Article written by Sara Eftekhar, UBC Nursing Student
Erika Neilson, masters of Public Health candidate at UBC has recently returned from Peru on a project with UBC’s Global Health initiative and she shares her insight on international development and her advice to students who wish to work abroad.
Growing up in rural Canada, Erika developed an early interest for international development and and this interest blossomed even more while living in the Caribbean for two years as a child. Since then, Erika has earned an honors bachelor degree from the University of Guelph in International Development, has volunteered in Mexico and has worked in Spain as well as Peru on development projects. She believes that studying development has given her the opportunity explore global issues through an ethics and human rights lens but she points out that it was mostly international development that chose her through a series of unexpected events that happened in her life. After working abroad, Erika decided she needed to gain some skills in order to make a bigger impact and this is why she is currently enrolled in the Master of Public Health Program at UBC.
When asked what International Development meant to her given her extensive experiences abroad, she said “it’s a way of life to me, it is the values that underpin the way I choose to live my life and being in this line of work keeps me focused on those values. Recognizing that I come from privileged place in the world and asking myself how I can use that to my best potential and give those opportunities to others is a responsibility and value of mine. “
For students who want to travel to work in the field of global health, Erika recommends finding out what socially responsible means and considering joining organizations that are community focused and collaborate with the community to identify their needs. She also recommends looking into sustainability of the organization which means doing a sustainable check such as ensuring that the organization has local community ownership. As well, Erika adds that it’s important for students to ask themselves whether the organization will be there in 10 years time and whether or not they will reach their target goals by that time.
Community needs and sustainability have been Erika’s focus recently with her involvement in a project in Peru initiated by the UBC Global Health Initiative. During her six week trip to Peru as part of her practicum as a grad student, Erika focused on doing a Priority Assessment for the Santa Clotilde Health Center to create a five year strategic plan on how to address those needs in a sustainable way.
Since Erika had lived and worked in Peru, speaks Spanish and had familiarity with Peruvian culture along with her skills in qualitative research methods, Erika was well equipped for the job. Erika says “this clinic has been running for 30 years and serves a big population. The health clinic works on very humanistic principle and provides care to every individual who needs it whether or not they are able to pay. Some of the community members are not even registered with the Peruvian government but regardless, this clinic accepts them anyway. One of the key findings from my data during my time there showed that the community needs help with the mercury contamination issue and the next phase of the project will be to find out the dietary consumption pattern of the community in order to understand it.”
Erika highly recommends for students to take part in a global health project as it provides health professionals with skills of flexibility and adaptability which are highly important to have while working with Canada’s diverse populations. However, her biggest advice is to learn a new language first in order to build a greater connection to the people of that community and be more of a help instead of an outsider.
“The idea that problems stop at your nation’s border is not valid anymore. You see that with a lot of the social, economic and politic questions of our world today. It’s not about why should you or why should you not help others across the globe; it’s just the logical way to do it. It just makes sense.”
~By Sara Eftekhar