Carina Hickling
It is now over 2 years since I graduated as a MPH student and I have accepted a position as the Country Director Uganda for DSW (Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung) the German Foundation for World population. We are dealing with sexual and reproductive health for young people, working with peer education methods through youth clubs all over Uganda. DSW receive funding from a variety of funding sources, including private donations from Germany, USAID funding and grants from the European Commission.
What has been really interesting to note is that my MPH studies have actually been extremely relevant, and I often rely on my knowledge and insights gained from the MPH process. Perhaps one of the most valuable lessons I brought with me is the habit of testing if a proposition can stand the 'reasonable' test, and I apply it almost daily.
As a manager for a health promotion organisation the challenges accumulate, and as late as today I wished I had access to some literature on health facility management. I am faced with the necessity to undertake some 'right' sizing and it is a very unpleasant task.
Apart from the daily challenges of addressing the issues below, I also try and find time to keep on top of current literature and research on sexual and reproductive health. I realize that the tension that exists between direct implementation of public health and maintaining and contributing to the evidence base is perhaps one of the hardest to bridge. It is sad but true, time for reflection is a luxury when you are knee deep in program implementation. For my next contract I will have to include it in my Terms of Reference!
This is what I do and the challenges I face!
• Health promotion (targeting young people)
• Designing programs
• Writing Proposals
• Making ends meet (budget, budget, budget)
• Designing and aligning the organizational structure
• Evidence based practice
• Meeting donor requirements
• Reporting
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• Networking
• Strategic planning and development
• Maintaining partnerships
• Contributing to Millennium Development goals
• Fighting poverty
• Gender mainstreaming
• Gender Based Violence
The journey to ending up in Uganda started with my independent research project supervised by Dr Anna Whelan, which was the first step, the second step was being involved in research work undertaken by the school, and third, working as a violence prevention coordinator in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in northern Uganda. Even before I started the MPH studies I had an interest in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and this was the catalyst for the independent study and also the involvement in the research carried out by the school, which was specifically looking at the SRHR for refugees and IDPs, both in countries of origin and in Australia.