Rabia Baloch
Meet Rabia:
Rabia is an inspiring and educated woman from Pakistan, who graduated with a Bachelors in Dentist Surgery, and then her Masters of Public Health. Rabia is currently a public health lecturer at APPNA Institute of Public Health, Jinnah Sindh Medical University. Alongside this role, she facilitates research and projects related to public health in her capacity as a faculty member, and plays a role in UNICEF and Red Cross initiatives. Rabia’s first formal job role was with CLAN as the Community Development Officer in Pakistan from 2015-2018. She worked with NCD communities, managing those communities, interacting with families, and providing invaluable translation to Urdu. Rabia’s contribution led to her becoming CLAN’s 2018-2019 Honorary Member. Rabia had so much knowledge and perspective to share with us in her interview, which we are very grateful for.
CLAN's Youth Advisors Grace and Sienna were fortunate to meet up with Rabia to learn more about her story. Heres how our interview went:
Tell me a bit about yourself.
I live in Pakistan. It is in Asia, Pakistan is in Asia. I live here and I was born here and I lived all my life here, and my family is here. All my educational activities and journeys are in Pakistan. I graduated with a Bachelors in Dentist Surgery, then I did a Masters of Public Health. So, after that I joined in and worked clinically for very few months after my bachelors, and then I switched to public health. After that, my first formal job role was after my masters degree, and that was very fortunate that was with CLAN. That was my first formal job role. I started up with CLAN. First I did two years, I had a great experience, which I will be sharing with you in the next questions.
What motivates you to work hard, and to do what you do?
I guess that the first part of that question is “what do you do for work?”. Currently I am working as a faculty member, I am a lecturer in a medical university. And, we run undergrad programs, we run masters programs, so our institution is an institution of public health. We are basically looking after a bachelors course in public health and a masters course in public health. So, 4 years bachelors degrees and 2 years masters degree, I’m a faculty member in that department, currently for the last three years, more than three years.
Like every other person, the major motivation to work hard, to do well with work, to excel in work, is of course the rewarding things like the appreciation and reward that you get from your students, and like every job role, of course when you see your students excel and see them performing and getting what you try to communicate to them - this is the most rewarding thing. I work hard and I get feedback from my students, from my seniors, from my colleagues. Of course, nobody is perfect, and I’m learning things so whenever I receive feedback I try to work on those areas and try to eliminate these things.
What inspired you to start working with CLAN?
So, when I did my masters, and completed this, one week after that I saw the advertisement in a local newspaper. It did not mention the name of this Australian organisation, it was a random advertisement that said they needed a person with a masters in public health for a project. The project was not mentioned and it was in a tertiary care hospital. I applied there, sent my CV, and I got a call. My first interview went very well, even after my first interview I didn’t know what the exact job was going to be. Then, I was shortlisted, and selected for the second interview. I was selected, then they told me I’d be working for an Australian organisation, there was a project funded in a hospital and I said okay I’ll do that. After that I was not interested. But my third interview was with a great colleague, Kate Armstrong, she took my third interview. I was nervous because that was my first time talking to an international employer, or somebody in an international organisation. That was the first instance. Immediately after that, she sent me an email that had so much appreciation from Kate, and I was delighted, I said “okay, let’s do this.”
She sent me an email that was full of appreciation and I was delighted and excited, because they seemed to be really nice. I immediately got very interested, even though at that time I did not know the exact job role. Kate sent me the details of the project, then she sent me the tasks I was going to be doing. That was very exciting because it was the first time I was starting any projects with an international NGO. I was very excited at that time, and as the time passed by, I got multiple experiences. I have been saying to everyone, the experiences I had working with Kate were exceptional. You guys will also come to appreciate this fact, and appreciate this nature. When I was travelling in Australia, people were saying similar things about Kate, that she is phenomenal. The first inspiration was Kate, then her work, the work of the organisation because CLAN at that time had projects in other countries as well. That was one thing that inspired me that I should work with this organisation, and that came up really well. I had an awesome experience. I still work while travelling for CLAN, and every time I say to Kate, whenever you need me you can call me, and you can send me an email.
What was your role with CLAN?
My job role was a community development officer. In that job role I had to develop communities of patients and families, the patients were children of course because we did this project for child health, who were living with non-communicable diseases. We were working on 4 or 5 genetic diseases that were of course incurable but manageable. Of course they life long disease, genetic diseases and disorders, but the management, if they had proper management, the children living with those diseases, can live a normal life. That was our main agent in that project. For this project, I had multiple tasks. Those tasks included developing a mobile app for patients and families so they can reach out for emergency care if they need it. There was also a manual of management and treatment. That manual was in the English language, then we translated it in Urdu, for our community, because of course for patients in Pakistan, not everyone knows English. So we translated that manual for our patients. Then, we had club meetings, for our patients, interacting with families, so they can share their experiences. We had two or three club meetings during that time.
We were on my role. I told you we had a couple of meetings for patients, and there was an app we made, and we had a couple of fliers designed for child rights, and then we had a book, we had school health, we had to work on school health as well. These were the action items we were working on during that project. The other project I worked on for polio was for the advocacy of post-polio syndrome. Because in Pakistan we have a younger population of polio, we don’t have an older population because these people will get old, there is a huge number of polio survivors in Pakistan. They will grow old and be facing post-polio syndrome. We held a sort of meeting for advocacy of post-polio syndrome. That was one thing we worked on - from a grant - Kate earned a grant and that grant was given to us and we worked on that. That was one of the aspects during my role.
What notable experiences did you have with CLAN that impacted your worldview or perspective, or inspired you? In what ways were you impacted?
Of course, with working with CLAN, it was itself a very great experience for me, I was new, I had not had much exposure because that was my job role and in that job role I did not have that much experience prior to working with CLAN. When I started working with CLAN, I got to interact with so many senior people who were of course international figures, they were notable figures in their field of work, and they were working in senior positions at very big organisations such as the UN. Of course, when I visited Australia that was the major thing that changed my perspective or worldview because of exposure. My visit was primarily for a conference where me and Kate were presenting our work. It was an international public health conference where we had presented our work that we were doing in Pakistan. That was one part, but after that conference, Kate kind of organised a kind of official visit for me. That was it, I went to different places in Australia, different settings in Australia, I was fortunate to find out about how they work, and how they function. I went to Westmead Children’s Hospital, I went to Randwick Hospital, I went to a rehabilitation centre in Melbourne and then we also, the major thing that we did, was raising funds for our community in Pakistan. Kate introduced me to the Pakistani community of doctors working in Australia and they were really generous, and raised funds for our hospital in Pakistan. Kate introduced me to them, then she introduced me to the High Commissioner or Ambassador of Pakistan in Sydney. We had a meeting with them, discussing the issues of medicine, there was some issue that was going on at that time. So interacting with all those peoples and sharing experiences, our experiences and their experiences, how to work, how did those organisations work in Australia. I went to one of the most inspirational things for me, was I visited the office of Polio Australia. It was in Melbourne. I went there and interacted with all the employees there, who were all Polio survivors. That was inspirational, they were all working for Polio, they all had had that disease, they were living for that, and keen to have other people in their community. After that, I wanted to continue to have another Polio community in Pakistan where we can advocate for that disease, and where we could help other survivors. That model inspired me and opened my eyes. The whole trip was very formative for me. I went there, I learned their experiences, and it was a major exposure for my career. After that, I came back and connected with many people. During the conference, we had great experiences. I can exactly recall that I also met a senior professor in a university in the UK, US. I contacted her for my PhD and she gave me a very good response. I kind of developed international connections, you know. That was formative at that time, and I learned a lot from that. I am still very thankful to Kate.
What was the most rewarding thing about working with CLAN, and how have you carried that with you? Were there any key lessons you drew from this?
Right now, when I read this question, and now I think back, the most rewarding thing for me, working with CLAN was the acknowledgement that I always received from Kate, and Cath, and all the colleagues within CLAN. The acknowledgement that I got was phenomenal, because that was one thing that motivated me to work hard. Whatever I did, it was multiplied and acknowledged. Of course the appreciation I received from my colleagues within CLAN, and of course the guidance that they provided. Kate is someone who has experience, and she has this magical quality of transferring her skills and transferring her experiences to the other person in a very particular way, she does that greatly. Her guidance was one of the most rewarding things I got from CLAN. She trained me, I can say that.
Did working with CLAN open up new opportunities? In what ways?
After working with CLAN, I worked for 2 years with CLAN and I never wanted to leave the job role. I love the organisation, I love the role, I loved working with Kate. The work they do is inspirational for us. They work for child health, for the prevention of noncommunicable diseases, for children and making their quality of life better. That was the most inspirational thing. Then I worked with CLAN for two years, and then I wanted to switch. The only reason I wanted to switch was that I was kind of getting out of touch with my research skills. I wanted to switch to academia because I wanted to pursue my PhD in the future, so that I had the experience of academia. That was the reason I switched to lecturing in the medical university. It was a research degree. I needed to have experience, and I gained experience in this way. In CLAN, I had a managerial role, I was not actively into research. I was not actively teaching. That was one thing. Now, I have a total of 5-6 years of experience in work, which can support me if I pursue a PhD program. In fact, I have been looking for PhD programs for the past year and I asked Kate to write me referee letters, and she was very kind enough to write whenever I ask, she writes me a reference. Unfortunately I was not selected in the initial phase for the opportunity. This was the initial reason that I left my position in CLAN, that I switched my job role. Of course when I was switching I was interviewed in the university panel and I explained my job role with CLAN and that gave me an edge. I had the exposure of working with an international organisation, which adds up to your resume. That benefited me, and still if I applied to a PhD program, my work with CLAN and my work as a teacher will be a good combination and help me in getting the admission.
What do you think you’d be doing, or how do you think your outlook would be different, had you not worked with CLAN?
I guess I’d never thought of it, but it definitely would be different. I just think of myself as very fortunate that I got this opportunity. I never thought like this. Best idea, I would be in academia. The exposure in academia is very limited in that you are interacting with students, maybe some projects, but you are looking at research work and guiding them. The span of work is only within this university, but when you work with NGOs like CLAN, who are already in other countries as well, you learn a lot because the organisation is working in your country and you can evaluate that our country works this way and our other country is working that way. You can draw comparisons between other countries, and you learn a lot from other settings. That was very beneficial but if I was not with CLAN, I would just be having the experience of academia and my exposure would be much more limited.
How has COVID impacted the area where you live?
In Pakistan, when COVID initially hit Pakistan, I remember, it hit very badly. We were locked down very badly at home, and we were not stepping out, and we were very freaked out, we were very cautious that if we touch anything we will get COVID, we were not used to it, it was something very new. We were not washing hands very frequently, sanitising, before COVID. They were all little things that came together. The initial phase was very haphazard and very panicked, but of course as the time passed by. Initially we had good control of COVID, but after lockdown, we were again hit by the other waves badly. We had so many deaths. The main issue with Pakistan is that we have a huge population,and our health care facilities were not enough to cater for COVID. There were so many deaths during that time. All the people who got COVID before, and then they got vaccinated, again they are affected by COVID. It is very bad now, there is reinfection. Those that are vaccinated are getting COVID. Of course, we have to live with it, we have to live in a preventive manner, we have to prevent and stick by the rules. We have to manage it anyway.
Has your work with CLAN impacted the way you think about COVID or your actions relating to the pandemic?
Yes, of course. The major frame of action of CLAN is working with communities on prevention of diseases. CLAN works on the prevention of non-communicable diseases, and how of course we can prevent it is through lifestyle, apart from genetic disorders, of course we can prevent other NCDs by modifying our lifestyles. So, in the case of COVID, we have to adopt similar mannerisms. Corona is all about prevention, we cannot deal with it, we cannot eliminate it, if we keep going the virus will replicate and produce many variants. We have to adopt the prevention approach. My perspective is that we have to prevent corona in any case.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I want to see myself doing something very big for my country or doing something else really big internationally. That’s what you dream about. But being realistic, a PhD is a terminal degree, I don’t mention it to many people. It is something that is a requirement right now, and I am hoping to get into a PhD program and complete it within 5 years, that is my first goal. The other thing is to be working for something for the community in Pakistan, for children with NCDs and making a difference in the lives of children. I will be looking to home first, in Pakistan, and the children in Pakistan, so that is something that I look for and dream of, and I want to design something that I can work on in the next few years.
Rabia is an inspiring and educated woman from Pakistan, who graduated with a Bachelors in Dentist Surgery, and then her Masters of Public Health. Rabia is currently a public health lecturer at APPNA Institute of Public Health, Jinnah Sindh Medical University. Alongside this role, she facilitates research and projects related to public health in her capacity as a faculty member, and plays a role in UNICEF and Red Cross initiatives. Rabia’s first formal job role was with CLAN as the Community Development Officer in Pakistan from 2015-2018. She worked with NCD communities, managing those communities, interacting with families, and providing invaluable translation to Urdu. Rabia’s contribution led to her becoming CLAN’s 2018-2019 Honorary Member. Rabia had so much knowledge and perspective to share with us in her interview, which we are very grateful for.
CLAN's Youth Advisors Grace and Sienna were fortunate to meet up with Rabia to learn more about her story. Heres how our interview went:
Tell me a bit about yourself.
I live in Pakistan. It is in Asia, Pakistan is in Asia. I live here and I was born here and I lived all my life here, and my family is here. All my educational activities and journeys are in Pakistan. I graduated with a Bachelors in Dentist Surgery, then I did a Masters of Public Health. So, after that I joined in and worked clinically for very few months after my bachelors, and then I switched to public health. After that, my first formal job role was after my masters degree, and that was very fortunate that was with CLAN. That was my first formal job role. I started up with CLAN. First I did two years, I had a great experience, which I will be sharing with you in the next questions.
What motivates you to work hard, and to do what you do?
I guess that the first part of that question is “what do you do for work?”. Currently I am working as a faculty member, I am a lecturer in a medical university. And, we run undergrad programs, we run masters programs, so our institution is an institution of public health. We are basically looking after a bachelors course in public health and a masters course in public health. So, 4 years bachelors degrees and 2 years masters degree, I’m a faculty member in that department, currently for the last three years, more than three years.
Like every other person, the major motivation to work hard, to do well with work, to excel in work, is of course the rewarding things like the appreciation and reward that you get from your students, and like every job role, of course when you see your students excel and see them performing and getting what you try to communicate to them - this is the most rewarding thing. I work hard and I get feedback from my students, from my seniors, from my colleagues. Of course, nobody is perfect, and I’m learning things so whenever I receive feedback I try to work on those areas and try to eliminate these things.
What inspired you to start working with CLAN?
So, when I did my masters, and completed this, one week after that I saw the advertisement in a local newspaper. It did not mention the name of this Australian organisation, it was a random advertisement that said they needed a person with a masters in public health for a project. The project was not mentioned and it was in a tertiary care hospital. I applied there, sent my CV, and I got a call. My first interview went very well, even after my first interview I didn’t know what the exact job was going to be. Then, I was shortlisted, and selected for the second interview. I was selected, then they told me I’d be working for an Australian organisation, there was a project funded in a hospital and I said okay I’ll do that. After that I was not interested. But my third interview was with a great colleague, Kate Armstrong, she took my third interview. I was nervous because that was my first time talking to an international employer, or somebody in an international organisation. That was the first instance. Immediately after that, she sent me an email that had so much appreciation from Kate, and I was delighted, I said “okay, let’s do this.”
She sent me an email that was full of appreciation and I was delighted and excited, because they seemed to be really nice. I immediately got very interested, even though at that time I did not know the exact job role. Kate sent me the details of the project, then she sent me the tasks I was going to be doing. That was very exciting because it was the first time I was starting any projects with an international NGO. I was very excited at that time, and as the time passed by, I got multiple experiences. I have been saying to everyone, the experiences I had working with Kate were exceptional. You guys will also come to appreciate this fact, and appreciate this nature. When I was travelling in Australia, people were saying similar things about Kate, that she is phenomenal. The first inspiration was Kate, then her work, the work of the organisation because CLAN at that time had projects in other countries as well. That was one thing that inspired me that I should work with this organisation, and that came up really well. I had an awesome experience. I still work while travelling for CLAN, and every time I say to Kate, whenever you need me you can call me, and you can send me an email.
What was your role with CLAN?
My job role was a community development officer. In that job role I had to develop communities of patients and families, the patients were children of course because we did this project for child health, who were living with non-communicable diseases. We were working on 4 or 5 genetic diseases that were of course incurable but manageable. Of course they life long disease, genetic diseases and disorders, but the management, if they had proper management, the children living with those diseases, can live a normal life. That was our main agent in that project. For this project, I had multiple tasks. Those tasks included developing a mobile app for patients and families so they can reach out for emergency care if they need it. There was also a manual of management and treatment. That manual was in the English language, then we translated it in Urdu, for our community, because of course for patients in Pakistan, not everyone knows English. So we translated that manual for our patients. Then, we had club meetings, for our patients, interacting with families, so they can share their experiences. We had two or three club meetings during that time.
We were on my role. I told you we had a couple of meetings for patients, and there was an app we made, and we had a couple of fliers designed for child rights, and then we had a book, we had school health, we had to work on school health as well. These were the action items we were working on during that project. The other project I worked on for polio was for the advocacy of post-polio syndrome. Because in Pakistan we have a younger population of polio, we don’t have an older population because these people will get old, there is a huge number of polio survivors in Pakistan. They will grow old and be facing post-polio syndrome. We held a sort of meeting for advocacy of post-polio syndrome. That was one thing we worked on - from a grant - Kate earned a grant and that grant was given to us and we worked on that. That was one of the aspects during my role.
What notable experiences did you have with CLAN that impacted your worldview or perspective, or inspired you? In what ways were you impacted?
Of course, with working with CLAN, it was itself a very great experience for me, I was new, I had not had much exposure because that was my job role and in that job role I did not have that much experience prior to working with CLAN. When I started working with CLAN, I got to interact with so many senior people who were of course international figures, they were notable figures in their field of work, and they were working in senior positions at very big organisations such as the UN. Of course, when I visited Australia that was the major thing that changed my perspective or worldview because of exposure. My visit was primarily for a conference where me and Kate were presenting our work. It was an international public health conference where we had presented our work that we were doing in Pakistan. That was one part, but after that conference, Kate kind of organised a kind of official visit for me. That was it, I went to different places in Australia, different settings in Australia, I was fortunate to find out about how they work, and how they function. I went to Westmead Children’s Hospital, I went to Randwick Hospital, I went to a rehabilitation centre in Melbourne and then we also, the major thing that we did, was raising funds for our community in Pakistan. Kate introduced me to the Pakistani community of doctors working in Australia and they were really generous, and raised funds for our hospital in Pakistan. Kate introduced me to them, then she introduced me to the High Commissioner or Ambassador of Pakistan in Sydney. We had a meeting with them, discussing the issues of medicine, there was some issue that was going on at that time. So interacting with all those peoples and sharing experiences, our experiences and their experiences, how to work, how did those organisations work in Australia. I went to one of the most inspirational things for me, was I visited the office of Polio Australia. It was in Melbourne. I went there and interacted with all the employees there, who were all Polio survivors. That was inspirational, they were all working for Polio, they all had had that disease, they were living for that, and keen to have other people in their community. After that, I wanted to continue to have another Polio community in Pakistan where we can advocate for that disease, and where we could help other survivors. That model inspired me and opened my eyes. The whole trip was very formative for me. I went there, I learned their experiences, and it was a major exposure for my career. After that, I came back and connected with many people. During the conference, we had great experiences. I can exactly recall that I also met a senior professor in a university in the UK, US. I contacted her for my PhD and she gave me a very good response. I kind of developed international connections, you know. That was formative at that time, and I learned a lot from that. I am still very thankful to Kate.
What was the most rewarding thing about working with CLAN, and how have you carried that with you? Were there any key lessons you drew from this?
Right now, when I read this question, and now I think back, the most rewarding thing for me, working with CLAN was the acknowledgement that I always received from Kate, and Cath, and all the colleagues within CLAN. The acknowledgement that I got was phenomenal, because that was one thing that motivated me to work hard. Whatever I did, it was multiplied and acknowledged. Of course the appreciation I received from my colleagues within CLAN, and of course the guidance that they provided. Kate is someone who has experience, and she has this magical quality of transferring her skills and transferring her experiences to the other person in a very particular way, she does that greatly. Her guidance was one of the most rewarding things I got from CLAN. She trained me, I can say that.
Did working with CLAN open up new opportunities? In what ways?
After working with CLAN, I worked for 2 years with CLAN and I never wanted to leave the job role. I love the organisation, I love the role, I loved working with Kate. The work they do is inspirational for us. They work for child health, for the prevention of noncommunicable diseases, for children and making their quality of life better. That was the most inspirational thing. Then I worked with CLAN for two years, and then I wanted to switch. The only reason I wanted to switch was that I was kind of getting out of touch with my research skills. I wanted to switch to academia because I wanted to pursue my PhD in the future, so that I had the experience of academia. That was the reason I switched to lecturing in the medical university. It was a research degree. I needed to have experience, and I gained experience in this way. In CLAN, I had a managerial role, I was not actively into research. I was not actively teaching. That was one thing. Now, I have a total of 5-6 years of experience in work, which can support me if I pursue a PhD program. In fact, I have been looking for PhD programs for the past year and I asked Kate to write me referee letters, and she was very kind enough to write whenever I ask, she writes me a reference. Unfortunately I was not selected in the initial phase for the opportunity. This was the initial reason that I left my position in CLAN, that I switched my job role. Of course when I was switching I was interviewed in the university panel and I explained my job role with CLAN and that gave me an edge. I had the exposure of working with an international organisation, which adds up to your resume. That benefited me, and still if I applied to a PhD program, my work with CLAN and my work as a teacher will be a good combination and help me in getting the admission.
What do you think you’d be doing, or how do you think your outlook would be different, had you not worked with CLAN?
I guess I’d never thought of it, but it definitely would be different. I just think of myself as very fortunate that I got this opportunity. I never thought like this. Best idea, I would be in academia. The exposure in academia is very limited in that you are interacting with students, maybe some projects, but you are looking at research work and guiding them. The span of work is only within this university, but when you work with NGOs like CLAN, who are already in other countries as well, you learn a lot because the organisation is working in your country and you can evaluate that our country works this way and our other country is working that way. You can draw comparisons between other countries, and you learn a lot from other settings. That was very beneficial but if I was not with CLAN, I would just be having the experience of academia and my exposure would be much more limited.
How has COVID impacted the area where you live?
In Pakistan, when COVID initially hit Pakistan, I remember, it hit very badly. We were locked down very badly at home, and we were not stepping out, and we were very freaked out, we were very cautious that if we touch anything we will get COVID, we were not used to it, it was something very new. We were not washing hands very frequently, sanitising, before COVID. They were all little things that came together. The initial phase was very haphazard and very panicked, but of course as the time passed by. Initially we had good control of COVID, but after lockdown, we were again hit by the other waves badly. We had so many deaths. The main issue with Pakistan is that we have a huge population,and our health care facilities were not enough to cater for COVID. There were so many deaths during that time. All the people who got COVID before, and then they got vaccinated, again they are affected by COVID. It is very bad now, there is reinfection. Those that are vaccinated are getting COVID. Of course, we have to live with it, we have to live in a preventive manner, we have to prevent and stick by the rules. We have to manage it anyway.
Has your work with CLAN impacted the way you think about COVID or your actions relating to the pandemic?
Yes, of course. The major frame of action of CLAN is working with communities on prevention of diseases. CLAN works on the prevention of non-communicable diseases, and how of course we can prevent it is through lifestyle, apart from genetic disorders, of course we can prevent other NCDs by modifying our lifestyles. So, in the case of COVID, we have to adopt similar mannerisms. Corona is all about prevention, we cannot deal with it, we cannot eliminate it, if we keep going the virus will replicate and produce many variants. We have to adopt the prevention approach. My perspective is that we have to prevent corona in any case.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I want to see myself doing something very big for my country or doing something else really big internationally. That’s what you dream about. But being realistic, a PhD is a terminal degree, I don’t mention it to many people. It is something that is a requirement right now, and I am hoping to get into a PhD program and complete it within 5 years, that is my first goal. The other thing is to be working for something for the community in Pakistan, for children with NCDs and making a difference in the lives of children. I will be looking to home first, in Pakistan, and the children in Pakistan, so that is something that I look for and dream of, and I want to design something that I can work on in the next few years.
