Tina Muehlethaler, and Jaameeta Kurji, Masters of Public Health students at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, have been chosen as this year’s recipients of the Sheela Basrur travel bursary award.

Over the summer Tina will be completing a 12-week practicum placement in Eldoret, Kenya with the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH), a working model of urban and rural HIV preventive and treatment services in the public sector.  AMPATH plans to expand its focus beyond HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis by implementing the Kenya Essential Package for Health throughout the area.  Tina’s primary responsibilities will include developing and implementing a base-line community survey on primary health care and developing and implementing the curriculum for girls and women in weekly educational sessions at a street youth centre.

Jaameeta will complete a practicum placement in Kakamega, Kenya where she will be working on an integrated health, nutrition and agriculture intervention being conducted by the International Potato Centre.  The Sweet Potato Action for Security and Health in Africa project is a five year initiative funded by the Gates Foundation that is aimed at using orange-fleshed sweet potato to improve the health and nutrition status of pregnant women and infants.  Jaameeta will be involved in the development of the health survey, training of the enumerators and assessing the completeness of existing health monitoring indicator data. 

In mid-September the bursary recipients will submit a short report providing details about their placement experience, how they felt it enhanced their knowledge of public health and how it has impacted their future career plans.  They will also deliver a videoconference presentation to be given to selected OAHPP staff, OAHPP board members and members of the Basrur family.

Established by Drs. Vasanth and Pari Basrur, the Sheela Basrur student travel bursary is intended to support the next generation of public health professionals in Ontario and overseas, by broadening their experience and knowledge base in public health.