All fees are based on a 4 week program. For longer programs, additional fees are calculated on a weekly basis. While only 4 and 8 week options are available when applying, please click here for detailed instructions for 5, 6 or 7 week options.

Area: 1483 sq km (572 sq mi)
Population: 13.8 million
Main languages: Hindi, English

New Delhi, the capital of India, is sprawled over the west bank of the river Yamuna and is one of the fastest growing cities in India. The 14th century description by Ibn Batuta depicts Delhi as, "the metropolis of India, a vast and magnificent city, and uniting beauty with strength." This still holds true, as one of the largest cities in the world. The treasures of a splendid past and a vibrant present come together to create a unique urban spirit, while diverse cultural elements absorbed into the daily life of the city have enriched its character. Exploring the city can be a fascinating and rewarding experience, and though it is expansive, it is easy to navigate.

Today as the capital of India, Delhi is the seat of the current government administration and also the monuments of the past. These icons are testimony to the grandeur of past and also an attraction for the tourists. The charm of Delhi has attracted emperors, conquerors and the poor equally. It is said that it takes time to adjust to the pollution, crowds, smells and noise; perseverance, however, will bring out the charms of the city and leave you with a rewarding and amazing cultural immersion experience!

General Health Indicators for India
According to the CIA World Fact Book, the Infant Mortalitly Rate (2005 est.) for India is as follows: Total: 56.29 deaths/1,000 live births; Male: 56.86 deaths/1,000 live births; Female: 55.69 deaths/1,000 live births.

With a population of over 1 billion people - approximately one seventh of the world's total - living standards are not high for everyone. Average life expectancy is 64 years. The land of unending contrasts, India has seen a recent boom in business, particulary in the IT industry, but still nearly 25% of the country lives below the poverty line.

• Photos
• Practical Information
• Recommended Vaccinations
• Visas

Practical Information *

• Recommended Books
  
• Wikipedia India
  
• Wikipedia Delhi
  
• Wikipedia New Delhi
  
• Map of India
  
• India: A country study
  
  

Recommended Vaccinations
Please visit your local public health office, or travel clinic and heed the advice of a travel physician. You should have all your routine childhood and adult vaccinations as required, including yellow fever for some countries, at least 4 weeks prior to departure. Be sure to set up doctor's appointment up 4 to 6 weeks before your trip.

Per the CDC, "Recommended" vaccinations (according to risk): These vaccines are recommended to protect travelers from illnesses present in other parts of the world and to prevent the importation of infectious diseases across international borders.

CFHI does not require verification of recommended vaccinations; however we strongly suggest getting all CDC recommended vaccinations. Please click here for a list of CDC recommended vaccinations for India.

Visas
Please note that you will need to obtain a tourist visa prior to your arrival to India. You will receive more information about this once you are accepted to the program. You may also click here for more detailed information on how and where to sumbit your visa applicatoin. Please do not submit a visa application until you receive CFHI's Program handbook with more specific instructions on how to apply.

Language Ability
This program is open to those who possess:

• English

This program is open to participants who are 21 or over at the time of participation.We accept students of all nationalities with interest in international health and relevant educational background. Participants may be any of the following:

• Ophthalmology Students
• Medical Residents, MD & DO
• Medical Students, MD & DO 1-2
• Medical Students, MD & DO 3-4
• Senior level Pre-Medical Students
• Post-bacc pre-medical students
• Gap year pre-medical students
• Graduate nursing students
• Nursing Students
• MPH Students
• pre-MPH Students
• Physicians Assistants Students
• Naturopathic students

The following hospitals, clinics, and programs are a sample of possible activities during this program. Availability of each site depends on local conditions.

CFHI programs can be predominately observational depending on your previous clinical training, your ability to communicate directly with patients, local laws that prevent foreigners from directly providing healthcare services and whether the preceptors who will be supervising you trust your clinical skills.

VENU Eye Institute and Research Center
A comprehensive eye care delivery network comprising of a Referral and Teaching Eye Hospital in Delhi, 7 Satellite Hospitals, 25 Primary Clinics and 15 Community Based Programmes covering 9 States in North India, serving over 300,000 patients and rehabilitating 300-500 persons every year. Serving the general community, regardless of inability to pay, the institute also offers community rehabilitation programs focusing on developmental, education, social and economic rehabilitation, having served over 3,000 people with vision, hearing and locomotor impairments. Other community based projects offers diabetic patients screening for diabetic retinopathy. Click to visit the VENU website.

Practical training

All satellite hospitals are equipped to perform routine surgeries, including cataract with phaco emulsification technique. There are well qualified ophthalmologists and paramedics permanently stationed at each of these hospitals. Specialists visit the hospitals at least once a week and complicated cases are identified and brought back to the Base Hospital in Delhi. Regular screening camps in the district help in spreading awareness about eye diseases. They seek out schools for the screening of the young with the aim of reducing visual impairment among children, and enhancing community awareness.

A certificate by the Education Department of the Institute will be issued upon successful completion of the course.

CFHI is a nonprofit organization committed to providing students a unique opportunity to experience another culture and healthcare system in a responsible way. Though we work closely with our global partners to provide you the best possible trip, the nature of international travel means that we cannot anticipate all challenges that may occur. It is important that participants realize they must remain flexible in the face of situations that may be difficult to understand. Participating in a CFHI program means that you are an informal ambassador to the community you visit and your professional behavior is of the utmost importance.

Child Family Health International (CFHI) offers service-learning programs around the world. CFHI would like to stress to prospective applicants and institutional partners, that service-learning is not an episodic volunteer experience, and our student programs are not designed to provide service to those who would otherwise not have healthcare. The main objectives are to broaden your public health knowledge, experience a different culture, and develop creativity in problem-solving. CFHI has assembled a global family of outstanding local healthcare professionals who are at the forefront of healthcare delivery in their countries. You will have the rare opportunity to shadow these unique women and men observing and learning to work in a clinical and public health environment with limited diagnostic and therapeutic resources.

1. What problem do we address?

2. How do we address the problem?

3. How does the community benefit?

4. How do participants help in the clinic?

5. What kind of educational experience is the CFHI global health elective?

6. What are the objectives of the program?

7. Where do CFHI students come from (past participants' universities/colleges)?

8. What role can domestic Institutional Partners (universities, collaboratives, et. al.) play?

9. What is Service-Learning?

1. What problem do we address?

In today’s world we often see the uneven distribution of healthcare that leaves many impoverished communities underserved. Economic, political, and social factors all contribute to people’s access to healthcare, both internationally and at home. Increasingly, we need culturally and linguistically competent healthcare providers around the world to address these inequities.

2. How do we address the problem?

Child Family Health International’s (CFHI) Global Health Service-Learning Programs combine instruction, experience, service, and reflection to create a model that supports physicians and clinical sites abroad, addresses the healthcare needs of the underserved, and adds an unforgettable experiential element to each program participant’s education.

CFHI programs bring service-learning to hospitals and clinics around the world, allowing participants to gain insight on the contextual constructs of illness and healing in foreign settings. Program Alumni return from the host country with new perspectives on healthcare systems and delivery in places where resources and supplies are extremely limited. To read further on the potential benefits of international experiences for health students, we recommend the paper “The Effect of a Global Multiculturalism Track on Cultural Competence of Preclinical Medical Students” by Godkin and Savageau (2001).

Since 1992, CFHI has arranged for nearly 4,000 pre-medical, medical and other students of the health professions, from over 400 top universities in the and the world, to work and study in Bolivia, Ecuador, India, Mexico, and South Africa

3. How does the community benefit?

While a student’s ability to practice medicine may be limited by clinical knowledge or language skills, the participant’s contribution to the community is not an illusion. For example, we provide each participant with a box of donated medical supplies to carry with them for distribution among partner facilities. In addition, our partner physicians at each program site are compensated for their willingness to mentor CFHI students. This supplementary income promotes job retention in countries where physicians are paid small salaries, often by financially strapped governments. Furthermore, the exchange of information between students and their preceptors provides an invaluable experience for participants, the patients, and the physicians.

4. How do participants help in the clinic?

Each of our program sites has many locally qualified and experienced healthcare providers, so the participant’s primary motivation for participation should not focus on a concept of humanitarian aid, in which one expects to provide medical care to people that would otherwise not receive it. The participant’s main objective should be to actively observe, according to current language abilities, level of training, and local laws, in order to develop a high level of community health awareness. While abroad, this happens in the social and cultural context of the program site.  Child Family Health International (CFHI) would like to stress to prospective applicants and institutional partners, that service-learning is not an episodic volunteer experience, and our student programs are not designed to provide service to those who would otherwise not have healthcare.

5. What kind of educational experience is the CFHI global health elective?

CFHI's rotations are designed to offer you hands-on  or observational clinical experience (depending on your clinical and language skills as well as local laws), much like what you would experience during a rotation in the . The program includes the following educational aspects:

• Pre-trip orientation materials & web conference opportunities
• Orientation upon arrival, including cultural adjustment exercises
• Weekly meetings with Medical Director and Local Coordinator
• Clinical rotations Monday-Friday, excepting holidays or work stoppages, working with a local physician who has opted to participate in CFHI as a teaching preceptor.
• Information sessions that highlight the health care system in that country, common cases you will encounter and other site-specific information.
• Post-trip debrief materials & other on-going alumni activities/services

If you are attending a program in a Spanish-speaking country, we recommend you study as much Spanish as possible before you go, as it will greatly decrease your personal frustration during the CFHI experience. Most activities listed above will be conducted in Spanish, except for the orientations and alumni services.

MD Consult and FIRST Consult bring the leading medical resources together into one integrated online service to help physicians efficiently find answers to clinical questions, make better treatment decisions, and stay abreast of recent developments. MD Consult has been adopted by over 90% of North American medical schools and by over 1,700 health care organizations in 46 countries worldwide. FIRST Consult offers an evidence-based resource for the Point of Care, peer-reviewed content and a differential diagnosis tool.

(Please view the FAQs on the right had panel for more information)

6. What are the objectives of the CFHI Service-Learning program?

CFHI’s International Health Service-Learning Programs help participants:

• Develop a larger sense of cultural competency
• Observe and develop existing clinical skills
• Broaden public health knowledge
• Develop creativity in problem-solving
• Deepen their commitment to service
• Promote medical supply conservation

Prospective participants may apply online. Our participants are 21 years of age and over, come from around the globe, and are dedicated to a diverse array of professions in health.

7. Where do your students come from (past participants' colleges/universities)?

CFHI has provided global health education programs to nearly 4,000 health science students since 1992.  Our participants come from over 35 countries and 400+ of the most prestigious universities in the world, and represent a huge variety of the medical profession’s student population.

8. What role do domestic institutional partners (i.e. universities, collaboratives) play?

In addition to providing quality programs for individual students, CFHI is dedicated to building relationships with institutions of higher learning for relevant international programs. Creating and sustaining international programs is a long-term and labor-intensive process. Our international partnerships with physicians and clinic sites are established and reliable, and CFHI can offer the expertise needed to administer an international program to match institutional needs. Some of our current partnerships include:

• Princeton University—Health Professions Advising Office and the Pace Center for Service-Learning: CFHI developed a domestic and international health service-learning program that combined 5 weeks of international work in Quito, Ecuador with 40 hours of service in Spanish-speaking health centers in urban New Jersey.

• Oregon University System—IE3 Global Internship program: CFHI designed 11-week clinical internships in and that focus on cultural competency and valuable clinical experience within the structure of an internship. The internship promotes planning and goal-setting for students in the clinic setting.

• College Corps—CFHI currently working with College Corps, a project started several years ago by Harvard University undergraduate students, to offer 8-week programs in Bolivia, Ecuador, India, Mexico or South Africa, for pre-med students.

• University of California Davis—has teamed up with CFHI to offer a quarter-long study abroad program in Oaxaca, that highlights Latino/a Health Internship Program for undergraduate students. This course is certified by the university as a 20-unit course entitled "Bi-National Health".

If you are an administrator and would like to discuss partnership possibilities we would be excited to hear from you! Please contact Program Staff at CFHI at students@cfhi.org or by phone at (415) 957-9000 and ask for Nick or Amanda.

9. What is service-learning?

Child Family Health International (CFHI) would like to stress to prospective applicants and institutional partners, that service-learning is not an episodic volunteer experience, and our student programs are not designed to provide service to those who would otherwise not have healthcare.

The following is an excerpt from the Campus Community Partnerships in Health (CCPH) website (http://depts.washington.edu/ccph/):

Service-learning is a structured learning experience that combines community service with preparation and reflection. Students engaged in service-learning provide community service in response to community-identified concerns and learn about the context in which service is provided, the connection between their service and their academic coursework, and their roles as citizens.

Service-learning differs from traditional clinical education in the health professions in that:

• Service-learning strives to achieve a balance between service and learning objectives - in service-learning, partners must negotiate the differences in their needs and expectations.

• Service-learning places an emphasis on addressing community concerns and broad determinants of health .

• In service-learning, there is the integral involvement of community partners - service-learning involves a principle-centered partnership between communities and health professions schools.

• Service-learning emphasizes reciprocal learning - In service-learning, traditional definitions of "faculty," "teacher" and "learner" are intentionally blurred. We all learn from each other.

• Service-learning emphasizes reflective practice - In service-learning, reflection facilitates the connection between practice and theory and fosters critical thinking.

• Service-learning places an emphasis on developing citizenship skills and achieving social change- many factors influence health and quality of life. The provision of health services is not often the most important factor. In service-learning, students place their roles as health professionals and citizens in a larger societal context.
  
  

Citation: Seifer SD. (1998). Service-learning: Community-campus partnerships for health professions education. Academic Medicine, 73(3):273-277.  

Medical Director
Dr. Vimarsh Raina is the Senior Consultant and Administrative Head, Immunology & Molecular Biology at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in New Delhi. This is Asia's fourth largest corporate hospital. Dr. Raina has over fifteen years experience in heath care with specialization in laboratory services including Pathology, Transfusion Medicine, Molecular Biology and Clinical Chemistry. He has six years of medical practice in surgery, dermatology and STD, emergency and trauma management in establishments ranging from grass root level general practice to working in the most sophisticated tertiary care hospitals. He greatly enjoys working with the local community and students. He also manages the largest blood bank in India.

Local Coordinator
The local coordinator will assist you with your orientation and accommodation aspects of the program. Being on the ground, he will offer expertise and perspective that is unmatched and ever present to deal with any eventuality and provide full support and guidance for the duration of your trip. He is available to CFHI participants at any time regarding accommodations, transportation, cultural immersion, and general well-being.

India Coordinator
CFHI's India Coordinator, Hema Pandey, coordinates activities for all CFHI programs in India. She has been instrumental in establishing CFHI's growing presence in India, developing new program sites and researching CFHI's growth potential in-country. With more than 10 years of experience in the health field, Hema has handled a wide range of projects for government and non-government organizations in India, including the Indian government's Year of Scientific Awareness (YSA) 2004, which highlighted needs and issues related to disaster preparedness, health & nutrition, and soil & water conservation.