From a few students to a movement.
GlobeMed began with a shared dream between one village in Ghana and a group of students at Northwestern University.
The village, near Ho, Ghana, faced extreme poverty, poor health, and little access to care. Their community leaders envisioned a health center for their people but confronted the challenge of finding the resources to bring this vision to life.
Students from Northwestern University volunteering in Ghana saw the community’s suffering and heard a call to action. Realizing they could help make this health center a reality, they mobilized their campus to work in partnership with the community’s leaders. In 2006, the HOPE Center was born. Since then, the partnership has transformed an empty building into a growing clinic with community health nurses, a pharmacy, nutrition programs, and a pathology lab.
The promise of this first partnership sparked a question: Could students create a network of university-based chapters, connecting each group of passionate young activists with a unique partner community? Could these students and grassroots leaders work together to develop projects similar to the HOPE Centre?
To explore this possibility, they organized GlobeMed's first Global Health Summit in March of 2007, bringing together 45 students from 7 universities alongside leaders in global health. Inspired by their peers, the young activists began to shape their own vision: a movement of students and communities working together to improve the health of the poor today, and changing the face of global health as the leaders of tomorrow.
In the Fall of 2007, a group of recent graduates and student volunteers launched the GlobeMed National Office to put this vision into action. In the years since, GlobeMed has expanded to 46 chapters, each working alongside community leaders and activists on the front lines of poverty and injustice around the world. From renovating rural health centers in post-genocide Rwanda to developing health education programs for the uninsured in Detroit, GlobeMed’s partnerships are saving lives and improving health. Its unique model is training over 1,500 students to become lifelong advocates for global health equity. This impact will only deepen as the network grows to 60 chapters over the next 3 years.
Together, we are building a collective force for a more just and equitable world. Join us.
