I have been thinking about to find a connection in China to work on sth real for quite a few months. The winter vacation at home is a perfect time to do so. I started the search before I came to London.
The first one I tried was Dr. Wan Yanhai. The GB grant society at Hopkins invited him for a talk on HIV/AIDS in China on the AIDS day last year. He is the 2002 International Recipient for Awards for Action on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights. He sounds like a great guy to work with. The only concern is that he doesn't have a good relationship with govenment. He was even on a black list of some sort in late 90's. I don't respect how China govenment has handled the HIV/AIDS issue either, but don't want to be put on a black list. Beyond the concern about my freedom, I think public health is not sth in ivory tower, but sth in tight bond with society/govenment/...... If someone want to do anything real for public health, there is no way to get around govenment (at least, that's what I think right now). I definitely want to know more about Dr. Wan Yanhai's work, but have the concern that it could bring potentional negative effect to my own work/life in China later. I want to think about it and do it in the right way.
The second one I tried was School of Public Health at FuDan. I went to visit the school in January 2004. Among all the schools I visited that winter, FuDan was the one I liked most. After I moved to London, I updated my contact information with the faculty there and asked if anyone at the school was working on HIV/AIDS and would like to take me as a volunteer on any project in this winter. I was introduced to a faculty member and I emailed him right afterwards, but never got any response. A little frustrated, but I think I will go to Shanghai in this winter anyway, shouldn't give up this one so easily.
The third one I tried was London School. I have been taking every chance here to ask people around me for information about projects going on in China. And I finally got one!!!! How exciting it is! It is a small project funded by the unit (the Gates Malaria Partenership) that I joined. I really hope this will work out and spend my winter in YunNan. God, thank you for answering my prayer!!
Anyway, this sounds like a good start! Deserve a celebration. So I spent the whole morning at work to update blog, instead of working on data analysis. :)))
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Dear Nigel,
Just to introduce you to Dongmei who started a couple of months ago as the new GMP statistician. If you have the time it would be nice if you could meet up with her as she is interested to know what you are doing re the new DIF grant.
cheers
Amit
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Amit, Thanks a lot for putting me in contact with Nigel!
Nigel, I am from China and very interested in any public health projects going on back home. I heard from the GMP meeting that you are currently working on a malaria project in YunNan. I would really love to know more about it. Also, if there is anything I could help with, that will be more than a pleasure.
Regards,
Dongmei
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Hi DongMei,
it's good to hear from you. Yes I have been working for several years with colleagues at the Yunnan Institute of Parasitic Diseases in Simao, Yunnan Province PR China. I currently have a GMP funded small project evaluating the use of traditional plants burnt on indoor cooking fires in the evening to reduce / prevent malaria vector mosquitoes entering houses in remote minority peoples villages in Xishuangbanna Region. I'd be happy to meet up and describe our work. I am always in need of a good statistician to work with me to design and analyse our projects, so it's really good you have joined us. I'll check my diary to suggest good days to meet and get back to you.
Best wishes,
Nigel
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Hi Nigel,
Very nice to hear from you. I look forward to learning more about your work. I plan to have a one month vacation at home around Christmas and will be very happy to visit your study site in YunNan if it doesn't bring you any trouble and would like to work as a volunteer there, if you need any statistics help, or any other kind of help a Chinese could provide. :) I also want to take it as a chance to learn some practical issues about clinical trials in the field, especially in China. I look forward to meeting you in person.
Best,
Dongmei
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That sounds great, which part of China are you from ?
nigel
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I am from Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei province. It is about 3 hours driving to south from Beijing. I already plan to take the winter vacation as a chance for me to learn more about China. Shame on me, although I was born there and grew up in China until I finished my college education, I didn't go to many places in China. Spent most of my time in Northen China (Hebei and Beijing) and only went to visit Shanghai once. I want to go back to China in future (near or far, questionable) for public health research and am looking for every opportunity for me to learn anything going on back home.
Dongmei
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That sounds interesting. From my understanding it is very unusual for any Chinese to travel widely, and in this respect it is similar to the USA where the majority of people never leave their state ! As well as my other projects I am also the UK co-ordinator for the DFID / British Council UK-China Higher education training link between LSHTM and YIPD. I send LSHTM staff to YIPD to run training courses each year and bring YIPD staff here too. It is very likely I will be sending LSHTM staff to YIPD in the next year to assist them in clinical trial design & analysis (including stats), so I will certainly be thinking of you as an ideal candidate !
Best wishes,
Nigel
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