Ashish has completed his third year of medical studies at Monash University. Having had
exposure over the course of this year to the clinical context of medicine, he
has a deep-seated desire to engage with patients at a community level and use
the skills he will acquire from his education to make a global health impact
rather than simply at an individual level. He believes especially that his
greatest value to society will be where his true home lies: India. Being a Hindi speaker and having visited India frequently throughout his
upbringing, he relishes the opportunity to take on the new challenge of
learning how to adapt these skills to assist Project Burans in delivering its
services to the people of Uttarakhand. The topic of mental health has been a
significant interest area for Ashish since following is research into the effectiveness of public
health promotion in addressing youth mental health issues in Australia.
Prerna has completed her first year of postgraduate medical studies at the University of Melbourne. The experience of losing her 16-year-old brother to suicide three years ago has been a key driver of her passion for mental health advocacy. She channelled her grief into working with her local MP to campaign for improved youth mental health services in her community. After collecting over 10,000 signatures petitioning for a headspace centre in her area, a visit to Parliament House and two years of high-level lobbying, Prerna was successful in receiving Federal Government funding for a new youth mental health community centre. Since its opening, headspace Knox has helped over 1,500 young people battling mental health problems, including mental ill health, disability, unemployment, social disenfranchisement, bullying and drug and alcohol addiction. Prerna's passion for mental health has extended to directing charity cocktail nights, working on advocacy for the International Youth Mental Health Conference in Brighton, UK. Being born and brought up in India, witnessing struggling communities and later being blessed with the opportunity to thrive in Australia as a migrant, Prerna has been exposed to vast discrepancies in quality of life. She has a strong desire to give back to her native country and believes she can use her innate understanding of Indian society and culture, fluency in Hindi and passion for mental health to make a strong contribution to improving mental healthcare outcomes for the people of Uttarakhand.
Latha has completed her second year of postgraduate medical studies at the University of Melbourne, having finished her Biomedical Science degree in sunny Gold Coast. A strong believer of Gandhi’s “be the change you want to see in the world”, Latha is a keen advocate for development in medically underserved communities worldwide. This has motivated her keen involvement in numerous international programmes from building a hospital wing for the CTRD Trust Community Hospital in rural India to learning about health care delivery and social entrepreneurship with Unite For Sight USA. Although her passions within the global health sphere are varied, Latha strongly believes that there needs to be a greater focus on the invisible problem in international development: mental health. She witnessed this disparity first-hand as she volunteered with Institute for Indian Mother & Child (Kolkata) and saw the social stigma faced by victims. Being of South Indian descent, India is a country that Latha holds very dear to her heart. She is thus incredibly excited to be involved with Project Burans as she believes it adopts a sustainable practice model by focusing efforts on education, social support, advocacy and capacity building, thereby effectively targeting the various social determinants that influence mental health outcomes in the Uttarakhand region.
With many warm regards,
Ashish, Prerna and Latha
