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SDGHI Global Health Fellows Programme

On the Journey of Championing Global Health

Dr Arif Tyebally reflects upon the nuances of Global Health work and shares his experiences on how the SDGHI Fellows Programme provided him with the tools and resources to expand upon an existing project on neonatal and paediatric emergencies.


“Sustainable impact is always made during peacetime.”

Dr Arif Tyebally’s interest in Global Health stems from his experience in disaster relief efforts. Beginning with serving as a medical volunteer in Bandar Aceh during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, to being the paediatrics representative in the aftermath of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, and subsequently team leader of the disaster relief mission in 2008 during Cyclone Nargis, Dr Tyebally reflected upon how an emergency doesn’t need to happen for hospitals to begin working with overseas partners.


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Dr Arif Tyebally undertook a Master in Public Health at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health under the SDGHI Global Health Fellows Programme

“Even though these were fulfilling experiences, collaboration to improve health outcomes should be carried out all the time,” said Dr Tyebally. A senior consultant at KKH Women and Children’s Hospital who specialises in paediatric emergency medicine, he has over the years expanded upon his role in disaster relief medicine to encompass regional outreach projects.

“Through my experiences doing regional work, I realised the importance of data, needs assessment, and programme evaluation,” said Dr Tyebally. “So when I heard of the SDGHI Fellows Programme and the opportunity to do a Master in Public Health with a specialisation in Global Health, I was excited at the opportunity to be trained to do things in a proper way, with accurate tools and frameworks, to achieve the outcomes that we’re actually looking for.”

As an SDGHI Fellow, Dr Tyebally received support to undertake the Master in Public Health at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, salary during absence from work to undertake the Master in Public Health, and an additional grant of up to S$15,000 to undertake a field research project. He decided on expanding upon an existing programme in neonatal and paediatric emergencies that he was already involved in, this time focusing on assessing the neonatal emergency referral and transport system in Surabaya.

A Network of Support

While studying for his master’s degree, Dr Tyebally was able to tap upon the expertise of the faculty and his research supervisor, Associate Professor Sri Chander Tikamdas.

“I ran into a lot of issues as I couldn’t conduct a qualitative research project adhering to all the standard methodologies simply because it was in a different language. When you translate and start analysing, you may lose a lot of things in translation.”

Upon the recommendation of his supervisor, Dr Tyebally spoke to other faculty members who were experts in conducting qualitative research, and had experience with projects in foreign languages. They introduced him to new methods, like expanded notes and transcription, where the foreign interviewer does verbatim transcription of specific areas that are of research focus followed by translation. He was given examples of how this method was used during the COVID-19 period when much qualitative analysis was done with Bangladeshi workers, and ended up applying variations of it to his work.


“Doing Global Health work teaches you how to cope with the same situations but without all the support you might be used to. You need to be flexible, you need to think about alternatives, you need to go back to basic clinical principles. That’s good training.”

Dr Arif Tyebally

“Assoc Professor Sri Chander Tikamdas’ advice was very valuable. He shared with me some tools that he had used in his previous projects, and constantly helped me reframe my research project when things didn’t go according to plan. Having worked all around the world for over 30 years, his real-life experiences working in areas with different sociocultural norms provided precious insight into how I should handle my own project overseas.”

Apart from the networks with the faculty, Dr Tyebally also spoke of the value of the networks he had formed from years of regional work. Previously, most of his work had been with local NGOs, facilitated by the SingHealth International Collaboration Office and the Singapore International Foundation. However, when he realised the importance of an academic partner to move forward, he requested for help from his existing NGO partners, who swiftly reached out to their networks and connected him to his co-PI, who is an academic at Airlangga University.

“This really speaks of the power of networks,” concludes Dr Tyebally. “Even the team that we hired on the ground – the data scientists, interviewers, translators – those were arranged by my co-PI, whom I met during my previous projects overseas. Those links that we formed through the years were what allowed all this to happen.”


Lessons from Overseas

Dr Tyebally spoke of the many roadblocks he met with along the way and how they taught him to be adaptable, instilling in him the understanding that one cannot use one’s local norms as a benchmark and expect them to be the same overseas.

“Doing Global Health work teaches you how to cope with the same situations but without all the support you might be used to. You need to be flexible, you need to think about alternatives, you need to go back to basic clinical principles. That’s good training,” he said, emphasising the lessons that can be learnt on resource utilisation and thinking through things creatively rather than following protocols.

“Being an SDGHI Fellow and undertaking the Master of Public Health provided me with tools and skills that are useful for any form of planning, in whatever project is done,” said Dr Tyebally. “Proper design, implementation, and monitoring are crucial to the success of a project. Whatever I learnt will help me in my continuous mission to improve health outcomes not only overseas, but in Singapore as well.”


The SDGHI Global Health Fellows Programme is currently open for applications. Refer to our fact sheet for more details.