Helen Myers's Public Health Blog

Helen grew up in Ames, Iowa. She graduated from Syracuse University in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in Child and Family Studies and worked as a Lead Teacher at an early childhood education center following graduation. She is a third year dual Medical Doctorate (MD) and Master of Public Health (MPH) student. During her year of MPH training, Helen is working as a Graduate Research Assistant for the Master of Public Health Program. Helen is enjoying learning about all areas of public health and is particularly interested in the fields of pediatrics, maternal and child health and health policy. She serves as Co-President of the Pediatrics Interest Group and as a VP for the American Medical Association-Iowa Medical Society Student Organization at the Carver College of Medicine. She has recently begun volunteering for the Mobile Clinic. Helen enjoys cooking, spin classes, listening to public radio and traveling to visit family and friends around the country.

This student blog is unedited and does not necessarily reflect the views of the College of Public Health or the University of Iowa.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Our Last Week in Chennai


I arrived home from India last Friday night.  Our final week continued to be a really great experience. We met with an NGO that serves as a support group for the MSM (men who have sex with men) population and a group that provides testing and STI prevention for sex workers.  Both of these visits really added a lot to our trip and shed light on yet another aspect of the culture and the country.  We were also able to visit the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis.  This is funded largely by the Indian Government but also collaborates with the WHO and the NIH.  It was really cool to hear about the research being done there on improving treatment modalities for those with TB and with HIV and TB co-infection.  
Celebrating Pongal
We also travelled to one of the rural villages.  Villages there are much larger than I had imagined, about 3500 people lived there and they had their own health clinic, school and businesses, such as grinding spices which were sold there and in the city.  Our last days fell on a holiday called Pongal.  This is a Southern Indian, multi-day celebration of the harvest.  Our host in Chennai very kindly invited us all to her home and taught us about the holiday.  One of the traditions is to boil rice and milk in a pot over a fire and when it boils over everyone makes a lot of noise by cheering and using noisemakers. 



We wrapped up the trip by presenting our projects at the American School in Chennai.  Finally we all got packed up and took our long flights home.  Overall this has been a great experience and I would encourage anyone considering doing a Winterim in India to do it.  Coming back and starting the semester right away is a challenge but it was absolutely worth it.  

3 comments:


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