Through the Bixby Internship, Rebecca helped launch an evaluation of a Family Planning Mobile Job Aid for Community Health Workers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The goal of this project is to critically examine an innovative mobile technology-based approach to increasing access to family planning information and services at the community-level.

Courtney completed a qualitative research investigation into women’s perceptions, enabling factors, and barriers to access and use of non-permanent family planning methods, in collaboration with World Health Partners (WHP), an Indian non-governmental organization that provides health services to rural communities in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, India.

As the Malcolm Potts Intern, Dionne spent 10 weeks at the Population and Community Development Association (PDA) in Thailand. She helped develop a project proposal for new hospital based integrated rural development (Hospital BIRD) program that utilized the hospital as a community hub for income generation, education, and poverty alleviation.

Laura and Kristina spent 10 weeks in Tigray, Ethiopia working to support a project that makes it easier for women in rural Ethiopia to obtain contraception. The project trains Community Based Reproductive Health Agents (CBRHAs), lay women from rural villages, to provide injectable contraceptives to women in their community.

Emily and Kyle spent their summer supporting the Girl-Child Education (GCE) program in Northern Nigeria. The GCE is an NIH-funded initiative that aims to delay the age of marriage and the onset of childbearing for rural adolescent girls in Zaria, Nigeria by providing them with scholarships to attend secondary school and weekly safe space clubs.

Divya and Aidan spent the summer investigating how Angolan women make decisions about pregnancy, childbearing, and family planning. With help from PSI Angola, Divya and Aidan conducted in-depth interviews with 28 women of reproductive age in health centers and local church groups in Luanda Province.

Carinne and Julie spent six weeks examining the factors that facilitate and impede the use of reproductive health vouchers by women who were eligible for the voucher program in three operational districts in Cambodia.

Amanda carried out key informant interviews in Ethiopia and Uganda to identify current family planning priorities, reproductive health policies, and feasibility of community-based distribution of contraceptives.

Elise spent this summer with the organization Population and Community Development Association, which has been working to improve the health and economic status of Thailand’s rural populations since the late 1970s.

Joanna worked with Venture Strategies Innovations (VSI) and Ghana Health Service (GSH) to conduct monitoring and evaluation of a Misoprostol pilot project in Ghana. The project aimed to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity due to postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) by providing women with Misoprostol—a life-saving drug that has been shown to effectively prevent PPH.