Today, Salma, Krishan, RJ, and I all drove to downtown Durham to FHI360 for our first day of the work experience program. Upon arriving, I knew little about the organization- it’s non-profit, it has a medical focus, and it helps other countries through its international relations. After touring this beautiful office, we sat down with doctors Dorflinger and Nanda to discuss the history, accomplishments, and work of the organization. Primarily funded by the US Government and Gates Foundation, FHI (Family Health International) first focused on the prevention of HIV and later developed many different branches including nutrition, education, and expanded in health while acquiring AED and changing the organization’s name to FHI360. Within the health section, Dr. Dorflinger directs the entirety of the Contraceptive Technology Innovation department and Dr. Nanda is the director of medical research. Next, with Ms. Lorenzetti, we discussed one of the projects with which we will help the health department. With a focus on economics involving health policy, Ms. Lorenzetti is now examining barriers and facilitators of adherence to HIV care in Mozambique. We will help her by sorting through different resources for relevance and categorizing our findings. After a pizza lunch with a few faculty members, we met with library associate Ms. Manion and library manager Ms. Burns to learn more about literary searches using different databases and methods to use for the most accurate search results. All in all, I am very excited for the next two weeks and cannot wait to learn more about this organization!
The view of the Durham Bulls Stadium from the view of the cafeteria on the tour!