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Govinda Prasad Pant and Seema Giri from B P Koirala Institute of Health Sciences recently completed their three months of internship/elective placement at HERD. They reflect upon their work experience at HERD

Govinda Prasad Pant

My internship at Health Research and Social Development Forum (HERD) was initiated through an email (to HERD’s Executive Director & Operations Team). I was previously involved with HERD as a Field Researcher, immediately after completing my Bachelor in Public Health. With lots of fond memories at HERD, I chose HERD for my internship/elective posting while I was undergoing my MPH from School of Public Health & Community Medicine, BPKIHS, Dharan, Nepal.

My elective posting/internship at HERD spanned three months (March to June, 2015). During the period, I was involved in range of projects at HERD namely: Empowering District Level Manager to Improve Health worker Performance in Nepal; The Urban Health Project: Developing Strategy to Improve Health Care Services in Urban Areas of Nepal; and Rapid Structural (Technical) School Assessment.

I also got an opportunity to work on a humanitarian work through earthquake relief campaigns with the energetic HERD team at different places; reaching the unreached. My capacity as a public health researcher was also enhanced as I also had the opportunity to attend training on Human Resource Planning and Management, Advanced Microsoft Excel training, Research Ethics online course, Workshop on Qualitative Research, Enhanced Capacity and Learning (ECL) sessions. I also learnt a lot during interactions such as staff meetings and field visits for different projects.

The experience has given me a thorough understanding of the employer etiquette - working in an organization with diverse professionals and insight into the operation of projects. I enjoyed the opportunities to learn from and work with individuals of a variety of backgrounds with lots of experiences.

I would like to thank the entire HERD team, on behalf of School of Public Health & Community Medicine, BPKIHS and myself, for being so supportive and giving me such a considerable learning opportunity. I enjoyed being a part of such a diverse, friendly, energetic and motivating team. It was so nice to meet such a motivating and inspiring faces at HERD.

HERD is a wonderful place to intern/contribute in the sector of health research and social development sector. Thank You HERD!!! Wishing the organization progress ahead!!!

Seema Giri

Based on the reference of one of my friends, I got an opportunity to work at HERD as a field researcher in Nepal Household Survey 2012 after completion of my Bachelor degree. For my internship, I was searching for a suitable organisation and consulted Dr. Suresh Tiwari. He suggested me that HERD is the best learning place and will help for my career development. As I am interested in health systems research, I joined HERD for my internship.

The period of 3 months was very fruitful as I learnt many things. It helped me to uplift my theoretical knowledge, made me more responsible and hardworking. I got an opportunity to take part in training and learn about tool design, research methodology, report writing, analysis and many other nuances of research.

I found HERD team hard working, responsible and energetic with an inspirational and motivating leader. I would like to thank my supervisor Ms Nabita Sharma who guided and supported in my whole internship period along with WaterAid team.

HERD is a good platform for the new learners.Thank you very much HERD team, you all made my internship period worthy.