My summer internship for 2007 took place in Bangkok, Thailand working with Education Development Center (EDC). EDC is a non-profit organization that addresses global issues of health, education, and employment. EDC has over 850 employees around the world. The Southeast Asia regional office of EDC located in Bangkok focuses on building public-private partnerships and addresses issues of education, HIV/AIDS prevention, vulnerable children, and tsunami recovery.

I worked on the Southeast Asia HIV/AIDS Prevention Project. In this project EDC provides support to over 4000 children who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. The program spans five countries including Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, and Thailand. In each country EDC subcontracts with local community partners who develop the programs to help children who are impacted by HIV/AIDS. EDC provides leadership and program management support. Each organization that EDC partners with is required to self-report on goals, objectives and accomplishments. I worked with EDC staff to develop a partner self-assessment tool to help streamline the process of evaluating partner organizations. The assessment tool helps partners to think about the goals, objectives, and accomplishments of their programs while providing EDC with the necessary information that they need to manage the projects.

The short time that I was in Bangkok was extremely rewarding. I worked with a very talented and dedicated staff at EDC and learned firsthand about some of the issues and challenges of developing and managing international health programs. Further, working on HIV/AIDS issues in a country other than the U.S. provided me with an important perspective of the epidemic that I could not have otherwise gained.

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