Dirna Mayasari is a former Global Health Certificate recipient. At UCLA Mayasari focused on Global Health and Emergency Public Health and Disaster. She received her undergraduate degree in Medicine at Syiah Kuala University in Indonesia. Her research interests include maternal and child health as well as reproductive health in displaced population. An interesting fact about Dirna is she that she loves elderly people and loves hearing their stories.
When did you first become interested in global health?
Ten years ago, when the Indian Ocean tsunami hit my hometown, Banda Aceh. I had opportunity to work with an international humanitarian organization addressing the public health impact of the disaster in the population. That was when my interest in global health (especially global-humanitarian health) began to grow.
What was your global health project while you were a student at UCLA?
I did several global health projects that included some consultation report papers about abortion care in Zambia, food security in Mali, GBV among refugees in South Sudan, food and nutrition crisis in Djibouti, MCH in Bangladesh, HIV/AIDS program in Botswana and so on. In addition, I conducted my field study internship in global health in Indonesia and Myanmar working on emergency response in Indonesia, and conducted a nutrition and hygiene/sanitation education in IDP camps in Myanmar.
How did the global health certificate experience enable you to be culturally competent/aware?
Completing the global health certificate during my time at UCLA was like traveling the world and learning about each country I landed in. When I took global health classes, not only did I learn about the global health challenges around the world, but I also learned about the social-determinants of global health that include, but are not limited to culture, inequality, human rights, poverty, societal transformation and geo-political aspects of the countries; all of which helped in enhancing my cultural awareness. Getting in touch with communities from different cultures through my field study in Myanmar gave me the opportunity to exercise and sharpen my cultural competency since I had to conduct health promotion that required for me to be culturally sensitive in the community.
Are you currently working in the global health field? If so, please elaborate on your job description and duties.
Yes. I am currently working with an international humanitarian NGO working for conflict-affected, displaced and marginalized population in Myanmar. I am responsible for the overall program development from planning and implementation to monitoring/evaluation of its health programs and emergency response.
To date, I have developed several programs that include :
1. Health Education Augmented-Vocational Training Program to Increase Women’s Empowerment targeting women aged 18-25 in six IDP camps in Sittwee, Rakhine State (on-going)
2. Brighter Future: An integrated WASH in school and primary school education improvement program, targeting 8 schools and 3700 conflict-affected and marginalized children in Rakhine State (on-going)
3. Community-driven Action for Maternal and Child Health (CAMCH) in Chin State, Myanmar (it’s the poorest state with incredibly high maternal and infant mortality in Myanmar) (planned to start in 2016)
4. I contributed in development of the WONDERFUL Program (Women’s Empowerment and Economic Development for Sustainable Livelihood : A vocational training and reproductive health program targeting girls in Meiktilla IDP camp and Myanmar-China border areas who are at risk of human trafficking, HIV/STD and gender-based violence (plan to start November 2015)
5. WASH for Mother and Child, In Lombok Timur, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
– Lead rapid needs assessment and emergency response team in emergencies. (In February 2015, I led an emergency response for Kokang conflict in Northern Shan, Myanmar- China border state and just recently, cyclone and flood crisis, August 2015)
– I coordinate project activities and represent my organization in coordination forums with government at union and state level, relevant UN agencies, NGOs and relevant stakeholders.
-Staff management, leadership and development ; I develop guidelines, manuals and tools and train my staffs in conducting needs assessment, project cycle management, children consultation process for programs targeting children, strategies to encourage women’s participation, focus groups, SPHERE standards, accountability etc.
-I’m a member of the organization’s Senior Management Team here in Myanmar.
Looking back, what skills did you obtain while pursuing the certificate that you have applied to your career?
I gained a critical skill set for working in the global health arena, such as developing programs and effective interventions to address global health challenges and cultural competency.
In what ways did the global health certificate help shape your goals? Did it reinforce the career path you wanted to follow or did new interest arise?
Both. Yes, it did strengthen my career path as it is recognition of my skill, knowledge and expertise in this field. But on the other hand, as learn more about global health, new interests arose. My interest was initially limited to MCH and emergency response, now I’m equally interested in reproductive health and women’s empowerment. My goal and passion stay the same: to make the world a better place and I truly believe empowering women is the key to a better world.
What advice do you give for current UCLA graduate students interested in pursuing the global health certificate?
My first advice is: reflect on your passion and identify your primary interest within global health. Secondly, continuously develop and enhance your skill and expertise relevant to your interest through global health projects or field study internship that you will have throughout your study, so you could contribute meaningfully to improve health of the population in the real world. Third, view global health a human rights concept. Understand that global health is multidisciplinary issue and therefore, it is essential to see global health through multidisciplinary perspective. In global health arena, interpersonal skill and cross-cultural communication is really important. So, understand and respect different cultures and learn new language.