I had the opportunity to travel to India and be involved in the 9th annual Global Health Symposium from April 20 to May 4, 2019. I had a chance to connect and interact with global health students and stakeholders from six other partner universities including Afhad University for Women (Sudan), Maastricht University (Netherlands), Manipal Academy for Higher Education (India), Thammasat University (Thailand), University of South-Eastern Norway (Norway), and Universidad del Rosario (Columbia). Activities included cultural shows, excursions, community visits, stakeholder interviews, systems mapping, and a weekend conference.
Cultural shows were a very fun part of the symposium. I got a chance to see different cultures I have never seen before. Shows included cultural dances, songs, jokes, among others. The students in India showcased their culture through exciting dancing. The Dutch students used their enthusiastic nature to their advantage during their singing and dancing. Finally, my colleagues from McMaster University exhibited their love for contemporary music and dance.
One important aspect of the symposium was a weekend conference which featured MSc. Global Health students presenting the abstracts to their thesis and scholarly paper. It was a very unique experience presenting my thesis in front of intelligent students and faculty with a lot of experience in global health research. The constructive feedback I received helped me improve my thesis by providing me with more topics for my discussion section.
Finally, the major assignment was creating a system map of India’s healthcare system to conceptualize the actors, institutions, and policies that govern India’s health system. My group was assigned to create a system’s map for India’s mental health system. We got the opportunity to visit local mental health institutions to observe how their systems work. We also got the opportunity to interview stakeholders in the mental health department at Manipal, Karnataka. In the end, we learned a lot about how the culture, geography, history, social economic status of India affects their mental healthcare network dynamics and how this differs from other countries like Canada and the Netherlands.
All in all, my trip to India was a marvelous experience that can never be replaced. This trip really showed me what Global Health is about and pushed and motivated me to pursue research in this field.
Perinatal Sphere 