Practicum Opportunity with Lesotho-Boston Health Alliance
Agency: Lesotho-Boston Health Alliance (LeBoHA)
Address/Contact Info/Website:
Address: Room 1020, 85 East Newton St, Boston MA 02118
Website: /lesotho/our-team/
Agency Description: LeBoHA was formerly established in 2007 and is a local NGO responsible for implementing Boston University activities in Lesotho. LeBoHA prides itself on being an organization that is Basotho-led and the majority of LeBoHA staff are Basotho. LeBoHA aims to strengthen management, policy, planning, and clinical capacity in the health sector of Lesotho. Our intent is to assist the country in responding to the HIV/AIDS crisis with the long-term goal of contributing to the development of a sustainable health sector that is 1) attractive to Basotho physicians and nurses and 2) improves the population’s access to good quality, relevant primary care services.
Practicum description:
Interns provide essential support for the implementation, evaluation, and continued development of this program. The intern will primarily focus on a new LeBoHA program, “Strengthening Civil Society for Better Health in Lesotho”. This program focuses on empowering communities and health workers to advance services and policies that will improve access to and quality of health care for Lesotho’s citizens. A special focus program will be on improving maternal health outcomes through increasing access to skilled attendants at childbirth.
Click here for more information.
Minimum skills required: Some international, as well as qualitative and/or quantitative research experiences preferred.
Dates of Availability: Dates are flexible beginning early May until the end of August.
To apply: Statement of interest, and (2) current CV
Application deadline: March 1, 2016
Number of students requested: 4-5 students
Logistics & Support:
An in-country team will provide airport pickup and drop off, as well as additional transportation. We provide subsidized housing for $15/night. We also strongly encourage students to apply for the Santander Universities Scholarship. The application is February 18, 2016. For more information go to:
/ghblast/gh-practicum/santander/santander-app/.
Contact Information of Field Supervisor and/or Hiring Coordinator:
Gabrielle Newton at gnewton@bu.edu.
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Addition Note post info session:
We have 3 main roles we would like to fill. I have listed them below with a brief description of each. It is important to note that the specific activities may change depending on program updates between now and May. However, I wanted to get a sense of who is interested in each role. It is possible for us to have more than 1 intern for each role if there is a lot of interest.
- Maternal Health Root Cause Analysis
We are planning to conduct a root cause analysis of maternal health in Lesotho, specifically around why women choose to deliver at home vs. in a health facility. This intern would focus on data collection and analysis. He/she would also work with our health professional associations (nurses, physicians, midwives, etc) to analyze the results and help them develop an action plan for implementing strategies to improve maternal health within the communities. This intern would likely be based at our Leribe office and stay at our Bill Bicknell House ($15/night).
- Problem Solving for Better Health
Last November, we brought about 40 physicians, nurses, village health workers, and other health professionals together for a 3-day intensive “Problem Solving for Better Health” workshop. They were broken up in to groups to identify problems in their communities that are negatively affecting the delivery of quality health services. They each developed an “action plan” to implement to overcome the challenge. We are looking for someone who is willing to work with these health professionals to help them implement their strategies and monitor their progress. This intern would be based at our Leribe office and stay at our Bill Bicknell House ($15/night).
- Financial Management and Program Development
We are looking for an intern with an interest in financial management, leadership, and program management to help streamline our financial processes for all in-country work. This could include updating financial policies, improving the system for payments and reimbursements, improving documentation and reporting of expenses, and dissemination of financial policies to all team members. This intern would be involved in all of our in-country programs (physician training, nurse training, civil society strengthening) and would have a special focus on setting up systems for new programs that will be beginning this year. If you are interested in this role, please let me know if you have taken any financial management/budgeting classes at SPH or have any experience in financial reporting. This intern will be based at our Maseru office which is in the capital of Lesotho. Housing will likely be a bit more expensive, but we will work with you to find the best option and subsidize where possible.
Please reply to me to let me know:
- If you have a strong preference for one of the roles and if there is a role you definitely would not want to do
- Your potential start/end dates (ballpark is fine)
- If there another intern you have a preference to travel with
Please send me an email with any questions! I know the Santander application is due soon, so we would like to finalize plans this week.
Thanks,
Kristin Shaw, MPH
Program Manager
Global Health Collaborative
Boston University
