Hasara Nuwangi
About
Hasara Nuwangi is a doctoral student exploring the mental health issues among Punjabi Sikh and Cypriot migrant communities in the UK. Through her study, she seeks to identify the facilitators, barriers of mental health issues and access and adherence to appropriate care in these migrant communities. She is the recipient of the Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah Doctoral Scholarship 2023, through the Migration & Movement Research funding from the University of Kent.
She completed her Bachelor’s degree at the Faculty of Agriculture (2009), University of Peradeniya, and later switched to public health while pursuing a Master of Philosophy degree at the Faculty of Medical and Allied Sciences at Rajarata University, working on the NIHR-funded ECLIPSE programme, co-led by Professor Lisa Dikomitis at the University of Kent.
Professional
Nuwangi works as a member of the NIHR Global Health CEI Advisory Network, UK ( January 2022 – To date). NIHR Global Health CEI Advisory Network is made to support NIHR’s work in CEI, and brings together people with locally-based knowledge and experience in engaging and involving communities in LMICs.
She is also the acting Chair of The Centre for Media and Information Literacy (CMIL). CMIL is a non-profit organisation committed to promoting critical media and information consumption amongst people of all ages. CMIL endeavours to empower citizens to effectively deal with all forms of information falsehoods and verify manipulative narratives to make informed decisions when exercising their democratic rights.
Her undergraduate thesis focused on “Developing a Training Manual for the Resource Persons of the “Yeheli” Anonymous Messaging Platform”. “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. Her MPhil thesis is focused on “Exploring stigma associated with cutaneous leishmaniasis in nuradhapura, Sri Lanka”. She has conducted ethnographic research and has experience in using various qualitative research methods such as participant observation, Interviews, focus groups and creative community workshops and has used community engagement and involvement (CEI) extensively in her research work. She has also been engaged in creating culturally bespoke, novel public health messages using traditional art forms (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68nk8Rb1m40&t=16s) and radio advertisements.
Awards
Dr. Ranjan De Sylva Research Award
“The Burden of the Treatment” of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL) in Rural Sri Lanka. [Oral and poster presentations]. 28th annual academic sessions of the College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka. 2023 August
Dr. N.W. Vidyasagara award
“Do you know why she is worried?”: fear inducing factors as perceived by pregnant women in the first trimester in Anuradhapura, 26th Academic Sessions of the College of Community Physicians Sri Lanka 2021 September
Best paper award Category: Maternal health new-born and child health
“Do you know why she is worried?”: fear inducing factors as perceived by pregnant women in the first trimester in Anuradhapura, 26th Academic Sessions of the College of Community Physicians Sri Lanka 2021 September
Best poster award Category Interdisciplinary studies
Non-allopathic COVID-19 self-management practices adopted by rural communities in Sri Lanka- Preliminary findings from a qualitative study, international symposium Rajarata university 2021 December
Best poster award
“A Frightening Disease”; A Qualitative Study on Fear Associated with Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL) in an Endemic District in Sri Lanka, 27th Annual Academic sessions, the college of community physicians of Sri Lanka 2022
Winner 3MT presentation – “Developing a Training Manual for the Resource Persons of the “Yeheli” Anonymous Messaging Platform” Faculty of Agriculture Undergraduate Research Symposium, 2018
Supervision
Professor Lisa Dikomitis, with Professor Sukhi Shergill and Dr Sukvinder Bhamra