Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh — Alex Jin, PLME ‘23, a recipient of GHI’s Global Health Framework Scholarship under the mentorship of Ruhul Abid, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Surgery (Research), has recently been recognized as a dedicated intern for the non-profit HAEFA (Health and Education for All). Alex has been working with Dr. Abid since 2021 and will begin medical school this summer.
Alex visited HAEFA’s operations in Bangladesh in February and March 2024 as a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer. She observed various HAEFA activities, conducting interviews, gathering information, and generating media content.
Her time was mostly spent working in Cox's Bazar evaluating HAEFA’s cervical cancer screening, TB screening, and electronic medical record (EMR) programs. She visited several rural clinics and sub-district hospitals where HAEFA’s EMR system has just been installed to facilitate community wide screening and management of hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic non-communicable diseases for rural, coastal, and island populations of Bangladesh.
Alex also spent a month in the FDMN/Rohingya refugee camps at two HAEFA Health Posts interviewing the medical staff and studying patients' satisfaction through exit polls aimed at improving healthcare delivery.
HAEFA, pronounced Hi-fa, is a US-based, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Dr. Ruhul Abid, a researcher at the Warren Alpert Medical School, formulated the idea in partnership with Dr. Rosemary Duda while at Harvard Medical School in 2011. HAEFA was founded in 2012 to address the health care needs of ready-made garment (RMG) factory workers across Bangladesh.
