About the Internship
The Healthy Villages Internship brings together undergraduate, graduate, international development, public health, and medical students from across the globe to work alongside rural communities as they are empowered to lead healthier lives.
The Healthy Villages Internship provides broad exposure to UVP’s diverse community health programs where interns engage with theories and practices of public health and international development in a grassroots context. Intern teams spend 8 weeks during the summer establishing, sustaining, and monitoring UVP’s public health and advocacy programs in rural communities throughout Iganga District. Ultimately, interns focus on grassroots health promotion strategies in order to improve public health in partnered villages.
The summer is framed through four key components of experience and learning:
Cross-Cultural Collaboration and Team Building through our Intern Team Model.
Practical Knowledge and Skill Building in community mobilization, data collection, and health education through the lens of UVP’s Healthy Villages Model.
Community Immersion through living in and partnering with a specific Healthy Village.
Critical Thinking & Leadership Development through our eight week Global Health Leadership curriculum.
While living side by side with community members, interns learn about the social justice and healthy equity issues these communities face and work in partnership with the community to overcome these barriers. Programs and activities are geared toward issues such as water, sanitation, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and reproductive health. Interns will grow in their understanding of global health as a multi-sectoral and interdisciplinary field, face the challenges of grassroots public health work, and think critically about where they fit as leaders the movement for global health equity.