Reflections from Ghenu Khillo, PhD student at IDIE
I am honoured to be nominated as a student ambassador for the Global Health Security Conference 2024, held at the International Convention Centre, Sydney. This event was an insightful and remarkable platform to understand the importance of health security in the global context.
Being a student ambassador, I was thrilled to be part of a volunteer team and contribute to successfully organizing the conference. It was a great opportunity to meet and connect with researchers, academicians, delegates, leaders, and other participants from 80 countries who have been contributing enormously to the field of global health.
I had the pleasure of being assigned to Professor Vernon Lee, Executive Director, Interim Communicable Diseases Agency, Ministry of Health, Singapore, as my keynote speaker. Despite his busy schedule, we had a short conversation in which he briefly described his successful journey and his role in the field of health emergency and response, which inspired me to pursue my future achievements.
Throughout the conference, I had the opportunity to attend several panel discussions and presentations, and witness poster presentations on a variety of topics, including the COVID-19 pandemic, disease outbreaks, disease surveillance, preparedness, risk mitigation, emergency and response, immunizations, etc. In addition, I had a remarkable opportunity to learn about One Health in response to infectious diseases, biosecurity, gender roles and leadership in global health, and multisectoral collaborations towards securing health, emphasizing vulnerable populations.
Importantly, it was a unique experience and insightful to attend and actively participate in skills training workshops on ‘Co-designing a Unifying Roadmap for One Health Security’ and exchange knowledge and experiences with One Health experts working in different institutions and organisations across the world.
Overall, I am proud to have been part of this conference. It will greatly help me in developing interpersonal, professional, communication, and leadership skills and successfully achieving my academic career in the field of public health. I look forward to making a significant contribution to the field of global health security in the future.
Student ambassadors in the Global Health Security Conference. Pictured: Ghenu Killo and Kiddus Kehali (Back row, third and fourth from the right)
