Operation International

Operation International

Operation International is a fieldwork placement open to final year health science students. It began in 1995 as 'Operation India', a cooperative project between Robyn Twible (Occupational Therapist) and Elizabeth Henley (Physiotherapist) from the Faculty of Health Sciences, the University of Sydney and Dr Maya Thomas from the Disability Division of ActionAid India. In 1999 the project expanded to become 'Operation International' with the additional commencement of placements in Fiji.

The project involves multi-disciplinary groups of students working in remote rural or urban slum Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) projects. The students' primary role is to assist in the training of the grass root level CBR workers, which didactically involves the running of workshops and field visits. Students also work on special development projects as identified by their respective projects.

Issues regarding student preparation and supervision, as well as student and graduate perspective's on Operation International have been presented in journals and conferences, both nationally and internationally.

Operation India

To date, students from the disciplines of occupational therapy, physiotherapy, leisure and health, nursing and orthoptics have participated in the program. Operation India aims to provide students with a unique experience of community development work, and the opportunity for extensive personal and professional development. It also ultimately aims to contribute to the development of rehabilitation services, and promotion of the inclusion of people with disabilities, in remote rural and urban slum areas of the developing world.

Contact:
Natala Cogger
Clinical Educator
Phone: +61 2 9351 9723
Email: