Sujal Parikh Social Justice Fellow Cat Kirk in her own words

I am a master’s student from the University of Michigan School of Public Health where I am studying Health Behavior and Health Education. My area of interest is global health with an emphasis on HIV prevention, awareness, and stigma reduction. I became interested in global health as a WorldTeach volunteer in Namibia, where I saw firsthand the devastating toll of HIV/AIDS and have been actively involved in HIV/AIDS advocacy as a chairperson of the World AIDS Week Committee at the University of Michigan. The Sujal Parikh Social Justice Fellowship is an incredible, and necessary, opportunity to gain a better understanding of the health needs of elderly villagers and particularly their perceptions of the impact HIV/AIDS has on their lives. The elderly are a frequently overlooked population in the prevention of HIV/AIDS. And I am hopeful that through researching the needs of the elderly, Uganda Village Project will be better able to meet the health needs of elderly villagers and provide HIV/AIDS prevention programs that will be appropriate for this age group. I am honored to carry out this work with Uganda Village Project in the memory of Sujal Parikh, who was an inspiration in his dedication to global health and social justice.

Cat Kirk is the first person awarded the Sujal Parikh Social Justice Fellowship; she will begin her work involving HIV/AIDS and the elderly this summer. Sujal Parikh was a medical student, AIDS researcher, and tireless advocate for global health and social justice.
Learn more: http://www.ugandavillageproject.org/in-honor-of-sujal/

Announcing the Sujal Parikh Social Justice Fellowship

The Sujal Parikh Social Justice Fellowship was founded to honor the memory of our friend, a tireless advocate for global health and social justice. Although his life was prematurely cut short in an accident on the Kampala roads in 2010, his memory lives on through the inspiration he provided to his friends and colleagues in the field of global health.

The chosen fellow will be expected to conduct a specific project in the area of social justice during the summer internships program at Uganda Village Project.

This fellowship will be provided to one candidate who best personifies the ideals that Sujal worked towards:

- a boundless motivation and energy for social justice education and advocacy

- commitment towards voluntary service and healthcare access for the poor

- interest in research to develop evidence based practice in global health

Qualities sought in fellows include:

- excellent written and verbal communication skills

- demonstrated talent in global health work

- research experience

- cross-cultural communications skills

- experience working in resource-limited settings

The Parikh fellow must also submit an application to the Uganda Village Project summer internship program, and will be expected to participate in the internship program along with the other interns, aside from the time necessary to complete the social justice project. Uganda Village Project will provide support to the fellow in completing the project.

The fellowship recipient will not be required to pay the program fee for participation in the internship program ($1700), as part of the fellowship, but will be responsible for the cost of travel to Uganda and any costs incurred outside internship program activities. All project costs will be covered by Uganda Village Project.

How to Apply:

- Submit regular application for Uganda Village Project summer internship program via e-mail to internships@ugandavillageproject.org

- Even if not applying for team leader position, please have a letter of recommendation submitted via e-mail to that address.

- In addition to the listed questions on the application, please include an essay detailing your choice of one of the following issues and providing details about how you would create a project to address this issue:

1. Patients in rural Uganda face many barriers to accessing healthcare, including not being able to obtain care without first paying for the care or purchasing the medical supplies needed to care for them. How can we increase accessibility to our rural health centers for indigent rural patients from our Healthy Villages communities?

2. HIV/AIDS continues to take a toll on the rural communities in our Healthy Villages program. Currently, we partner with a local NGO to increase accessibility to testing and refer HIV positive patients to healthcare services. How could we improve our HIV/AIDS focused programming to reach the most vulnerable populations, such as children and the elderly?

Applicants will not necessarily be required to implement the project they propose in the application, but essays will be graded based on the applicant’s understanding of global health and social justice principles, and the quality of the proposal. The project should be designed keeping in mind that the fellowship recipient could help launch the project during the summer, and UVP staff could continue work on it thereafter. The project should have a data gathering or research component aimed towards a practical application. To get an idea of our projects and budget, you may peruse our website for more details, or ask us if you need any further information to complete your proposal.

Fellowship recipients will be expected to remain involved with Uganda Village Project activities for one year after selection, participating in the organization’s online social networking, awareness raising, and fundraising activities until the following year’s fellow has been selected, as part of their commitment. Fellowship recipients will additionally be expected to submit research done to a major national or international conference, to share knowledge with the global health community.

Application deadline for fellowship applicants is midnight EST, February 7^th, 2011.