Support
My summer fellowship with the Child Development Project Office gave me the opportunity to understand public health beyond hospitals and clinics by seeing how health and nutrition services reach families at the community level. I visited Anganwadi centres (play school) and worked alongside Anganwadi workers, ASHA workers, and ANMs (Auxiliary Nurse Midwife) assisting with growth monitoring, observing vaccinations and health check-ups, and learning about nutrition services such as Take-Home Ration and supplementary nutrition. I participated in community programs including Nutrition Day, weight measurement day and health awareness meetings, and accompanied health workers on home visits, including providing polio drops to children who had missed vaccination booths. Conversations with families and community members helped me understand their experiences with government programs and maternal and child health services, while observing frontline workers showed me the practical challenges involved in implementing these programs. This experience strengthened my interest in community-based public health and helped me develop skills in growth monitoring, field observation, documentation, and respectful cultural communication with the communities.