Applied Practice Experience Blog by Emily Holzman, MPH Student
Editor’s Note: The following is the first in a series of updates from students currently working in the field, as part of their applied practice experience.
September 18, 2018
Since August 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya have fled their native Myanmar to the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh to escape persecution. Considered one of the world’s most persecuted minority groups, the Rohingya are primarily Muslim and have been subject to human rights abuses by the Burmese government for many years. During the summer of 2017, Buddhist extremists and the Burmese military began brutally killing the Rohingya and burning their villages. As a result of this violence, the Rohingya were forced to migrate to Bangladesh. With this influx of refugees to Cox’s Bazar also came an influx of people in need of basic services such as immunizations, health care, shelter, and food. In response, humanitarian organizations, including the major UN agencies, from all over the world have flocked to the region to provide this population with the basic care that they need. UNICEF, in particular, has been a major player in this response.
Set in a bright, open space sits the UNICEF field office in Cox’s Bazar. More than 70 staff members, international and domestic, bustle around the floor, each person doing a job meant for 3 to 4 people. It’s rare that someone sits still. For the next few weeks, my colleagues, Ms. Jessie Drescher and Mr. Corbin Kappler and I, of the global health concentration, have been given the opportunity to learn from this group in a real life emergency setting.
The UNICEF internship will last for 5 weeks with visits to the field to help us gain a deeper understanding of the complexity of the problems within the refugee camps. We are both excited and humbled to gain this experience and hope to make even a small impact while we are here. We will continue to send updates and pictures to the GPH community as our internship moves forward.
Please click here to learn more about UNICEF. To learn more about possible research opportunities in the global and environmental health sciences concentrations, please email the Applied Global Public Health Initiative at gphinitiative@gmail.com.
-Emily Holzman MPH Candidate (Global Health)