Presenter: Shannen Auffarth, Animal Science, Global Public Health Scholars
For my practicum, I worked on an elephant sanctuary in Cambodia. My trip was organized through Reach Out Volunteers, an organization assisting those in developing nations. I consulted websites our class frequently uses, like the CDC, and had determined that I needed to get a typhoid vaccination, hepatitis A vaccination, and anti-malaria medication (I’m already vaccinated against rabies). After two days of flying, I arrived at the wildlife sanctuary and settled into my bungalow, where I stayed for the week. Some tasks were completed daily, such as scooping elephant feces, feeding the animals on the sanctuary, and immersing myself into Cambodian culture. Additionally, my time in Cambodia was spent assisting the community in various ways on certain days. We (my volunteer group) visited the local Cambodian school funded by Reach Out Volunteers to teach the students English, mixed cement and built a dam to collect fresh water for the animals on the sanctuary, planted seeds in the sanctuary’s plant nursery, built a fire break to protect the environment, blessed trees to prevent them from being cut down, interacted with locals regularly, and learned more about Buddhism by visiting temples and speaking with monks. My trip overall was focused on the one health approach, with us gaining a greater understanding of the intertwined health between people, animals, and the environment, by experiencing it firsthand in a developing country.
I 1000% agree that politics are a huge barrier to effective interventions. It's great that you were able to get such a holistic experience. Since sustainability of interventions is a huge theme in public health, how do you think your volunteer activities in Cambodia can be translated in longer-lasting benefits? What's your favorite thing that your learned about Buddhism?
I found it very interesting that this project ended up clarifying in a way that you specifically were interested in pursuing as a career. It seemed that when you took on this project you had a general idea of the area you want to work in but didn't know specifically, but through your work on this project, it helped you transition your interests from small animal clinical practice to veterinary public health. I am also in a similar situation where I have a general sense of what I want to do but not exactly, so hopefully, this project will help me realize where my specific interests lie.
@David Park Thanks for the question and interest! There's a lot of depth to your question when considering how to change policies currently in place. For starters, the CDC's One Health approach is multi-faceted and adapted for local, national, and global purposes. This means that at these different levels, different forms of implementation will be seen in communities. Because the CDC already operates on a global scale, this approach is already used in the US. This may not be evident based on my project because the approaches taken in Cambodia are obviously going to be very different from how One Health is applied in the US. When thinking about change and barriers in the US, I think that it is…
Your experience in Cambodia is very interesting because you were able to work on projects that would benefit the environment, the people and the animals. I find the One Health approach interesting because there are correlations with the quality of the environment and health. I was wondering how the idea of One Health could be applied to like other parts of the world, especially the US where it may be difficult to change the practices and behaviors of the people because of current regulations/policies. What would need to be changed or how do we address those barriers?