Dr. Dirna Mayasari, a student at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, helps the poor and dispossessed in Myanmar.
As Dirna Mayasari’s plane touched down in Myanmar in Southeast Asia, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit the country – underscoring the very reason for her being there. An Indonesian physician, Mayasari is enrolled in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s Community Health Sciences and Global Health Certificate programs to gain expertise in emergency public health.
In Myanmar, Mayasari worked with Muslim Aid, a U.K.-based organization that connects humanitarian assistance to 70 of the world’s poorest nations. Her tasks included assessing health, sanitation, food security and nutrition in refugee camps. She also conducted nutrition and hygiene education classes for pregnant and breastfeeding women, school-age children, teachers, community health workers, nurses and physicians.
“My clinical background as a medical doctor, combined with my current training in public health, helped me bridge healthcare services and public health intervention for displaced populations,” Mayasari says.
UCLA Fielding School of Public Health educates students from more than 35 countries and currently has more than 8,000 alumni. Over the last 50 years, the school’s faculty and students have improved the health of communities large and small around the world. Alumni have taken their knowledge and expertise and become public health leaders in communities as far away as the Congo and as close as East L.A. – bringing information and education to underserved communities, changing behaviors and saving lives.
