We began with GHU: the overall theme for this year was Health and Human Rights. We began by asking why human rights exist, exploring this idea from the perspectives of a philosopher, a historian, and a politician. Then we asked who has more rights than others, comparing the child to the adult and the prisoner to the citizen. Finally we asked how human rights are influenced by the environment, comparing an urban to a rural setting. Then we ended GHU by exploring health and human rights in action, with presentations from GlobeMed members who have actively explored the connections we discussed in the field.

We then took a critical look at our work this year and made a list of our successes and areas where there is room for improvement. Here’s a sample of what we discussed:

The good:

• We fundraised really well
• GHU was great, especially hearing about chapter members’ projects
• Enthusiasm in meetings and campaigns
• Good pace of meetings
• Diversity of membership

The not so good:

• Attendance at meetings and special events -> perhaps offer a month-at-a-glance preview of talks and events so people have them on their radar?
• Level of transparency with GHI -> work to cement our partnership and change our Memorandum of Understanding such that GHI Exec Director Jessie Cronan could come up once a semester to give presentations; forward emails from GHI to the whole chapter
• Use of blog -> encourage chapter members to take turns posting on the blog and include reflections, activities, projects, etc. that might be of interest
• Social bonding -> form a local partnership, perhaps with VT Food Bank, and do community service together (gleaning), even with other student orgs
• Campaign teams -> better define individual roles

Finally, we presented an overall look at how this year compared to last year:

2012 -> 2013, by the numbers:

• 51 -> 73 members
• 3 -> 9 guest lectures
• $15,000 raised to expand GHI’s work to 1 new health center -> $20,000 to maintain that health center for one fiscal year
• 3 GROW interns at GHI in Rwanda -> 2 GROW interns at GHI in Rwanda + 3 interns at GHI in Boston
• 6 -> 9 GlobeMed members attend Summit

We’ve grown exponentially over the few years since GlobeMed at Midd was started my freshman year, and I graduate now so proud of the progress we have made and fully confident that our chapter will continue to grow and promote global health equity in tangible and sustainable ways. I will always remember my involvement with GlobeMed and its truly inspiring membership as one of the most meaningful experiences of my college career.

Love,

Anoushka

Fall:

• Rollover from last year: $344.15
• A capella concert: $465.53
• Two Brothers bar night: $1,382.25
• Holiday giving campaign: $8,403
• WWW Foundation: $2,500
• Long Trail: $200
• Book store contest: $500

J-term:

• MCAB dinner: $137.05
• Private donation: $200

Spring:

• Kaplan raffle: $926
• Babysitting night: $559
• 5K fun run: $4,738.74
• Private donation: $100

Total: $20,456.17 - $790 (T-shirt loan) = $19,661

This means we have only $338 left to fund to reach our goal of $20,000! It also means that we are the third biggest fundraising college of all the GlobeMed chapters despite being the smallest college chapter BY FAR. We should be incredibly proud of the good work we’ve done this year and put our best effort into the final push to raise the remaining funds.

For GlobalHeathU, Lindsay and Caroline gave an inspiring presentation on their J-term trip to Guatemala to volunteer at Common Hope for the month. The notes for their talk can be found here: Guatemala 2013.

Dr. Wilson’s talk was entitled, “Global Child Equity Focused Strategies.” She discussed the factors that contribute to child survival and how they relate to the Millenium Goals, chronic diseases and disability and the historical trends in child mortality. In addition, Dr. Wilson explained the barrier to access to healthcare, citing a three delay model, which includes delay in decision to seek care in the community, delay in reaching care, and delay in receiving adequate care at the health facility. She elucidated this model using the examples which respectively demonstrated these types of delays. We discussed Haitians working on sugar cane farms in the Dominican Republic, the shortage of health workers in Tanzania and Rwanda, and newborn health in the Dominican Republic. Dr. Wilson’s insight and experience was an extremely valuable view into the public health field, the issues that endure in global health, and the way we can work towards solutions.

Liza gave an overview of her semester abroad with SIT Switzerland: Global Health and Development Policy. Given that Geneva is a hub for international health, Liza was able to get really valuable first hand experience with the various facets of public health. Specifically, she attended a lecture series which touched on water safety and health, the realities and challenges of field work, epidemiology, international migration, intellectual property, food safety and security, and mental health of victims of war. In addition, Liza did an independent project, A Tentative Model to Prevent Water Born Infectious Disease Associated with Climate Change and Disaster: An Application to Cholera Prevention. For more extensive notes on Liza’s presentation and Dr. Wilson’s lecture, please see here:globemed2013_Wilson&Liza

To sign up for the GlobeMed 5K Race, please visit the box-office page. We also welcome online donations at our Razoo page. Thank you so much for helping us fund the maintenance of the health center we helped establish in Rwanda!

For GHU, we focused specifically on our partner org, Gardens for Health International. GHI was founded by two Clinton Foundation interns in 2007 with strong support from Partners In Health/Praxis Network for its multifaceted approach to public health. GHI’s success has led to support for the massive programmatic expansion of the program beyond Gukuru and the Kigali area. What makes GHI unique is its targeted focus on nutrition and poverty. GHI is founded on the belief that positive health, quality of life, and economic sustainability all stem from access to and availability of healthy food. GHI works with the infrastructure in place in Rwanda to sustainably implement its malnutrition program: it coordinates with the public health system as an outpatient extension of medical clinics, cooperates with the Rwandan government, and works with other aid agencies like USAID. GlobeMed at Midd is truly proud to be partnered with an organization as effective and fruitful as GHI, and we look forward to strengthening our partnership as well as our impact in Rwanda.

• Professor of Economics Erick Gong, who gave an incredible talk last week on global health economics, is looking for a research assistant for a two-week period. Feel free to contact him if this opportunity interests you!
• Our screening of Sometimes in April is set for tomorrow night at 7:30 pm in Axinn 229.
• Leaders of our partner org, Gardens for Health International (GHI), are touring the US, giving talks in Boston, NYC, LA, San Francisco, DC, among other locations.
• This summer, not only will GROW interns Cate Stanton and Ryan Brewster be working with GHI in Rwanda, but Olivia Wold, Austin Nalen, and Emily Nuss will be interning at GHI’s Boston office!
• Looking towards the next academic year, we’re seeking new Exec Board members for the following positions: 2 Co-Presidents, 1 GHU Coordinator, 1 Design and Social Media Coordinator, 2 Co-Directors of Development (1 financially focused, 1 educationally focused), 1 Director of Community Building, and 2 Campaign Coordinators. Applications are due Monday, April 15, by midnight. Later in the fall, we’ll also be seeking a GROW Coordinator.

In GHU we learned about prisons and the US healthcare system. Focus questions included: Who takes responsibility for prisoner health rights? What significance does their health have on non-incarcerated citizens? The US incarcerates more residents than any other country: we have less than 5% of the world’s population but nearly 25% of the world’s prisoners. One in 31 US adults is either in prison or on probation or parole. Furthermore, prisoners are five times more likely to have mental health illness than general citizens, largely because of the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill.

According to the ACLU, the government has the responsibility to provide adequate medical care to prisoners in their custody. Yet with limited access to the outside world, prisoners are sometimes denied the medical attention they need. Too often conditions of confinement can exacerbate existing mental illness or have negative psychological effects on prisoners without mental illness. Prisoners must receive adequate mental health care to ensure they don’t leave correction systems worse off than when they entered. On the other hand, there are numerous instances of US citizens purposely getting arrested in order to receive better medical treatment. These contradictions complicate the issue of how the government does and should allocate its resources towards medical care both within and without the prison system.

After an insightful discussion, we broke up into campaign groups to plan our upcoming 5K and Babysitting Night events. GlobeMedders, be sure to keep sending out our babysitting flyer to anyone with kids aged 4-12 years!

Prof. Gong helped us define global health and noted its relationship to discrepancies in health outcomes between high and low income countries. He observed that there are technologies that can dramatically reduce the risk of disease, such as chlorine or filters to prevent diarrhea, condoms to help prevent HIV/AIDS and insecticide treated nets to prevent malaria. Economics can be used to try to understand the constraints that prevent people from using these technologies, especially in low income countries.

Sub-Saharan Africa bears a disproportionate burden of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Though there are several possible reasons for the high prevalence in this area, Prof. Gong hypothesizes that multiple concurrent partnerships may play a substantial role in the transmission of the disease in Sub-Saharan Africa. His research examines the notion that income shocks lead to increases in transactional sex, which leads to higher rates of HIV infection. The data, taken from weather reports and demographic and health surveys among men and women in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors in Kenya, suggests that negative income shocks lead to increased risk of HIV infection. The response of transactional sex to income shocks may be due to lack of access to savings, insurance or other social safety nets, and Prof. Gong suggests providing access might reduce this response.

For a more detailed write-up of Professor Gong’s talk, see these notes: globemed2013_gongtalk