Dilli has a special reason to see himself working in refugee camps in the future. Growing up, Dilli lived with his family in a refugee camp in Nepal for 16 years. The camp in which he lived was able to maintain an organized social structure and provide educational opportunities. It breaks Dilli’s heart that even these simple basics, social structure and education, are rarely available in refugee camps today. More and more refugee camps have been created around the world to give shelter to the growing populations of displaced people. This has stretched available resources impossibly thin. Dilli hopes to bring the passion of his personal experience and the skills he is attaining with his Master’s in Public Health to maximize resource management and aid in finding practical solutions to improve the lives of those in refugee camps.
Dilli is originally from Bhutan, then spent 16 formative years in a refugee camp in Nepal. His family was resettled in Lansing, Michigan. From there Dilli went to Grand Rapids to earn his undergraduate degree in speech pathology. Dilli returned to Nepal to volunteer following the catastrophic earthquake in 2015. It was there that he met students studying Public Health. Their work and focus made an impression on him. Now he is in Spokane, enrolled in the Master of Public Health program while also performing his Graduate Service Appointment in the department. Hearing his journey, it is perhaps easy to understand one of Dilli’s refreshing life views. “I think people underestimate the pleasure of unstructured life but at times the fun can be had unexpectedly. Keep it real.” When asked about how the program is fulfilling his expectations, Dilli stated that he did not come with expectations. “That’s how I roll,” Dilli says with good humor.
He enjoys the idea of assessing the big picture and finding the cause of a particular problem. The proactive, preventative nature of Public Health and the ability to affect public policy excites Dilli. “When a person goes to see a doctor, that one person is the patient. When you bring Public Health into the picture, the whole community becomes the patient.”
