FIMRC VIRTUAL GLOBAL HEALTH VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE

The FIMRC Virtual Global Health Experience is an 8-week program that I participated in the Spring of 2021. This internship placement included a variety of activities and rotations through FIMRC's global health sites, including Peru, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and additional sites outside of Latin America such as India, the Philippines, and Uganda. Each week a different topic related to global health was studied, from gender and health to global mental health. The internship experience also included a clinical shadowing component where I had the opportunity to watch psychology, primary care, chronic disease, and pharmacy consultations. All of the shadowing opportunities were conducted in Spanish by host site directors and clinicians, allowing for a greater cultural understanding of the various sites and the unique needs of various populations. During the weeks where a Latin American site was explored, I was also able to engage in Spanish cultural discussions with site staff that helped me to develop deeper connections with the country of interest in a virtual setting. 

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A central component of the internship experience was the development of a Mental Health Guidebook for el Proyecto Huancayo, a FIMRC community health program based in Peru. Because of the increasing levels of diagnosed mental illness in Peru, our group was tasked with developing a guidebook for providers and site volunteers to use to help with patient diagnosis. We were also taked with developing visuals oriented toward patient education around various mental disorders. Examples of some of the visuals created for this project are included in the internship deliverables portion of this eDossier. 

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Ultimately, while the COVID-19 pandemic did not allow me to complete the internship in person, I still was able to obtain a well-rounded experience in global health as well as participate in clinical shadowing that helped me to practice my Spanish and have an impact, even if minimal, on FIMRCs goal to improve collective health in target communities. I was most impressed by FIMRC's concentration on empowering communities and centering priorities of the people they intended to serve. FIMRC never enters a community without explicit desire from community members, and this is a core tenant of their work that I strongly admired. My experience was also supplemented by weekly, in-depth conversations about each public health program at FIMRC's various sites as well as case studies that focused on important diseases endemic to the areas of study.

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Below is a video presentation of my internship experience as well as a paper (written in Spanish) about my work with el Proyecto Huancayo and the unique health needs and programs being conducted in Peru.