Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Together in Bloom - Spring Semester in Full Swing by Tin Moe Aung [Myanmar]


"For the First time in the history of mankind, one generation literally has the power to destroy the past, the present and the future, the power to bring time to an end." -- Hubert H. Humphrey

 

 








After a tender silver snow, Richmond woke up with beautiful and colorful flowers together with gold sunshine. Pretty spring started around the middle of March, almost all flowers were trying to bloom and it looks like the flowers are in competition. As the flowers were trying to look for new environment, all Fellows are also trying to do affiliations and enthusiastically wait for affiliation sites to approve our proposals in the Humphrey program.  Some of us became more and more active working on our affiliations becoming more involved every day.

Last trip to Maryland

The Fellows at Baltimore Inner Harbor

Beautiful sites at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD.
A trip to The Baltimore Inner Harbor was the last field trip for our Fellows. It was also one of the most exciting and happy trips. We all went together in the rain; including our Coordinators Dr. Mary Loos and our Assistant Coordinator, Crystal looked like a smart captain and the trip was full of fun. We were chatting, singing and kidding each other the whole trip.  Funny and exciting 4-D cinema, clever dolphin shows, beautiful inner harbor of Baltimore, amazing under water animals and a wonderful  show from the aquarium, were distinct events that we Fellows will never forget.

Prevention Specialist Training

Mike Olson, Facilitator of the week-long Prevention Specialist Training

That's me, Moe, participating in the Prevention Specialist Training.
Fellows attended the Prevention Specialist Training from March 19th to the 23rd and this training was very good. We were given a lot of tools to help us create a new project. Aizhan, Pedro, Natalia and I had a great time in this training. Michael Olsen, our trainer could explain very well  how to implement our prevention program and experiences. Sharing information and having discussion with trainees was very helpful  in helping the Fellows to understand the ideas. We had special chance to discuss specifically about substance abuse prevention, prevention research, cultural competency and inclusion, prevention planning, evaluation and using human development in prevention from this training. The Group Project presentation was also exciting for all of us as every Fellow had a chance to participate in different group. We created a nice presentation in cooperation with other trainees. Mike taught these tools of prevention to all trainees by using all his energy for the whole week. Dr. Olson also described the brain effect very well.

Grant-writing

The Grant-writing training was arranged at the end of March. Laurie J.Rogers was easily able to explain and share a lot of information about grant writing procedure and resources.  Every Fellow has a specific intention to change something in their respective field in their own countries. So it was a special training and very supportive to our individual program plans which will help us to implement our projects by receiving information and providing tools for the future.  We were instructed that we can share our points of view from different aspects to create funding and also understand how to write clear and successful grant proposal.

Faculty Panel Presentations and Informal Social Session

Our Coordinator Dr. Randy Koch introducing us before our presentations.

Rogers Kasirye (Uganda) making his presentation to the Epi faculty members.

That's me making my presentation to the faculty.

Our colleague, Aizhan Zhumasheva of Kazakhstan also presented.
My friend Natalia Estoyanoff of Uruguay presenting as well.


On March 27 the Humphrey Fellows participated in a panel presentation and informal social session with VCU's Epidemiology faculty. After our Coordinator, J. Randy Koch introduced us to everyone, Natalia Estoyanoff, Roger Kasiirye, Aizhangul Zhumasheva and myself made presentations about our countries' substance abuse issues and it was also great time to share and learn from several points of view.

Motivational Interview Training

Lori Keyser Marcus and Tom Moore facilitating our MI training.
March 29th was one of the wonderful days because we were trained in Motivational Interviewing by Dr. Lori Keyser-Marcus and Dr. Thomas Moore.  The training gave so many helpful ideas for building good substance abuse service programs in our own countries. The Motivational Interviewing training was an excellent evidence-based practice that we were able to learn and implement.

Admin meeting

VCU's Humphrey program always arranges administrative meetings nearly every Wednesday. This is also good time to share information and we get a chance to plan our schedule.  Sometimes we eat! March, like the spring, was filled with colorful and useful activities which can help to complete the future hopes of each Humphrey Fellow for their own countries.

Poster Preparation

On 27th March, we were also given very exciting to do poster presentation by Stephanie Hart, the Business Manager for the Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies, for the upcoming NIDA International Forum and CPDD in Palm Springs, CA coming up in mid-June, just as we end our program. She helped us a lot so that each poster will be the best it can.

MARCH was filled with tools and resources and items we will use to continue to pursue our dreams of serving our communities so for me MARCH stands for Material Awakening for Respective Countries' Hope.