Hasara Nuwangi

I am a Sri Lankan doctoral student attached to the University of Kent, exploring the perspectives on mental health among Sikh and Cypriot migrant communities in the UK. Through my study, I seek to identify the facilitators, barriers to accessing mental health care in these migrant communities. I am the recipient of the Prof. Abdulrazak Gurnah Doctoral Scholarship 2023, and I am supervised by Prof.Lisa Dikomitis, Prof. Sukhi Shergill and Dr. Sukvinder Bhamra.

I got my bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Technology and Management from the University of Peradeniya, and I chose Development Communication and Organisational Behaviour as my major. Having to learn both agriculture and the sociological aspects was a great strength to me, as I got to work at the grassroots levels and understand the real scenarios in rural Sri Lanka, which goes beyond textbooks. While doing my degree, I started working with Dialog Axiata, Sri Lanka’s biggest telecommunication company, on their new platform for women called “Yeheli” (Female friend) (https://yeheli.lk ) as an intern and eventually took control over the project as a consultant, running “Yeheli”. “Yeheli” was Sri Lanka’s first trilingual digital platform (Web and App) for women to ask anonymous questions for free about their mental health, reproductive health, domestic abuse and violence and all the other topics that were considered Taboo in Sri Lankan society.

Later, I joined the Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences at Rajarata University of Sri Lanka to study the stigma associated with cutaneous leishmaniasis (a neglected tropical disease) as part of the global health project ECLIPSE. Through my work with ECLIPSE, I once again had the opportunity to engage at the grassroots level, conducting various qualitative data collection methods such as ethnography, interviews, and focus groups to deeply understand the beliefs, burdens, and practices surrounding the disease.

Through CHal, I hope to continue learning how to intersect public health with sociology/anthropology, and to explore how both qualitative and quantitative research can be used in global health. I also look forward to collaborating and networking with people who are conducting interdisciplinary work or who are willing to do interdisciplinary work in the future.

Email: hk420@kent.ac.uk

Affiliation: University of Kent, United Kingdom