Giorgia Casti

Course: 2023/2024

I am from Italy, where I am currently living, more specifically in Cagliari (Sardinia). I am 31 years old. I graduated in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Cagliari in 2017. In 2019 I began the Postgraduate School of Pediatrics at the University of Cagliari and presently I am enrolled in the fifth and last year of this aforementioned School. In order to acquire more knowledge and skills, I obtained the Interuniversity Diploma of “Santé et Tropiques, Médecine et Hygiène Tropicales” at the University of Bordeaux in 2021; I did an internship at the Permanence d’Accès aux Soins de Santé and at the Department of Pediatrics and Infectious diseases of the Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades in Paris in 2023 and, finally, I attended some online courses focused on Global health items, offered by the World Health Organization that drive me to pursue this path and to apply for this Master.

Ensuring health for all cannot be an achievable goal if our scope embraces only a small part of the determinants of health and if we do not work together.

I realised the importance of this statement during these first months of the MGH course. Since the beginning of this path, every step, every lecture, and even the smallest of interactions has been an opportunity to break down the barriers that prevented me from seeing more broadly. I have learnt so much so far, even more than I could have imagined at the time of the enrollment. After these months, I am better prepared to identify the issues burdening the whole population, and also specifically children whom I care of every day. I learnt how to study and measure this burden. I better understood the importance of scientific studies, surveillance and data collection to help us structure better interventions. I developed a passion for studying the determinants, drawing them into a tree-map to help me visualise their conseguences and feasible, sustainable, cost-effective, fair and context-tailored solutions. In addition, I trained how to communicate all this effectively. Every module has enriched my personal objectives, allowing me to define new ones. I am sure that this would be sufficient and perhaps even an expected result, but the truth is that this is only a very small part of what these first few months of MGH have taught me. The enthusiasm and optimism of my professors and colleagues have become my enthusiasm and my optimism. Each group assignment was an opportunity to learn how to work together for a common goal: we joined our energies, we learnt from each other, we shared different backgrounds and experiences, we understood how to merge our knowledge and skills. In sum, together we learnt how to work in Global health. This is the most important added value. The MGH course so far has given me many inspirations for which I am grateful and has helped me to discover new interests”.

My future engagement in Global Health

I want to cultivate my interest in studying socio-economic, cultural and political determinants of Maternal and child health and Migration health. In this connection, I would like to study interventions in the field in order to carry out studies that shed light on how specific determinants of a population influence outcomes of the interventions. I would like to dedicate part of my work to reporting to raise awareness of the importance of Global health and be part of the education world to offer the same help that I received over these months. Since I started studying Global health, there hasn’t been a time when my motivation has faltered.

My reasons are the same as when I enrolled, but stronger, enriched by the lessons I have learnt so far. The only way I can sum them up is that I really believe so much in the importance of Global health that I am pursuing this course by always thinking of others first, those all of “health for all”, to be able to help more than I am already doing. This year is special because I will finish my residency in paediatrics and this course. I feel excited at the idea of completing at the same time these two courses, which to many people seem distant from each other, but in whose union I see a big and beautiful potential. Most importantly, I feel grateful for the many opportunities I have had and that have brought me here.

I look to the near future with hope and optimism. Although I know I still have a lot to learn, I would like to put myself out there to learn by working in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Migration Health. On the path we are all walking together towards a world with more health for all, I really hope that my life can be an opportunity to make even a small contribution.