{"id":106283,"date":"2017-06-26T09:59:25","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T13:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?p=106283"},"modified":"2020-09-17T10:25:14","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T14:25:14","slug":"student-looks-for-nutrition-gaps-in-sudan","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2017\/student-looks-for-nutrition-gaps-in-sudan\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Looks for Nutrition Gaps in Sudan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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June 26, 2017<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\"MariWorking in Sudan during Ramadan was not without its perks, says MPH student Mari Shimizu. \u201cPeople love to invite me almost every day for Iftar,\u201d she says, explaining she and other foreigners were regularly invited to share the fast-ending meal each evening\u2014often by strangers.<\/p>\n

For Shimizu, that generosity also underscores why she is in Sudan: to help curb malnutrition. She is working with UNICEF Sudan<\/a> as a nutrition intern on a program called Scaling Up for Nutrition (SUN)<\/a>. SUN is a partnership between 59 countries to improve nutrition and reduce stunting.<\/p>\n

Sudan has one of the world\u2019s highest rates of stunting, Shimizu says, with malnutrition causing irreversible impacts on the growth and brain development of about 38 percent of children under 5 years old. The high rate is due to ongoing conflict in Darfur and other parts of Sudan, she says, as well as an influx of refugees from the civil war in South Sudan.<\/p>\n

For the program, Shimizu is inventorying the Sudanese nutrition work of UNICEF and six other agencies\u2014UNFPA, WFP, WHO, FAO, IFAD, and the World Bank\u2014so she can map out existing efforts and look for gaps between them, she says, \u201cand so that in the future we can work on those gaps to improve nutrition in Sudan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shimizu is working with the focal person from each of the six agencies to gather the information she needs. \u201cI have been conducting interviews so that we can work together filling in the inventory,\u201d she says, \u201cbecause some people are just so busy that if I\u2019m not visiting their office they\u2019ll never have time to fill it in.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has been an especially busy time of year, Shimizu says, especially leading up to the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of Ramadan. \u201cThe schedule for the focal person from each UN agency was packed,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the timing meant Shimizu got to enjoy plenty of Sudanese hospitality. \u201cOne day I was walking beside the Nile with my Japanese friend and we met a random Sudanese family who were having Iftar near the river,\u201d she says. \u201cThey said, \u2018Please, come with us,\u2019 and they invited us for their Iftar. Things like this happen everywhere! Even on the street they invite us for Iftar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shimizu says these meals provide a great opportunity to learn more about the country, work on her Arabic\u2014and, of course, taste the food.<\/p>\n

Before coming to SPH, Shimizu worked for the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a government organization that assists economic and social growth in developing countries. She worked in the health sectors of seven different countries with JICA, and says she decided to study public health so she could work more effectively in international aid.<\/p>\n

Shimizu says this internship experience is exactly what she hoped for, with plenty of hands-on experience and opportunities to use the skills she learned at SPH.<\/p>\n

The practicum has also given her the opportunity to learn from those who make up the international aid community. \u201cI have learned so many things because the older expats are from everywhere in the world and they have very different experiences,\u201d she says. “Their inputs are so effective because they have experience in all of these different countries.\u201d This experience in Sudan puts her one step closer to joining their ranks.<\/p>\n

\u2014Michelle Samuels<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Mari Shimizu is taking over the SPH Instagram account from June 26 through 30 to share photos from Sudan. Follow along at <\/em>Instagram.com\/BUSPH\/<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At UNICEF Sudan, Mari Shimizu inventories international agencies\u2019 efforts to curb malnutrition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10989,"featured_media":106361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[1850,1899,2045],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3528,3531,3532,3538,3541],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/106283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10989"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106283"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/106283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173816,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/106283\/revisions\/173816"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106283"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=106283"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=106283"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=106283"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=106283"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=106283"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=106283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}