I had the opportunity to travel to Jamkhed, India, to study Public Health and Business during the new three-week course in fall 2019. Our trip took us to an organization called the Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP), based in Jamkhed, a small city in the state of Maharashtra. Founded in the 1970s, CRHP tackles widespread public-health issues in rural India through a holistic, three-pronged approach that focuses on community engagement. They use a combination of village health workers, mobile health teams, and secondary care to cure and prevent diseases and public-health issues faced by the local community.

I have always wanted to travel to India, and this trip had the added bonus of being part of my Business major, so it was a dream come true. Our group, comprised of 11 students and led by Professors Michael Dutch and Lavon Williams, left from Charlotte on Aug. 23. After almost two full days of travel, we arrived in Jamkhed early in the morning. We hit the ground running, taking three-hour classes twice a day, studying everything from how to deliver babies to medicinal herbs to watersheds. We took trips out to visit the surrounding villages and watched the village health workers teach communities about diabetes and mental health. We also took part in some of the programs that CRHP runs, like their senior citizen daycare groups and the preschool they provide for children who live in the slum across the street.

I learned so much about public health, but I was also lucky to have the trip directly relate to my future career. After graduation I plan to work in the animal welfare and sanctuary field, and one of the first things that I noticed when we left the airport in Mumbai was the stray dogs. They were almost unavoidable throughout the trip — often dirty and too skinny. The jarring contrast between our country’s shelter system and India's stray dog population was hard for me to process. 

For the final project, each of us researched a chosen public-health issue and presented it with possible solutions to the CRHP staff. I was itching to learn more, so I jumped at the chance to study street dogs. In my research I learned that India has over 70 million street dogs that are highly stigmatized as dirty, dangerous, and diseased. However, street dogs do serve a purpose. They act as one of India's only garbage disposal systems, eating the large amounts of trash that are scattered everywhere. Having the chance to research street-dog culture and brainstorm ideas of how to improve stray dogs’ quality of life was really inspiring and gave me a new outlook on our own country’s shelter system.

Traveling to India was one of the hardest but most fulfilling experiences I have ever had. Our group was honored to be welcomed into the CRHP community to learn new skills and experiences that we could never have had otherwise. My time in Jamkhed taught me so much about myself, my career, and most importantly how to be a better global citizen. I am endlessly grateful for the experience.

Check out more exciting international experiences on our student authored study abroad blog, Beyond Friendly.