Ali Asghar
I was born and raised by a single mother in the small town of Quetta located in the underdeveloped and ultraconservative province of Balochistan in Pakistan.
For the last decade, my work has focused on improving access to services related to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) for vulnerable communities. I have been engaged in strengthening community participation and response to the emerging HIV epidemic in the country for increasing uptake of voluntary counseling and testing for HIV among transgender women, gay men, other men who have sex with men (MSM), and their partners.
“ The Master of Public Health at KIT will not only develop my technical knowledge and skills but will also give me the opportunity to engage with and learn from health professionals from an array of transdisciplinary backgrounds… ” ”
I have also been simultaneously involved with programs improving access to contraception, safe abortion and post abortion contraception for girls and women, bringing a media and communication lens to large national programs on the topic.
Build my knowledge, capacity and capability
The Master of Public Health at KIT will not only develop my technical knowledge and skills but will also give me the opportunity to engage with and learn from health professionals from an array of transdisciplinary backgrounds, enabling me to better apply an intersectional lens to SRHR program design and development. The programme will provide me with academic discipline, build my knowledge, capacity, and capability as a public health professional for contributing to improvements in access to equitable, culturally congruent, and quality assured health services for vulnerable, at-risk communities in Pakistan.
Rise to a senior leadership position
With a degree in public health from KIT, I hope to rise to a senior leadership position within Pakistan’s non-profit public health sector. I hope to be able to undertake innovative work that builds on my previous communication and film production experience, to deploy media and technology to address challenges to SRHR in the country. To address public health challenges like HIV prevention and control and access to contraception and safe abortion care in Pakistan’s fragile health system, which operates in a resource constrained setting and is normatively hostile towards sexual and gender minorities, including girls and women.