Bringing Public Health Education to Tajikistan
January 25, 2011
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Aziz Nabidzhonov’s career as a public health innovator began at an early age. The 2009 Muskie fellow recalls giving a presentation on HIV/AIDS for his high school class in the late 1980s. After becoming a doctor and gaining experience with public health programs, Nabidzhonov sought a Muskie fellowship to study behavior change to reduce the spread of disease. At Western Illinois University, Nabidzhonov learned about new methods of health communication, leading to a presentation at a national conference and plans to promote health education in Tajikistan.
Nabidzhonov’s desire to expand the reach of health education in Tajikistan inspired him to seek out new strategies for the use of technology in his field. “In contemporary times, people are more likely to use web-based sources which deliver information 24/7,” explained Nabidzhonov. Nabidzhonov knew he had discovered a useful tool when he began researching collaborative website design, which allows multiple people to add and edit content to create a web resource.
Nabidzhonov and his fellow students wanted to show that health practitioners could share knowledge, work more efficiently, and reach more people by using a collaborative model for website development. After creating a sample website, the students submitted their research on collaborative website development for a poster presentation at the Mid-America College Health Association’s (MACHA) 2010 Annual Conference. MACHA accepted the poster and Nabidzhonov traveled to Indiana State University to share his research and learn about developments in public health education.
“Before coming to the US, I did not know about health education as a separate discipline,” recalls Nabidzhonov. “Today, I consider health education [to be] an important tool…to improve and maintain the health of people in my home country.” After returning to Tajikistan, Nabidzhonov plans to translate his website into Tajik and Russian and hopes to add information about other infectious diseases. He will return to work as an urologist and will advocate for the creation of a public health coordination committee within Tajikistan’s Ministry of Health.
Aziz Nabidzhonov’s career as a public health innovator began at an early age. The 2009 Muskie fellow recalls giving a presentation on HIV/AIDS for his high school class in the late 1980s. After becoming a doctor and gaining experience with public health programs, Nabidzhonov sought a Muskie fellowship to study behavior change to reduce the spread of disease. At Western Illinois University, Nabidzhonov learned about new methods of health communication, leading to a presentation at a national conference and plans to promote health education in Tajikistan.
Nabidzhonov’s desire to expand the reach of health education in Tajikistan inspired him to seek out new strategies for the use of technology in his field. “In contemporary times, people are more likely to use web-based sources which deliver information 24/7,” explained Nabidzhonov. Nabidzhonov knew he had discovered a useful tool when he began researching collaborative website design, which allows multiple people to add and edit content to create a web resource.
Nabidzhonov and his fellow students wanted to show that health practitioners could share knowledge, work more efficiently, and reach more people by using a collaborative model for website development. After creating a sample website, the students submitted their research on collaborative website development for a poster presentation at the Mid-America College Health Association’s (MACHA) 2010 Annual Conference. MACHA accepted the poster and Nabidzhonov traveled to Indiana State University to share his research and learn about developments in public health education.
“Before coming to the US, I did not know about health education as a separate discipline,” recalls Nabidzhonov. “Today, I consider health education [to be] an important tool…to improve and maintain the health of people in my home country.” After returning to Tajikistan, Nabidzhonov plans to translate his website into Tajik and Russian and hopes to add information about other infectious diseases. He will return to work as an urologist and will advocate for the creation of a public health coordination committee within Tajikistan’s Ministry of Health.
The Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program is administered by IREX and funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State.
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