Dear Friedman School donors:
For the last 5 years, I have been serving communities affected by conflict, and coordinating emergency relief operations for charities throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Over time, it became apparent to me that a sound grasp of the technical basis of health and nutrition programming, as well as a more profound conceptual understanding of the humanitarian challenges facing these communities is critical. I want to ensure that my work has the greatest possible impact on the lives of these communities. Therefore, to improve my effectiveness as a humanitarian, I began to look for an opportunity to study complex emergencies in a centre of expertise, but found the costs of education a luxury I could not afford. Nevertheless, in spite of the challenges I anticipated in covering tuition and other expenses, I applied for admission to the Friedman School’s Master of Arts in Humanitarian Assistance (MAHA) programme, hoping that I would somehow raise enough funds to complete the degree program. To my surprise, included with the letter announcing my admission to the program, the school informed me that I had been awarded a $20,000 scholarship, an amount that effectively covered the majority of tuition.
This generous scholarship enabled me to enroll in the MAHA program, which has allowed me to explore the changing dimensions of humanitarian action, how communities draw on a wide range of assets to mitigate the effects of crises, and the gender dynamics of contemporary conflicts. Building off research produced by faculty who are working on building understanding of the needs of Internally Displaced People (IDP) living in urban centres, I had the opportunity to develop an analytical framework to assess the vulnerability of Urban IDPs and use the data-set as the basis of my final thesis.
As graduation approaches and I reflect on what I’ve learned and how the financial assistance I’ve been given enabled me to pursue my studies at Tufts, I’m grateful to those alumni and others who have contributed to the scholarship fund to help make graduate education accessible to those prospective students who face difficulties finding the resources to study.
Sincerely,
Christopher Rae
MA Candidate, Humanitarian Assistance
Tufts University
The Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
