During an interview with the country’s largest South Asian radio station, Rutgers Global Health Institute manager of education and training Arpita Jindani discusses global health from many angles. The misperception that it’s the same as study abroad, how global health intersects with other fields, and the institute’s local and international efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic are among the topics she talks about with EBC Radio 1170 AM WWTR program host Alka Agarwal and guest Shailja Mathur of Rutgers Cooperative Extension’s family and community health sciences department.
Jindani’s segment, which was broadcast live on June 26, is part of the station’s series on diabetes management during COVID-19.
Global Health Interview with Arpita Jindani
“Global health is very much ‘at home,’” Jindani says, referring to the discipline’s approach to improving the lives of vulnerable people around the world, which includes local communities. She cites COVID-19 as an example of how Rutgers is addressing global health locally by helping people and organizations throughout New Jersey navigate the pandemic.
The institute has contributed to Newark’s COVID-19 response plans and is developing a training program to help the state’s small businesses reopen and sustain operations safely, she says. Jindani, who works with the institute’s student council, also shares details about their campaign to collect, produce, and donate personal protective equipment for health care workers in New Brunswick and to support Meals on Wheels and initiatives that are tackling food insecurity in the region.
Jindani closes the interview by commenting on contact tracing as an intervention used to control infectious disease outbreaks, underscoring the integration of public health and community health with global health.