My Internship Experience at CMB Founation, Bangkok

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Ainsley Co

Placement Site: China Medical Board Foundation, Bangkok

Ainsley Co, a BASc (GHD) Year 4 student had his placement in Bangkok, Thailand, where he worked at The Equity Initiative (EI), a fellowship programme by the China Medical Board Foundation (CMB). The foundation is committed to nurturing leaders for health equity across Southeast Asia and China.

Founded in 1914 as one of the first programmes of the Rockefeller Foundation, CMB’s purpose was to advance health and equity in Southeast Asia and China. Ainsley, who is Chinese Filipino at heart and a student studying global health and development, found the internship equipped him with invaluable experience working in one of the region’s leading forces for health equity. With a small team often handling a fellowship with hundreds of fellows, Ainsley, had the opportunity to work with different teams and get to know fellows across different cohorts, sectors, and countries for seven months.

With the communications team, Ainsley assisted in managing the EI’s website, where he shared the success stories of fellows and their projects in the areas of climate justice, mental health, disability inclusion, health systems, and more. He also led the launch of the Opportunity Digest newsletter, where fellows can keep up to date with the latest open calls they can partake in — be it scholarship applications, invitations to conferences, or potential workshops they can attend. He worked on a social media evaluation project, examining the fellowship’s digital strategy to help EI make informed decisions as it seeks to expand its digital footprint over the next ten years.

With the Community Building team, Ainsley produced factsheets for the regional themes, specifically in climate justice, and created outlines for mental health and child and maternal health. He was also part of the six-month follow-up calls for projects funded by the CMB, to help see if the projects were implemented properly and are set to achieve their intended outcomes.

Ainsley also assisted extensively in planning the fellowship’s 10th-year anniversary forum, helping with the script and visuals for its ten-year video, creating visuals for posters, designing certificates, and even leading arrangement of a Bingo activity meant to increase participant engagement with fellows’ success stories and projects.

During the placement, he travelled around Southeast Asia-- visiting Phnom Penh, Cambodia for the National Committee meeting where chosen applicants are interviewed as part of the fellowship’s selection process; Luang Prabang, Laos for the Project Accelerator where he joined the 2025 cohort in advancing their second-year projects; and the Philippines for another set of National Committee meetings. He also had the chance to meet Dr. Keiji Fukuda, a familiar figure at HKU School of Public Health, and who is also a board member at CMB.

Last but not least, Ainsley had the opportunity to speak at the Lincoln Chen Lecture at the Prince Mahidol Award Conference (PMAC), where HKU SPH professors like Dr. Bishai and Dr. Phyu Phyu were present. The PMAC is an annual international event held in Bangkok, focusing on public health issues of global significance and particularly relevant for Southeast Asia.