“I had been looking for a public health internship this summer, and I was able to find an internship at the West African AIDS Foundation and International Health Care Center in Ghana through Global Nomadic. Being an undergraduate interested in medicine and preventative health, this internship had been exactly what I was looking for and I have been able to learn and experience so much in the time I had there.
From day one of this internship, I have been able to be exposed to many new things in public health from getting to participate in outreaches to working in the pharmacy to helping write proposals for the organization.
I would definitely recommend this internship to others, in that you are allowed to dive right into projects and gain such hands-on experience in almost any field that you are interested in public health. This organization allows you to work within the medical side if you are interested in science with IHCC, or the community advocacy side if you are interested in public health with WAAF.
Majoring in biology, I mainly worked in the clinic, and was able to help in the pharmacy and laboratory, shadowing the lab technicians and pharmacist while also helping record patients’ information. This was a great experience getting to work with the clinicians and learning how lab tests are conducted.
In addition to working in the clinic, I was able to help write grant proposals for the organization for various projects. The variety of activities here was what really made this internship so rewarding. You are exposed to many aspects of public health and different departments of NGO organizations and are given many options and flexibility as to where to most significantly focus your time here.
Participating in outreaches was one of my favorite experiences I had had with WAAF. I joined nurses and administrators to screen individuals for tuberculosis in a square on a market day. We talked to the community about the symptoms of TB, and if individuals were not screened we were still able to offer further information about the disease and the measures they could take in order to be more likely to avoid contracting it. Getting to talk to people about the symptoms and encourage testing was one of my favorite activities because I have never seen this side of preventative health and community advocacy in action before, and getting to participate and be a part of it was really eye-opening and inspiring.
I am so happy to have had the opportunity to volunteer in Ghana, and I would definitely recommend to others, if possible, to take the opportunity of gaining the experiences and meeting the wonderful people that interning abroad can offer.”
Public Health Internship in Ghana
