Mulisa Debela

Facilities Assistant Manager, Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre
Master of Public Health
Bachelor of Health Science in Health Promotion

When Mulisa Debela first came to New Zealand, he arrived at the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre. Now he works there himself and enjoys supporting other refugees.

“When I arrived in New Zealand in 2015 as a refugee from Ethiopia when I was 27, I had to stay at the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre for five weeks. During those five weeks, I was offered health screenings, English language classes and a general resettlement orientation.

“The English language classes and resettlement orientation were given by AUT's Centre for Refugee Education, so AUT introduced me and my family to our new home in New Zealand. So when I decided to pursue university study in 2016, AUT was my first choice. Before coming to New Zealand, I had worked as health promoter for Doctors Without Borders for three years, and I’m passionate about working with communities to improve their health and wellbeing.”

Mulisa has since completed both a Bachelor of Health Science in Health Promotion and a Master of Public Health at AUT, and is now working at the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre as a facilities assistant manager.

“I enjoy helping people who are in need, and I love working in a role that makes a difference in people’s lives, especially for newly arrived refugees, since I was in that position not very long ago. In the future, I’m planning to pursue a PhD and eventually work as an epidemiologist or a quantitative social researcher.”

The right choice
Mulisa says he would strongly recommend AUT’s public health programmes to other students.

“I believe that there are a lot of opportunities opening up for the future of public health globally, nationally and locally. Since the outbreak of the current global COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of public health couldn’t be over-emphasised.

“For my Master of Public Health research, I focused on parental vaccine hesitancy among former refugees in Aotearoa New Zealand. It’s a topic I’m passionate about and it also relates to my career interest. My supervisors,  Dr Nadia Charania and Dr Nick Garett, were very supportive and they were a motivating factor for me to complete my thesis.”

He has enjoyed the welcoming and supportive environment at AUT.

“I benefitted from the student-led-academic support programme run by the Office of Pacific Advancement. As a mature student, I was supporting other students on how to do the assignments and study for exams. Another interesting thing about studying at AUT is that the university encourages connections through which you can find jobs and create lasting networks with others. This was a crucial element for me as I was new to New Zealand.”

Advice for other students
Mulisa has some great advice for other students who are only at the start of their university journey.

“I’d like to encourage future students, especially postgraduate students, to use all the available support services and resources at AUT, and create as many connections as you can with students or people in the community. The connections I created during my study helped me in many ways during and after my studies. The benefits of building relationships and having connections are numerous – from recruiting participants for your research to finding a job after university.”

He also has some good tips around choosing a research topic.

“Choose a research topic you’re passionate about when you’re doing your dissertation or thesis. That is important because it’s more likely than not that at some point you start to feel frustrated or fed up with your research as it’s a bulk of work for quite a long period of time.

“Finally, it’s normal to modify your research topic even after you’ve started your research. If this happens, don’t panic or stress because research is all about ‘trial and error’. It‘s all a learning process – you can learn more lessons from your failure than your success. It’s also good to realise that even after you complete you master’s degree you’re still a beginner in research.”