Career plan in HIV management programs - Chevening Essay

Hi all. Please see my essay below. I hope the UK links are sufficient since the UK withdrew most of their funding a few years ago and now mostly concentrates on research funding - luckily there are plenty of these.

Chevening is looking for individuals who have a clear post-study career plan. Please outline your immediate plans upon returning home and your longer term career goals. You may wish to consider how these relate to what the UK government is doing in your country. (minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

to get involved with the local NGO's

When I come back to South Africa after studying in the UK, I want to return to my home province of {province name} initially. Here, I would like to get involved with the local NGO's that support the provincial public health system. I have worked with them before, but after completing my master's degree, I will be able to offer more skills and knowledge than before.

My first priority would be to assist in establishing a district Advanced Clinical Care centre for HIV and TB care. This project has been in the pipeline for a number of years, but one of the main stumbling blocks has been the lack of suitably qualified people to create and run such a unit. My newly acquired knowledge of the management of health programs in low cost settings would enable me to fill this gap and assist the local Department of Health in setting up the centre. The clinical knowledge of infectious disease management that I will gain will be essential in rendering a high quality service to patients with complicated conditions. My Chevening network will be a crucial component to the success of the centre and I will make use of my contacts in order to obtain advice on medical and non-medical issues that may arise.

The centre would also be the ideal setting for research projects. Therefore, my second goal will be to set the centre up as a satellite site for some of the large multicentre HIV and TB trials that are ongoing in South Africa. My Chevening contacts could help with this, and I would also get in contact with the teams from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who are currently doing research in other provinces in South Africa, such as the STAMP trial (funded by the Wellcome Trust and the UK Department for International Development) or the SATVI group (funded by the Wellcome trust). There is a noticeable lack of trials in Mpumalanga and the proposed Advanced Clinical Care centre could fill this gap while delivering high quality patient care.

When the centre is well established, I would consider starting my PhD. Coming back to the UK for this would be a wonderful opportunity. Alternatively, I would get involved with the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, which is based at the University of Cape Town. Their network of international funders, such as UKAID, enables them to be one of the leaders in HIV research and care in South Africa and worldwide. Their PhD candidates consistently deliver the high quality research that I would like to be part of.

My longterm goal is to become a Program Lead at one of the large NGO's. As Program Lead, I will be expected to provide technical assistance to the public health system in a number of districts in different provinces countrywide. I will make use of the skills obtained during my postgraduate studies, as well as my Chevening and UK university networks, in order to achieve this goal.

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i liked your essay and how you introduce your ideas, the way you will collaborate with UK project and how you will use chevening in your plan.

Christi, you should consider explaining what sort of UK research projects could be done specifically in your area / province and what the participation of these organizations would be aside from research and funding. What would you offer to group/s in order to convince the reviewer that the participation of the UK in this field will be worth their while and effort? You can remove the reference to the PhD studies. That is not really relevant in this instance because the PhD grant may or may not come from Chevening in the future. Although, if you can point out that you plan on applying for Chevening sponsorship for PhD in the future, should you win the scholarship now, will allow you to continue to promote both the Chevening and UK interests in your country on a long term basis, which could be considered part of your ultimate career plan.

Merged:

Career path in the public health sector (Chevening)

Chevening is looking for individuals who have a clear post-study career plan. Please outline your immediate plans upon returning home and your longer term career goals. You may wish to consider how these relate to what the UK government is doing in your country. (minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

As a newly graduated doctor, I found satisfaction in treating my patients and making a difference in the lives of one person at a time. Since then I have come to realise an even bigger passion: impacting on the lives and health of whole communities. My Masters degree in International Health and Tropical Medicine is a key step to following this career path.

Coming back to South Africa, I will work in the public health sector, specifically in the HIV and tuberculosis programmes. South Africa has the biggest HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world, as well as the sixth biggest tuberculosis epidemic. Although major gains have been made in the past ten years, with the death rate dropping and more than three million people being on anti-retroviral therapy, enormous challenges still remain. This include millions of HIV positive persons who are still not diagnosed and treated, a rise in drug-resistant tuberculosis, and a lack of resources and skills for management of these epidemics in rural areas. It is in the solution to these problems that I see myself making a difference.

At first, I will take up a position with the National Department of Health, or with one of the non-governmental organisations partnering with the Department to improve the health system in rural provinces. With my newly acquired knowledge of management and control of infectious diseases in developing countries, I will provide leadership and technical assistance in the implementation of these programmes. I will use my clinical knowledge of bacterial, viral and parasitic infections to assist with guideline development and implementation, and with training and mentoring doctors and nurses.

Eventually, I want to establish a centre of excellence for HIV, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases in my home province of XXX. This centre would coordinate the management of complicated patient cases and provide teaching opportunities for local and international health care workers. Additionally, I will partner with colleagues and institutions to conduct research that could contribute to the elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV, an area very close to my heart.

This ties in with one of the top priorities of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), which is to work to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all people, tackle microbial resistance and prioritise neglected tropical diseases. Since the DFID's bilateral aid programme to South Africa ended in 2015, the focus is now on mutually agreed areas of engagement. This include enhancing partnerships to accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa, including Goal 3 which refers to health and wellbeing. According to this goal, we will aim to end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other communicable diseases by 2030.

My career in the public health sector in South Africa, focusing on HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, will directly contribute to this goal and to better health outcomes in rural communities specifically.

478 words

Christi, rebalance the content of the essay to reflect your personal career plan with Goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa. Be specific about how the DFID functions as a support system in this area. What projects do they undertake that you feel you can contribute to? What sort of positive development do you hope to show through this collaboration? Bear in mind that the DFID project needs to be threshed out and you will have to prove that you have a solid plan in mind to help you gain the attention of the DFID so that the organization will feel like they must support any project that you will come to them with to discuss support for. Show a seamless integration between your suggested project and the current Goal 3 project that Chevening supports. Doing that will strengthen your post study plans.