Alumni Updates - Fall 2004

• Kawther Badri (2003-2004) writes, "I visited DARFUR region in August 2004 to assess the Population & RH situation in Displaced Camps and helped the government of West Darfur State to develop a proposal for training the national NGOs on service delivery in emergency situations."
  
  
• We recently received word from Bernie Udo (2002-2003), who writes, "Greetings to all the PLP connection. I have missed you all and more so the conference in Addis, which I understand from the email messages was a great success and wonderful experience. My reason for not attending was difficulty with access to communication. Since January 2004, I was transferred by my organization, to work as Child Protection Program Manager in the worst affected region of Sierra Leone - The Kono District in the Eastern Region of Sierra Leone, where incidentally is known for its diamonds. This district had been the sit of the rebels (fighting factions) for the past ten years of the civil war in my country, engaged in mining. This district is so badly destroyed that no house was left untouched, either totally burnt down or only a skeletal framework was left. Likewise communication was nonexistent, especially an e-mail network. It is only this September that my organization - The International Rescue Committee has installed an email system in its Kono regional offices. I had made some attempts when I visited Freetown (the capital city), but found that all my mails had been deleted and my account deactivated. I am glad that I can now communicate with the PLP family."
  
  
• Blanca Rico (2003-2004) writes, "I am writing a book on sexuality for junior high school students for a Spanish editorial company that sells a lot of books in Mexico and Latin America (Santillana). I am also involved in a project with IPAS founded by the Ford Foundation to include human rights and sexual and reproductive rights in the curricula of medical and nursing schools in 4 Mexican State Universities plus the National University in Mexico City. The idea is to make it a regional project and include Brazil, Nicaragua and El Salvador (where IPAS has offices) in the following years. Of course I am also working on the National Consortium project with the Ministry of Health, absolutely for free, because I don't want to have any conflict of interests. It is a very hard time in terms of the politic situation of the country, and things are not easy at all for this particular project. NGOs are very upset with the government in general, and with the Minister of Health in particular for reasons to long and complex to write down. As you can see I am not bored at all, plus today I am singing Mozart's Requiem in a concert at the University. Andrew Levack (some of you know him from the International Health Seminar) is spending some days at my house and is coming to the concert. Other than that, my daughter, boyfriend, parents and friends are all doing fine."
  
  
• Dr. Ha Thi Thu Phan (2000-2001) is pursuing a PhD at the School of Public Health at University of Texas.