Improving Health Care in Afghanistan
Sardar Ahmad didn't believe being a physician in his native Afghanistan provided him with enough of the right tools to help his fellow citizens fight public health concerns. So he's spending the next two years at Georgia State University pursuing a master of public health degree as a Fulbright International Scholar.
"I wasn't satisfied with what I was doing," says Ahmad, who was working with the World Health Organization and the Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health on a variety of programs, including malaria prevention, health education and environmental health issues. "I need — and the country needs — more expertise, so I wanted to upgrade and refine my knowledge in the field of public health."
Ahmad received the majority of his education in Pakistan, where his family fled to during the Afghanistan war. He hails from the province of Logar, about 60 miles south of Kabul, and had been working at WHO for about three years before coming to the U.S.
"I really miss it," says Ahmad of his homeland, friends and family. "We have a different kind of social life that the U.S. doesn't have," he says, though adds that his first visit to the U.S. has been great.
Before arriving in Atlanta, he spent several months at the American English Institute at the University of Oregon, where he received intensive English language instruction. Afghanistan's participation in the Fulbright program was suspended during the 1970s until 2004, so Ahmad is one of only a few dozen Afghans in the Fulbright Student Program and the only one at Georgia State.
Ahmad hopes to complete the coursework in 18 months, though he is undecided about whether to pursue his studies further. "I want to try and do a Ph.D. in epidemiology, or I can go back, because Afghanistan also needs me," Ahmad says.