Nothing Like Holiday ...

Diseases due to malnutrition are far from eradicated. Recent studies concerning the industrialized world predict that in the near future four out of ten people will be overweight. In many developing countries obesity is a serious problem as well. However in those countries obesity is not the only problem concerning people’s diets. In those countries public health officers are often confronted with kwashiorkor, marasmus, iron deficiency and other diseases due to an inadequate diet. In many communities it is women and female children who run the highest risks of such diseases.

You work as the public health officer for an NGO in the southernmost district of North Z*. In your daily work you are far too often confronted with (mostly female) patients who suffer from symptoms that, in the medical handbooks, are ascribed to insufficient diets*.

After years of discussion the North Z’s Ministry of Health finally agrees to (co-)finance a multi-disciplinary research team, including two experienced researchers. They will have to get insight in the background of the insufficient diets of the women and girls in your district. The idea is that in a later stage interventions based on the findings of each of these studies will be designed (and maybe even implemented).

You are asked to select the two most promising candidates for the research posts. After having shifted through a huge amount of applications you pick out three interesting candidates. One is a social psychologist. The second has been trained in the explanatory model approach. The third one is a so called “critical anthropologist” specialized in gender issues and other forms of social differentiation.

You select two of them.

Since you are also responsible for supervising them you write each of the two a letter describing briefly the (diet-related) problems you are facing and explaining what your expectations are with regard to their research projects. In the letter you suggest some preliminary research questions, each of which is accompanied by a short explanation. Of course you try to get the most out of each researcher and therefore you encourage them use their own particular expertise/approach to the fullest. That means that your suggestions for the preliminary research questions (and the short explanations) correspond with the approach the researcher is familiar with. In your letter you also express your concern about the shortcomings of the researcher’s approach. You explain what your critique is and you suggest ways in which these shortcomings could be dealt with.

* You can pick your own example of a country and a district. You are also free to choose the dietary problem that you feel is most relevant to your example. You are also allowed to choose an entirely different topic, but please discuss that with me first!

Formulate the answers to these questions on approx. 10 pages. Font: 11 pnts. Space between lines: 1½.

Hand in your paper before the fifth unit starts. You can leave your paper in my mailbox. Of course you can also hand it over to me personally.
Good luck, and do not forget to enjoy your holidays as well!!!

Oh dont worry, Anya

We'll just gonna having fun. no doubt