Interview with Alumni
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UFARA ZUWASTI: “It won’t be easy but, it will pay off.”
PROFILE Name : Ufara Zuwasti, MD Address: Harapan Indah, West Bekasi Education: Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia (2004-2010) Twitter: @ufaraz_ Current job: Working at Office of President’s Special Envoy on Millennium Development Goals CIMSLIOGRAPHY 2005-2006 Member of CIMSA 2006-2007 Newsletter Editorial Board CIMSA 2007-2008 Vice President for Exteral Affairs 2008-2010 Alumni Director 2011 Project Officer March Meeting Jakarta
n the second floor of the State Secretariat, the pastel square room—part of the parlor—offers a stunning view of the nation’s culture. You are offered with wonderful painting across the room. I can see webbing used as tablecloth. This room is where I waited Ufara Zuwasti for the long talking in August. Kak Ufa, that’s how I called her, appeared with a palpable ease; her presence makes the place feel open and approachable. She led me to the meeting room, ordering iced coffee for herself and mineral water for me, where we began our discussion..
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egina: How are you doing, Kak Ufa? What’s your current activities? fara: I’m great, thank you. Now, I work as Team Program Manager of Pencerah Nusantara and General Practitioner at Budi Jaya Hospital.
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: Could you tell me more about Pencerah Nusantara? : Pencerah Nusantara is a new program, it is now on its second batch. We basically distribute a team of health professionals to seven locations throughout Indonesia. The locations are Mentawai, Karawang, Pasuruan, Ende NTT, Berau East Kalimantan, Lindu and Ogotua East Sulawesi. The main goal of the program is to strengthen Primary Health Service in the periphery area. The program conducted by Pencerah Nusantara is the integrative model of intervention, hopefully we could apply the model of this integrative intervention throughout Indonesia.
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: Kak Ufa, I heard that you will continue your masters degree in England, Oxford if I’m not wrong? : Yes, on October I will go to England for master degree on Global Health in Oxford University. : Why Global Health?
: Early in CIMSA, I was exposed with Global Health issues. In reality, many patients come to doctor not because of the diseases, but because they just don’t understand. Furthermore, many diseases can be prevented by increasing people’s awareness. From that, we could understand that the primary work of general practitioner is to prevent people to get ill. In fact, I also want to be a specialist doctor. But before taking the leaps, I need to see medicine from bigger picture. I need to see beyond medicine and get the idea of what medicine really is. Or I’d also like to work in goverment sector or international organization.
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