Internships with WHO:

The World Health Organization (WHO) offers a limited number of unpaid internship opportunities to under-graduate or post-graduate university students that are enrolled in medically-related programmes. I applied for one of these and after 10 months of persistence was finally fortunate enough to be awarded such an internship.

My Internship at SEARO:

I spent my elective period undertaking the internship at the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO). The WHO is part of the United Nations and acts as the foremost political authority on global health for its 192 Member States. SEARO oversees the state of health for the 11 Member States that constitute this politically defined region: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, PDR Korea, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, & Timor Leste. The office itself is situated in New Delhi, India.

My original aim in undertaking an internship at the WHO was to have the opportunity to gain insight into the largest international organisation involved in global health. I specifically sought a position relating to the public health management of communicable disease as this is a field that greatly interests me. I hoped that working in this field at a regional level would grant me valuable experience that I could potentially build on throughout my career.

Prior to my arrival in India I had been informed that I would be performing research in areas relating to essential public health functions (EPHFs) relevant to the control of communicable diseases in the South East Asian Region (SEAR). I was also told that I would additionally be studying the role of the allied health workforce in communicable disease control (CDC) and analysing the current public health workforce profile in the SEAR.

I arrived in Delhi at the beginning of August to begin my internship. Various flight delays meant that I arrived in Delhi extremely jet lagged with only 10 hours before I was expected to report at SEARO. This meant my first few days were rather blurred but fortunately my various supervisors were empathetic and understanding. Throughout my internship I was primarily under the supervision of Dr Sangay Thinley of the Communicable Disease Control (CDC), and I met with him on my arrival at the office. Additionally, throughout my internship I was also to have regular guidance and teaching from Dr Ong-Arj of Public Health Initiatives and Dr Thushara Fernando of Human Resources. This arrangement was beneficial as it allowed me to gain a broader experience of the work of three quite separate departments.

Researching an Area of Communicable Disease Control:

The main focus of an internship for SEARO is the production of a piece of research relating to current health activities within the South-East Asia region (SEAR). I spent the first week performing a review of the most current literature on my aforementioned terms of reference: communicable disease control within the SEAR; the concept of essential public health functions (EPHF); and the public health workforce profile within SEAR.

Having familiarised myself with the most up to date information on these areas I met with each supervisor in order to discuss how best to utilise my time, previous international health experience, and analytical skills with reference to these areas. I then developed a schedule for my remaining weeks in order to organise my time so that I would have sufficient contact with each supervisor whilst producing the research report.

My research aim was developed over the first few weeks of my internship and was shaped by the various meetings I had with professionals in each of the three departments. Although the CDC department focuses on all communicable diseases prevalent within SEAR, with notable emphasis on the ‘big three’ , it was decided that due to time constraints it was better for me to spend my time focused on one major communicable disease, namely malaria .

The research I would produce by the end of the internship was therefore intended to link together my terms of reference and produce something useful to the CDC department.

Working at the WHO:

I feel incredibly fortunate to have been had the opportunity of performing research for under the guidance of some of the world’s key communicable disease experts. I feel the experience itself was valuable, greatly assisting my professional development, and giving me the confidence to recognise that I am capable of working with those who are at the top of their field. The research methods that I used were new to me and I had to adapt to them quickly which was also a useful learning experience.

While undertaking the internship I was also given the opportunity to participate in the workshop which produced the WHO guidelines for HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment for injecting drug users. Additionally, I was able to observe the Ministers of Health from the 11 Member States meet for the 59th session of the Regional Committee for the SEAR (1). These two experiences allowed me to witness international policy construction first-hand, an insight that I found extremely interesting.

Living in New Delhi:

Prior to arriving in India I had not really heard any positive reports from those who had visited Delhi. During my elective I stayed in the noisy back-packer district of New Delhi, Pahaganji. I commuted to the comparatively salubrious air-conditioned offices of SEARO by rickshaw through the rush-hour throng, an experience apparently comparable to smoking a pack of full strength cigarettes per day. Pahaganji granted me endless stomach upsets and offered the endurance of accommodation so bad that I am yet to meet anyone who believes that I stayed there for so long. In short, I would not recommend staying there as long as I did to anyone, unless they felt that had something to prove… it is cheap though!

Further Information on Internships:

Futher information from Alma Mata: Guide to Internships

The World Health Organisation offers internship opportunities for graduate or post-graduate university students, generally in health-related programmes for 6 to 12 weeks