Dorie Josma and Cassandra Savino recently graduated from Emory University with Masters degrees in Public Health. Last summer, they spent eight weeks living at NOVA’s clinic working on their graduate thesis. They implemented three week-long interactive projects on hand hygiene and nutritional health. These activities were tailored for community members ages 18-35. During this time, they distributed hygiene kits from donors, planted trees with a grassroots organization in Cavaillon which focuses on reforestation, and used theater, art, videos, and campaigns to promote positive health practices.
The goal of this project was to create sustainable education programs that involve training and certifying community members to educate their peers in the aforementioned topics. To this end, Dorie and Cassandra trained participants who successfully completed the week-long course to lead hand hygiene and nutrition education program for younger community members.
NOVA is very grateful to Cassandra and Dorie for helping to improve the overall health of our community. For more information about summer internships for college and graduate students, please contact Jan Mansley at jan.mansley@novahope.org.
