learn closely from strong professors. It is a great opportunity, not only in terms of language, but also as a review of the knowledge we acquired in the classroom through actual experience. In the process of applying first‐year classroom knowledge, we have the chance to put knowledge to use by selecting, judging, and applying it to actual circumstances in a way that maximizes our abilities. I would like to learn various things from the internship process, and so gain confidence and increase my communication abilities.
Since I do not have any experience working abroad, there are many things that I am learning for the first time. I have been putting in all my effort every day when doing homework and am barely keeping up with the classes. However, I enjoy my classes every day and feel invigorated. My classmates have various experiences. Hearing from them and seeing their serious attitude in tackling projects is very stimulating. The schedule for the next two years is very hard and includes not only taking classes, but also doing a long‐term internship and project studies. However, this is a great environment for learning and I am excited by having this great experience.
I have always wanted to work abroad. I participated as a nurse in Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers in Laos after working in a hospital as a nurse for six years. After I came back to Japan, I was hesitant about choosing to go on to a graduate school for nursing. However, I learned from my experience in Laos that health problems consist of various factors having social, economic, and cultural aspects. Considering this, I decided that I want to learn about how to create a health system in an area where many people have health problems and how to improve the health level of a whole region. I have heard that professors at Nagasaki University have specialized knowledge and vast experience, as well as being active, not only on campus, but also internationally, in various regions. I applied for this school to have a good learning experience in order to prepare myself to work in the international health field. At this graduate school, I have met many people who have a similar wish and it has been a great experience so far. I would like to make the two years a great learning experience while ppreciating the great teachers and classmates whom I am able to meet.
For two years, I worked as a Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer in Ghana working on AIDS countermeasures. After I returned, I became a Kyushu Overseas Cooperation Volunteer and worked on a developmental education assistance project.During my project, I reviewed my two years of experience as a volunteer and decided to go back to school because I wanted to work in the field of international health again. My background is not the medical field, so it is a brand new experience for me to learn about tropical aspects of such fields as medicine,
epidemiology, and medical anthropology. It is also a great opportunity for me to consider the health problems of
developing countries from various angles. I greatly appreciate every day with enthusiastic teachers who are willing to listen to my concerns for hours and also appreciate spending time in school with classmates from various backgrounds. In the second year, a long‐term internship and research are included in the curriculum. My hope is to work in Africa again, so I would like to work hard in acquiring knowledge from classes during the first year and put it to use in practice.
The menu of a pizza place lists many different kinds of pizza, like Margherita, Hawaiian, etc. They all look good, so a little taste of everything…
The Graduate School of International Health Development is just like this: a mixed pizza. Tropical Medicine, Maternal and Child Health, Project and Program Management, Cultural-Medical Anthropology, economics… It’s nice to taste so many different things, but the stomach can only take one bite of each.
So after taking one bite, what do I do with it?
The difficulty of this Graduate School is in creating your own panoramic view by putting the pieces of studies together. To do this, you must ask yourself “what can this field of study do? What can it not do?” and then discern the scope of the field. In particular, “what it cannot do” is something that university professors rarely teach.
If you order a mixed pizza and you get a jumble of Margherita and Hawaiian toppings, it probably won’t taste so good. If on the same pizza dough, the toppings should be separated. This way, you can enjoy the taste you want, when you want it.
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)