CHS 400 Field Studies Report
Abstract
From June 22, 2009 to August 28, 2009 I was an intern at Family Health International Nepal (FHI), in Kathmandu, Nepal. My preceptor was Satish Pandey, who is Deputy Director of FHI. Family Health International is an international public health and development non-profit organization (NGO) conducting research and implementing public health programs in 55 countries. It was established in 1971, and has as its primary focus reproductive health. FHI Nepal’s focus is on HIV/AIDS. As of 2008, FHI has been running the Advancing Surveillance, Policies, Prevention, Care and Support to Fight HIV/AIDS Project (ASHA Project), which is funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). FHI supports public health programs and research for identified most at risk populations (MARPS), including: female sex workers (FSWs), their clients, injecting drug users (IDUs), people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHAs), migrants and their families.
The scope of work for my internship consisted of four objectives. 1, Work with implementing agencies (IAs) and FHI staff to identify communication approaches used by outreach staff to motivate FSWs to use clinical services more frequently (120 hours). 2, Make recommendations on effective ways to target street based and establishment based FSWs through program analysis and Integrated Biological and Behavioral Surveillance (IBBS) data (80 hours). 3, Document the early successes of the new Positive Prevention (PP) program (104 hours). 4, Document the early successes of the new Prisons Prevention program (96 hours). My first two objectives focused of FSWs within the Kathmandu Valley. The third objective focused on PLHAs throughout Nepal, while the fourth objective focused on the two prisons, the Kathmandu Central Prison and the Birgunj Jail in Parsa, Nepal.
All three objectives required a literature review, reading FHI documents, field visits, and interviews with FHI and IA staff, as well as interviews with the target population. From June 22, 2009 to July 30, 2009 I worked on objectives one and two (which overlapped), and culminated this experience with a 29 page Assessment of ASHA Project Activities: Female Sex Workers in Kathmandu Valley. What had begun as an inquiry into how to motivate FSWs to attend the clinic more frequently evolved into an overall analysis of FHI-supported activities targeted towards FSWs in the Kathmandu Valley. Appendix A of this report addresses objective two, and is called Significance of IBBS Data for Female Sex Workers (FSWs). The first half of July was spent working on objective three. I took a work trip for three days, to conduct a field visit with an IA in the PP program. During this trip, staff and target group members were interviewed, documents reviewed, and various facilities visited. This resulted in a success story report, focusing on this particular IA, written with the assistance of a co-intern who accompanied me on the trip, called Positive Prevention Program Success Story Case Study: Trisuli Plus. The second half of August focused on my fourth objective. I worked closely with one FHI staff and one FHI consultant who oversaw the IAs implementing the Prison Prevention program in the two participating prisons. I also visited one of these IAs, in order to interview their staff, and attended a sharing meeting with stakeholders concerning the Kathmandu Central Prison. This resulted in the report, Prison Prevention Program Success Story.
Cristina Rodriguez-Hart
Dr. Michael Prelip
August 28, 2009