v-INSPIRE Intern, FHTS
I am Arpana Sharma currently pursuing masters in public health from SRM UNIVERSITY SIKKIM. Throughout the first year of my MPH I have learned various things I have received a good mentorship from my professor and also was involved in Child Injury project conducted by ICMR as field assistant. Together we have worked to design an exploratory study in Sikkim that focuses on how sociocultural tradition and economy leads to violence against women and impact the quality of life of women in Sikkim . I learned and practice PH research methodology with our team, and collect data for this study.
I’m interested in supporting local groups in an administrative capacity, having worked for different NGOs a volunteer. I’ve promoted and organised events, hosted community meetings. I’ve also volunteered in International workshop conducted by regional ayvurveda institute for preservation and promotion of sowa-rigpa. I believe that Public Health will need to focus on deconstructing structural/generational/sociocultural stigma that prevents people from accessing care and services that promote health and quality in life. I believe that stigma is an underlying factor for many more issues than are truly acknowledged or understood, and that the concept of stigma remains complex and relatively challenging to address.
Highest Education: B.Sc. Zoology - NAR Bahadur Bhandari Degree College Tadong Gangtok
Date of Joining: June 15, 2020
Working with FHTS team under the guidance of Dr. Ashish Joshi for past 1 month under Inspire internship program has been a great experience. The combination of interesting and challenging work, with supportive guides made it very interesting. There were many things I could use from my education but also a lot of new things to learn which definitely took me forward. I learned PPT making and also improved my communication skills and most of all I learned about the steps for framing research questions. I am very thankful to team FHTS and my advice to future interns: "Do not have very strict expectations, be open minded and enthusiastic, then the internship as well as the FHTS org. will be one of the most precious experience in your life".