Hallo!
My name is Vanda and I am Portuguese. I am a PhD student in public health (University of Porto, Portugal) and from end-September until mid-December 2021 I was in the amazing Netherlands for my internship at EUPHA!
It was a great opportunity to be part of a reference organisation in European public health. In the office, in Utrecht, I was warmly welcomed and introduced to the daily routines and
to the environment of this multidisciplinary organisation. The office is not huge, but it has everything one needs to work and feel comfortable, the team is not numerous, but it is very coherent, hard-working and pro-active. In fact, it is admirable how EUPHA accomplishes so much, having this small number of people working in the office. For this, the team-work is essential, and the established connections and people/institutions involved in it are of major importance. The public health network promoted and nurtured by EUPHA plays a pivot role in strengthening the European and even international public health. During my internship I could testimony the care that the people in the office put into EUPHA’s members and how the concerns are registered and spoke out (in order to solve them, or at least try to).
During my time at EUPHA’s office I had the opportunity to get to know more about the past, present and future projects, and get involved in the weekly meetings. Most of my time was spent analysing the public health priorities mentioned in the European region for the following five years. With this task I learned what topics were in the mind of the representatives of the national public health associations of the WHO European Region as public health priorities – very interesting to see mental health as a top priority, as well as other issues regarding lifestyles, and also equity and equality.
Additionally, I had the opportunity to get involved in the 14th EPH Conference, which occurred online [COVID-19 pandemic] with the EPH staff being based on the Utrecht office. I enjoyed so much the pre-conference on “foundations of causal inference: gently introducing public health researchers to counterfactuals, causal diagrams, and target trials” that I got in touch with the presenter and a new connection was formed – I asked about the possibility of doing an internship to learn more about causal inference and it was accepted, this time I would go to Rotterdam!
My time at EUPHA was of joy and learning. I got to know new people, namely my internship colleague Thuy, and our supervisor Maaike. Even with the COVID-19 pandemic in course we could establish kind (professional and personal) bonds. Utrecht is a beautiful city, where I could live and work for 3 months. The museums and the history of the city were one of my delights, not forgetting my friend Miffy!
I am very grateful to EUPHA for this opportunity and for the learning experience that I had. Please continue promoting more internships, so students (or even professionals) like me can get to know in practice the work of a (huge) public health organisation.
Best wishes,
Vanda Craveiro
