Promoting good health and well-being: Gao Ceshu in UNFPA

Editor’s Note

Tsinghua University plays an active role in promoting the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by nurturing innovative talents and carrying out relevant research, among many other important ways.    

For Gao Ceshu, who got her PhD from School of Medicine (clinical medicine) at Tsinghua University, the SDG 3 of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all is closer to her heart. Not long ago, she completed her volunteer job at the China Office of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as Associate Programmer Coordinator. In this essay, she shares her experiences and thoughts on promoting the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and persons with disabilities.  

Gao Ceshu in UNFPA China Office

01

An unusual choice

Encouraged by the career development and employment guidance of Tsinghua University, I tried to understand the broader concept of health from a different perspective and applied for the United Nations Volunteer (UNV) position as Associate Programme Coordinator in the UNFPA China Office after graduation.

My choice of joining UNFPA as a UN volunteer instead of being a physician or continuing my research as a medical student was quite a different path from my peers. This new journey I’m on is the one generated from my own confusion and curiosity. 

As I gained clinical and scientific training experiences during my doctoral program, I gradually realized the challenges faced by new therapeutic development, which inspired me to think about this new question: What else can we do before we overcome the disease with reliable treatments?

02

Project experiences in UNFPA

In the UNFPA China Office, I assisted the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights team, and the Gender team. My work, which brought me countless unforgettable memories, focused on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of persons with disabilities.  

In 2021, I supported a workshop to test a training package that promoted the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women and youth living with disabilities. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the workshop had to adopt a hybrid format, with both online and offline participants, most of whom were representatives from communities of persons with disabilities. 

I was quite worried about the feedback of such a hybrid meeting: A simple workshop can never change the challenges faced by people living with disabilities when they seek sexual and reproductive health services. Even participating in online meetings as persons living with disabilities requires complicated inclusiveness support. 

Surprisingly, we received lots of positive feedback at the end of the meeting: Some participants said it was the barrier-free hybrid online meeting they had ever attended as we provided a zoom usage guide for persons living with disabilities, Chinese sign language and live subtitles in Chinese. 

The SRHR of women and youth with disabilities

All these touching moments indicated that we had really built up a close relationship with our beneficiary groups. I also realized that it’s important to make sure the needs and voices of vulnerable groups are recognized by the general public in the process of promoting the full participation of persons with disabilities in sustainable development.

I communicated with my supervisor my plan to launch an online social media campaign to create public awareness of the demands proposed by persons with disabilities, and this campaign is expected to be launched towards the end of the year.

Gao Ceshu in stories sharing activities of persons with disabilities

At the beginning of 2022, the project of improving the sexual and reproductive health of women and young persons with disabilities funded by Rehabilitation International (RI) was successfully closed. Achievements of this project, including the hybrid workshop, were highly praised by the donor, and our project was considered as one of their most successful international collaborations.

“Personally, I consider this project as one of RI’s most successful collaborations globally, and one that is very close to my heart,” Teuta Rexhepi, the Secretary General of RI commented. 

03

Insights and plans

I benefited a lot from my work. 

Through my deep involvement in the project of improving the sexual and reproductive health and rights of people with disabilities, I have seen the commonality of the challenges faced by vulnerable groups when they seek health services across different countries. As a result of participating in the development of a minimum initial service package, I realized the urgency of maintaining essential health services during the pandemic. 

After the supporting work in the development of the study design on the current status of health response to violence against women, I figured out the complexity of the issues faced by health sectors, which was far more complicated than diseases themselves. In the AI-based cervical cancer screening project, I had a chance for the first time to take a closer look at the controversy brought by the unbalance between the fast-developing technology and the relatively lagging supervision system. 

Gao Ceshu in a multi-sectoral workshop on essential services for women and girls subject to domestic violence

Abundant exposures to cooperation settings with governments, think tanks, private sectors, and both national and international NGOs have enlightened me with an overall perspective and long-term strategic thinking. What’s more, the experiences in UNFPA also reshaped my understanding of health, which switched from a disease-oriented view to a more centered approach to people’s needs and demands. 

Gao Ceshu with all colleagues in the UNFPA China Office

As a medical student, all these new understandings encouraged me to take a further step in my professional area, and I finally decided to pursue my post-doc fellowship at Tsinghua University. Simultaneously, I will also take the lead to encourage more peers from health sectors to actively support the realization of “Good health and well-being” with action. 

Read more about THU

Tsinghua’s computer science soars to greater heights

From Shenzhen and the Greater Bay Area to the World

Does social stress make us more forgetful?

Promoting good health and well-being: Gao Ceshu in UNFPA

Writer: Gao Ceshu

Editors: Huang Fei, Maria Vula

Designer: Xia Yifei