Field Report: Public Health in Egypt

Personal Story: Public Health

Dr Farnaz Sabet (Medical Resident):

I spent three months doing an internship at the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Cairo.
 
I was involved in two projects.  The first involved researching and then devising a program to help reduce the high rates of suicide in Afghani women, and the second involved assessing child abuse policy and action in four countries in the region.  This involved literature reviews, emails, phone calls and face to face meetings with key stakeholders, and also some statistical work.  While I was supervised most of my day to day work was independent and I needed to be able to work on my own with very little guidance.
 
This opportunity gave me a useful insight into how the WHO works and I felt I was able to make a good contribution to the two areas I was working on.  I met many fascinating people as the work environment was a real international melting pot and everyone has interesting stories.  The WHO office if full of non-medical people (economists, social scientists, administrators etc.) and this makes the perspectives on health more rich and interesting.  Personally, it was interesting for me to work in a region where I was a minority in terms of sex, religion and race, and I managed to survive life in one of the most hectic areas in Cairo!
 
I found it challenging to see the politics and feel a disconnection from the reality of the issues I was working.  A few kilometres from the slums of Cairo the WHO office is beautiful and most people sit in air-conditioned offices enjoying attractive UN salaries as the deliberate the health of the region.  As a clinician I found the environment sterile and removed.  I became painfully aware of how difficult it is to effect policy change, of the numerous institutional barriers and of incompetent yet egotistical people who hold power.
 
Farnaz's Advice

Be prepared to learn lots, as studying Medicine does not really prepare you for public health work (although there are many organisations that would value a clinician).
Do some sort of Public Health preparation - a MPH (Masters of Public Health) is definitely an asset and will provide an added perspective to clinical training, and there are many books and articles available for you to become familiar with international public health.
In a ‘developing world’ setting a posture of learning and humility is paramount and you must realise that most of the studies and projects have been done in western settings and cannot be easily transposed.  You will realise that no one really has the answers, and that an awareness of cultural and religious issues is extremely important in international public health work.
 
Footnote: Farnaz completed global health studies at Oxford through the Rhodes Scholarship program and is now continuing clinical training back in Australia.

Courtesy Global Health Gateway: http://www.globalhealthgateway.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=66%3Apersonal-story-public-health-farnaz&catid=2&Itemid=63