B.P.A.P.M graduate, Khadija Ga’al (’12) recently returned from her six month internship in Cape Town, South Africa, where she participated in a public health research internship through the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development. She was placed at Health Systems Trust (HST), a public health research non-profit, where she completed projects ranging from injury morbidity and burden of disease reduction, to provincial health facility information management and data quality surveillance studies. With her strong interest in South African health policy, and background in public policy and African Studies, Khadija has attributed her success with designing and writing policy briefs, project proposals, qualitative surveys and literature reviews to the skills she acquired from her degree. Researching and writing her fifty page Honour’s Research Essay on HIV/AIDS in the Southern African context has not only provided her with a nuanced understanding of public health concerns in South Africa, but has provided her with the insight required to understand the health policy decision making process within the country.
She was fortunate enough to work alongside various members of the Western Cape Government’s Department of Health, attend health policy research functions, and assist HST senior project officers with research initiatives funded by well-known organizations such the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The highlight of her internship took place in September when Khadija and her manager presented their project proposal to a Health Systems Information Director at South Africa’s National Department of Health. Despite undergoing such a nerve wracking experience, they met with success as the project was granted funding from the Centre for Disease Control! During the final stages of her internship, Khadija assisted her manager with the project’s implementation in various rural sub-districts in South Africa. When she wasn’t working, she travelled frequently, including a trip to South Africa’s Garden Route, achieving one of her life-long dreams in the process: cage diving with Great White Sharks! She also volunteered once a week at the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, where she learned about various innovative HIV treatment options and developing a user-friendly HIV/TB co-infected patient database.
The International Youth Internship is one of the few long-standing skills-building and career launching programs available to Canadians graduates interested in gaining international work experience. It assists many young graduates with overcoming the catch-22 that many of them suffer from: not being able to launch their careers without experience. Khadija believes that this internship has not only confirmed her desire to pursue a career in health policy and international development, but has also greatly enhanced her resume and Masters applications. She encourages recent and prospective PAPM graduates to apply for internships once the program is confirmed for an additional five years by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. Though it was bitter-sweet to leave Health Systems Trust and return to Canada, she’s excited to start graduate school in the fall of 2014, where she will continue to seek out opportunities to launch her career in public policy and international development.