Met with a 28 year old woman during my volunteer exercise with WHO in the KICK POLIO OUT program in Lagos, Nigeria. Having been married at an early age of 15, with little or no formal education, her broad knowledge of self health was greatly diminished. Her children, with eldest 12 years of age, had never been immunized. Her idea of health care is what her local herbal doctor could provide, her youngest child has acute flaccid paralysis and her belief?- what her 'god' allowed. Amazingly, she was content with her present state of health and life.
I want her to have more, to have her children not rendered handicapped with a virus that could have been prevented with drops of polio vaccines. I want her and others like her not to be forgotten in the plans for better health program, for her not to have breast cancer because she hasn't learned to examine her breast monthly and report abnormality. I desire that her quality of life be improved and health organizations around the world design better programs with evaluation steps to make sure that these extreme rural dwellers are not swept under the carpet during the implementation process. All these has amounted to this great need to be educated in men public health issues and to be at the cutting edge (literally) of its solution. I strongly wish that I can be admitted into your esteemed university to undertake the MPH program following the Population and Public Health Specialization Stream. XXX will offer me practicum that will help me integrate my studies with a practical professional experience at an affordable cost.
I graduated with an associate degree in nursing after completing three and half years of pre medical sciences courses at North Shore Community College and Hunter College respectively. I also obtained a Pharmacy Technician License while training at Priority Health Care Pharmacy and have obtained several online self taught certifications. After graduation, from nursing school in 2003, I was engrossed in the holistic care of patients, satisfying but as the years rolled by, the hunger to make an impact to the lives of people before the need for them to make to the hospital grew. The preventive health care was nothing to write home about, the politics ran deep into the health issues, awareness level ran high in the major setting but nil in the country sides.
The traditional beliefs and lack of education make it harder to reach out. Children still suffer from preventable diseases like paralytic poliomyelitis despite the availability of polio vaccines. Malaria in children is still among the leading cause of death in developing countries even with the current preventive and treatment options. Maternal- Child mortality rate though now much reduced still requires more attention. I am compelled to make a difference.
In response, I have helped to create a health program for my local church which included education of mothers in prompt and timely immunization schedule, teaching of self breast examination both to male and female, first aid teachings to parents and in-depth teaching and counseling to the youth on sexually transmitted disease. I also volunteer as an independent monitor for the KICK POLIO OUT program.
I am driven to explore the issues plaguing maternal and child health including the prevention of infectious diseases, immunization adherence, reduction of incidence of HIV/AIDS epidemic as well as bringing an end to the stigmatization of HIV positive individuals. I want to focus on psychosexual development with the up rise in teenage pregnancies and the consequent complications both to the mother as well as the unborn child, to develop program, which will incorporate health issues solution that will cut across the various ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic backgrounds.
I constantly have heated discussions with my colleagues trying to convince them that the reported cases of disease outbreaks are smaller numerically as a result of lack of reporting and data collection. With the completion of this program at xxx, I would be able to back up my claims with rigorous logical analysis and detailed experimental statistics. XXXcan offers me practicum that will help me integrate my studies with a practical professional experience while gaining a comprehensive understanding of public health research and practice in the community setting.
I am confident in my abilities coupled with the excellent teachings and learning environment at XXX, that I would be placed at the edge- literally in successfully designing, implementing, educating and re-evaluating health solution programs for the community through research, service.
The successful completion of this program for me will place me in the forefront line to redesign and update the health programs that left out the outreach to the 28 year old woman, so that her children, though may grow up in the same rural setting, will have better choice in their sexual dealings, immunization for their own children, erasing the likelihood of disability and subsequently improving the health and quality of life of child, a family, a community, a nation and ultimately, the world.
Thank you so much for the time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Eunice T. Phillip
I met a 28 year-old woman during my volunteer exercise with WHO in the KICK POLIO OUT program in Lagos, Nigeria.
Having been married at an early age of fifteen , with little or no formal education, her broad knowledge of self personal health was greatly diminished. --- this is an impressive sentence!!
Her children, the oldest of whom was t welve years of age, had never been immunized. Her idea of health care is what her local herbal doctor could provide; her youngest child has acute flaccid paralysis, and her belief is that it is what her 'god' allows.
use a comma:
I constantly have heated discussions with my colleagues, trying to convince them that the reported cases of disease outbreaks are smaller numerically as a result of lack of reporting and data collection.----- do they really debate this? I don't know why anyone would debate the notion that research data does not reflect the total number.
This is all very impressive; you should feel confidant!
The successful completion of this program for me will place me in ...
28 year-old
