This photo was taken in
Chiapas, Mexico in 2013. At the time I was collaborating with the Mexican
government to design and evaluate a health project for indigenous Mexican women
to enhance the use of maternal health services. Since then, I’ve completed
the first year of my Master in Public Administration and International
Development at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
In a few weeks I will
travel to Kupang in Eastern Indonesia as a Fellow for the Indonesian NGO, Kopernik
(www.kopernik.info). The fellowship is for 10 weeks over the summer. I’ll
be supporting Kopernik’s Wonder Women program thanks to the generous funding
provided by the Women and Public Policy Program’s Cultural Bridge Fellowship at
Harvard Kennedy School.
Kopernik's Wonder Women
initiative is making clean energy technologies available to people in remote
Indonesian villages, where access to electricity and affordable cooking fuel is
extremely limited. At the same time, it empowers women to boost their income
through selling solar lanterns, water filters and clean cookstoves in their
communities.
I will contribute towards
the Wonder Women Eastern Indonesia initiative by developing market
assessment methodologies and tools to help scale up the program successfully,
as well as conducting in-depth research on clean cookstove usage and adoption
among women in Eastern Indonesia.
I'm excited to have the
chance to work in Asia for the first time and to apply lessons I've learned in
Latin American countries toward closing the gender gap in Indonesia.
