Internship available through MGH: Initiative to End Child Malnutrition
Malnutrition is a major cause of child morbidity and mortality in under-resourced areas. The Division of Global Health and Human Rights is undertaking a unique program in rural Uganda that aims to address this problem. The Initiative to End Child Malnutrition involves students from the Harvard College Global Hunger Initiative (GHI) working under the direction of Division Global Health Fellow Keri Cohn to establish a referral center for the treatment of severe malnutrition and develop an outpatient treatment plan and training for moderate and mild malnutrition. In January of 2010 GHI students travelled to Uganda with Dr. Cohn to implement a child malnutrition protocol and trained physicians, nurses and communith health workers.
In the summer of 2010, our team returned to Nyakibale to refine the malnutrition treatment program, providing a continuing medical education program for the trained staff. Our team also worked to establish a social enterprise in the form of a hospital canteen to generate revenue that would subsidize the cost of treatment, allowing the hospital to offer patients a low flat-rate fee for malnutrition care. We also assessed and expanded our local community outreach, awareness, and education programs traveling to health centers, villages, and community centers.
