/blog en ashley@globemed.org Copyright 2010 2010-03-11T21:30:00-06:00 http://www.globemed.org/blog/part-3-of-3-globemed-senior-speeches-maya-cohen/ http://www.globemed.org/blog/part-3-of-3-globemed-senior-speeches-maya-cohen/#When:21:30:00Z My name is Maya Cohen, and I am a member of the Barnard/Columbia chapter. On our first night here, Raj Panjabi told us "to make change we must master two languages-the language of power and the language of love." Although I am far from fluent, I am going to try to speak both of these languages tonight, and I'll start with the language of love.   I'll begin by telling you about one of my most cherished Globemed moments. It happened at 9:32 on a dreary Saturday morning over winter break, and arrived in the form of an email with the subject line, "REVELATION" (all in capitals) from one of my chapter's new Co-Presidents, the wonderful Liza Plafsky. The email opened like this,  "I just wanted to tell you that I've been reading a lot of stuff from the national office and I'm realizing that GlobeMed is the best thing ever.  I'm SO fricken happy I've gotten as involved as I have... I really think it has been and will continue to be pretty much the most defining aspect of my undergrad experience."   There was more, but I will get to that later.   Over the past two years GlobeMed has shown me how to uncover the ways in which I am connected to places deemed "wildernesses" by the rest of my society, places where, as the poet Eduardo Galeano writes, people live  Who don't speak languages, but dialects. Who don't have religions, but superstitions. Who don't create art, but handicrafts. Who don't have culture, but folklore. Who do not have names, but numbers.  It showed me through partnership with an incredible community on the other side of the world that these numbers are humans with human rights, and that with the proper tools, we can work together to build a more equitable world. Helping us figure out what these tools are, and then showing us that we have them at our fingertips, is the most valuable gift that GlobeMed gives to its students.   In her proposal for our first joint project, the Executive Director of Gulu Women's Economic Development and Globalization (yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is GWEDG for short), Angwech Pamela Judith, wrote, "In northern Uganda, poverty strikes like bush fire," a heart-wrenchingly perfect metaphor for the power and devastation of structural violence. Before becoming a part of Globemed, I looked out over a burning world, and looking down at my own small bucket of water, felt that I would have to wait many years in order to gain the power to marshal the deluge needed to put out the flames and see our scorched world to return to life.   I don't feel that way anymore.  First, I realize that I am not alone. Over the past two years, I have found myself shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of students and community activists. It has been an incredible privilege to stand alongside of you, working together to build a more equitable world.   Second, I have come to realize how infectious the GlobeMed vision of activism is. I have seen the look on a student's face when I explain our model and a lightbulb goes off over their heads: "Yes," I can see them say, "That makes sense. Realizing human rights through cross-cultural human connection. That will work." As I have witnessed these epiphanies, watched as students become part of the globemed network and begin to live and breath its language and ideals, I have begun to imagine 2030 and see the hundreds of arms with buckets in hand. When I do this, I realize that we are slowly but surely building a veritable monsoon.   As I read the rest of Liza's email on that Saturday morning in January, I recognized my experience and my dreams for our chapter and network in her words. Her email continued,   "I don't know how to explain it, but now that I've had time to sit down and really read all the materials and really think about GlobeMed, its mission, and how it's going about accomplishing it, I've realized how amazing it really is. There's so much positive work to be done, and we're already heading in such the right direction by being involved with GlobeMed.  I just wanted to share all this with you because I know how much GlobeMed means to you.   I have said many times to many people that GlobeMed has been one of the most defining experiences of my college career. But to see my experience mirrored in the words of one of my chapter's next leaders was a validation of my hopes not only for Liza and my chapter but for the whole network. The truly mind-boggling thing is that GlobeMed came to mean so much to me because it first meant so much to a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens whose passion has had a ripple effect through the lives of everyone sitting in this room tonight, and hundreds of people who cannot be here but to whom we are deeply and personally connected.   Furthermore, in giving us this model by which to effect change, they have infected us with the knowledge that change is readily achievable, and therefore we have the responsibility to enact it. In my experience, once you've begun to lead, to envision, to act, it's like learning to read. In the same way that none of us can look at words now and not read them, we also can't look at injustice and not read the possible solutions. We understand the ways in which we are all intricately connected, and that, human to human, we need each other, and we can be what each other needs. This ultimately is the language of ubuntu, the language of love, and its message is the one we speak in our activism, our community, and our passion for this movement. So lets take a moment to look around, and acknowledge the ridiculous amount of Globemed love in this room right now.   Now hold onto that love, and let's start talking the language of power.  The core belief of our movement is that health is a human right, and all of us fight at home and alongside our partner to enact this right. We do that through our partnerships, through education, and through the language of interconnectedness and human love. However, it has become increasingly clear to me that relying on the language of love is not enough. If our goal is moving beyond compassion to effective action, we need to start coupling our grassroots work with an engagement with the political and economic mechanisms of power that establish and therefore have the capacity to re-engineer the frameworks that create structural violence. Rights are inherently political concepts, and, as an organization fighting for human rights, we cannot in good conscience avoid confronting this fact. Therefore we need to start a real dialogue about the role of political action in our network and our movement. I know for myself that I have been hesitant to push the boundaries of my activism into these daunting, divisive and often abstract fields. But if we stop at discussing and studying structural violence without seriously considering how to engage the bastions of power, political and otherwise, that enact that violence, we are stopping short of fulfilling our mission.   I know this is a conversation that is raging at the national office, and when I was ranting these thoughts to Victor earlier today, he wisely reminded me that political action can be an incredibly divisive and polarizing issue. Victor's points are definitely legitimate, and I am not calling for us to start storming capital hill.   Again, going back to Raj's comments, we need speak both the language of power and the language of love to truly enact change. We need to work together to identify platforms that we can and should be acting on to fulfill and strengthen our mission. Though we are a grassroots movement, we need to engage with the structures on top while maintaining our roots on the ground. Our challenge as an organization and as individual citizens is to now find a language of power to match our language of love, allowing us to fight with an even stronger voice for a just and equal world.   So to my incredible chapter from which I draw my strength and inspiration, I just want to say thank-you for all of your dedication, passion and brilliance. You inspire me every day to keep dreaming, planning, and working for a better world. Most of all, thank-you, Stacy Chu, for being the best Co-President anyone could ask for. There is no way our chapter would have survived and thrived as it has without you. To all of the friends I have made and have yet to make sitting here tonight, I am in awe of you and cannot wait to hear about the amazing work you accomplish individually and together. Finally, to the National Office, for more support, guidance, and inspiration than I could ever thank you for. You are a ridiculously awesome group of people.   With tons of globemed love, thanks everyone. You are truly amazing. 2010-03-11T21:30:00-06:00 http://www.globemed.org/blog/part-2of-3-globemed-senior-speeches-katie-schmidt/ http://www.globemed.org/blog/part-2of-3-globemed-senior-speeches-katie-schmidt/#When:19:25:00Z GlobeMed Senior Speech by Katie Schmidt (Umich)       At Michigan's student organization fair in the fall of my freshman year, I was drawn to a poster about a student group's partnership with the Joy-Southfield Health and Education Center in Detroit.  Growing up just outside the city's borders, I had seen health disparities firsthand.  While my opportunities were virtually boundless, communities just four miles away from my house were limited to unhealthy food choices, sub-par public schools, and primary care at the emergency room.  I had occasionally volunteered at a soup kitchen, but never felt empowered make a real difference when these communities were so under-resourced.  So when I heard about Joy-Southfield's real impact with health programs, I wanted to become involved.  The Global Medical Relief Program had just begun its partnership with Joy-Southfield, and I figured I would give this new "global health" thing a try.  At first, Joy-Southfield was the only reason I stayed involved, since back then, we were just a run-of-the-mill student group.  Luckily, all of that changed in the winter of 2007, when we attended the first ever GlobeMed Global Health Summit. The Summit fell during spring break, so although Ashley Hagaman and I were the only Umich members there, we hoped to bring some valuable lessons back to our chapter.        I entered the Summit unsure of my purpose, but left Evanston inspired to push harder for social justice.  I still vividly recall images of those three inspiring days and those tear-jerking lectures from Mardge Cohen and Joia Mukherjee.  The most powerful aspect of the Summit, however, didn't involve global health experts; it involved 40 students stuffed in a small room, discussing GlobeMed's future.  We did not pretend to know the solutions to global health problems; heck, we didn't even know what GlobeMed's mission statement should be.  However, what we did know was that we belonged to a network of young, passionate students that could really make a difference in the world.  Though I had an elementary knowledge of global health, that fire in everyone's eyes gave me the motivation to become a leader, and I resolved to have a larger role in our chapter's success.  When our exec board elections rolled around, I intended to run for secretary, but Ashley recommended that I run for VICE PRESIDENT.  I was stunned.  Me? Vice president?!?! I was a freshman, for goodness' sake!  But Ashley, who would become president, knew that a strong leadership role would engage me as a lifetime advocate for health equity, and that is exactly what happened.        In the years that followed, GlobeMed changed so much that I almost forgot what the Global Medical Relief Program had been.  We acquired a second partner, called the Mali Health Organizing Project, for which we decided to hold a benefit dinner.  I, a nineteen-year-old rookie event planner, was put in charge of the dinner, and I was scared.  But I soon discovered that I was not alone.  I had all of the Umich members to help me out, I had Ashley's guidance, and importantly, I had the National Office for support.  We roughed some major challenges, but Victor and Peter always answered the phone when we called for help, encouraging us to remain positive.  In the end, we overshot our goal, funding all of the equipment costs for MHOP's new health clinic.  At that point, I knew that our passion wasn't naïve, that we really could advance health equity throughout the world.  And I knew that I, who had previously felt so helpless in the face of injustice, could be a leader in this movement.       While every GlobeMed member in the country is privileged to belong to this network, I feel especially blessed to be part of Michigan's chapter.  Through all of GlobeMed's changes, one thing that has remained constant is the inspiration provided by Joy-Southfield.  In a place where diabetes had been a life sentence, where fresh produce required a 40-minute bus ride, and where a sinus infection entailed a hospital visit, people were healthy because of the healthcare, education, and, most importantly, respect provided by Joy-Southfield's staff.  All I had known growing up was Detroit's sad demise, but GlobeMed and Joy-Southfield showed me that Detroit was actually full of hope.  While distributing surveys for the Center's health education needs assessment, I had the privilege of interacting with church and school leaders. Their passion for uplifting the community showed me the potential in urban neighborhoods, and inspired me to work toward realizing this potential for the rest of my life.       Since May of 2008, I have been co-president of my GlobeMed chapter, and it hasn't been easy.  The graduation of a strong senior class left us with few dedicated members.  Our 2009 campaign wasn't as successful as we had hoped, and we ended the year with only four returning members for fall 2009.  Luckily, I spent my summer as an intern for the GlobeMed National Office and devoted ten weeks to strengthening the network.  The internship forced me to become a better leader, since I was giving leadership advice to Exec Board members across the country. I realized that I needed to do a better job of engaging younger members, of giving them opportunities for leadership, just as Ashley had done for me.  And I was determined that for this school year, above anything else, I would leave the chapter in a stronger state than it was when I inherited it.       I'm not going to tell you that everything went as planned in this past academic year-in fact, we scrapped most of our plans we changed partners last fall.  Jeremy and I have done our best, but we're still learning how to lead.  We've made some poor decisions, revised strategies, and will probably scramble to complete forgotten tasks for our upcoming benefit dinner.  However, standing here in front my chapter and the rest of you, I am overwhelmed with pride.  This is the second weekend of spring break, just as it had been when Ashley and I were the lone Umich representatives here in 2007.  Except this year, we have 10 bright faces here from our chapter, eight of whom joined this past fall.  Because of Jeremy's and my hard work, and because of the support we've received from the National Office, our members are fully engaged, and I am confident that they will push for more success after I graduate.       These past four years have comprised the defining period in my life.  Through GlobeMed, I've found a voice, since I've been able to have a real impact on the injustice that I see in the world.   I've found a passion, as I will constantly push for social justice and health equity.  And I've found a career in health education and primary care that will empower communities like the one just four miles from my house.  Despite this personal enlightenment, however, what I am the most proud of, the most grateful for, is the enthusiasm that I can feel in this room.  Your nine bright faces [gesture to chapter], and your 150 [gesture to rest of room], show even more passion for global health equity than I saw in those original Summit attendees.  I know that I will work for social justice for the rest of my life, but my accomplishments pale in comparison to what we will all do together.       Moving forward, I challenge you to make the most of this overwhelming passion in your eyes.  I was inspired to become a leader by those 40 original Summit participants with few resources and little experience, so just imagine what you can do now.  If your campaigns are wildly successful, double your goal for next year.  If a globalhealthU event rocks your campus, resolve to rock the entire city next time.  And, most importantly, no matter how great your chapter is, always push to further engage yourself, your fellow staff members, and everyone around you.  If I come back for next year's Summit, show me the new members you've engaged.  Though I would love to see you all again, I challenge you to give new attendees this life-changing experience.  If we keep inspiring young members, if we keep pushing to improve, then nothing can stop us.  Every year, we will have a stronger crop of GlobeMed alumni working in various sectors, all pushing for global health equity.  All 160 of us will do great things as individuals, but it is only as a network, constantly engaging more leaders, that we will really be the change.  Though I have grown immensely in the past for years, though I've toiled nonstop to fulfill my individual responsibilities, my greatest accomplishment is leaving my chapter's members equipped to become better leaders than I am, and I challenge you to do the same. 2010-03-11T19:25:00-06:00 http://www.globemed.org/blog/part-1of-3-globemed-senior-speeches-caleb-reinhold/ http://www.globemed.org/blog/part-1of-3-globemed-senior-speeches-caleb-reinhold/#When:19:17:00Z Caleb Reinhold - Senior Speech        Just under two years ago a blonde girl from New Orleans stood up in my physics class and quickly dispatched a few facts about a group called GlobeMed. Having just transferred to GWU, I thought that being a part of a student group that worked to support an organization in Rwanda would be a quick way to get involved in a volunteer activity that would set me apart from other premed students. And honestly, that's about all I thought it would be.       I couldn't have been more wrong. After attending a few meetings, I began to notice a silent and growing energy in the group that would show itself every so often in the form of a member shuffling their schedule around to be at a fundraiser or when one of the members going to Rwanda that summer would mention the plans for their trip with the enthusiasm of a five year old on a shopping spree at Toys R' Us. E-Board applications came up and I decided to go for broke and apply to be president of this "GlobeMed GWU" group, even if I wasn't sure exactly what it was we were doing.       Amazingly enough, I somehow managed to be selected to be the next president of GlobeMed at GWU and the stage was set for what has become one of the most formative experiences of my life. Arriving back on campus for my junior year, I held a vague idea of what a GlobeMed chapter did and how we could continue that but had very little idea about why that mattered or what we had the power to do.  Today I act as co-president of GlobeMed GWU for a chapter whose membership is deeply versed in the issues surrounding global health inequities, confident that the challenges these issues present can be overcome, and proud to be part of the fight for global health equity. I myself started my time in GlobeMed as a know-it-all premed student not even remotely close to being capable of leading the talented group of people I now do and have grown to become a confident and enthusiastic leader of a chapter with a vision I truly believe in and values I strive to embody.        GlobeMed GW lured me in when I thought the only way to "help" people, in a health sense, was to be a doctor. It will soon turn me out as the holder of a biology degree who has no plans to attend medical school but does have plans, big plans, to help a lot of people lead healthier lives. As a direct result of my time in GlobeMed, I've decided to pursue admission to an MBA program with a concentration in health care management in the hopes of effectively mobilizing and strengthening healthcare delivery organizations as a career. I no longer have any interest in becoming a physician. I plan to work to empower physicians and other healthcare workers to do their jobs to the best of their ability. This may seem strange to some of you, but I don't want to be the next Paul Farmer. I want to help the next Paul Farmer get the resources and support he or she needs to do the incredible and profoundly necessary work he or she is capable of doing.       Knowing that everyone in our network cares about improving global health equity so deeply inspires me to do everything I can to empower GlobeMed GWU's Staff to make their impact. Finally, I can understand what a coach can offer a team of professional athletes. Phil Jackson can't always hit a game winning shot like Kobe Bryant but he can help him set up a play to get open and take that shot. I can't come up with the kind of events that GlobeMed GWU's campaign coordinators do, but I can help them to have all the resources and support they need to carry them out. I can't ever possibly plan a trip to Rwanda for four other people that will implement a maternal health education program by myself, but I can guide a group in that pursuit and offer them my experience as well as give them the tools they need along the way.       Clearly, somewhere along the way, in some dramatic fashion, something must have changed right? Some light bulb must have turned on, some drastic realization must have rattled me to my core. Some epic experience must have occurred for me to abandon the idea of going to medical school, all of the sudden grasp what GlobeMed GWU really was, what it was doing, what it could do, and what all of that meant to me.       I can't pick out that single moment when a bolt of lightning struck and electrified my passion for GlobeMed and its work.  It's impossible to place this catalyst in any one experience, exchange, or effort that changed everything for me. What I can do though is describe to you the moments when I feel that strangely exciting "GlobeMed high" that affirms to me, and I'm sure all of you as well, that we made a HUGELY positive life decision to seize the opportunity to be a part of an organization and a movement based on the right values, the right vision, the right model and most importantly, the right people.       In September of 2008, I was at the first Leadership Institute that GlobeMed, the student-run nonprofit that back then had existed in its current state for just over two years, had invited chapter leaders from all over the network to attend.  Sitting across from a self described "tiny Asian girl" named Bianca during a workshop, I listened to her express to us all how sincerely excited and equally empowered she had felt upon receiving a grant from GlobeMed to travel to Uganda and while there, began GlobeMed UNC's partnership with Health Alert Uganda. I knew listening to Bianca then and I know now, the ideas and strategies being discussed at that leadership institute were going to lay the groundwork for a community of students who would be empowered to create positive and tangible impacts in underserved communities around the world through the values, vision and model of the GlobeMed network.       When I sign into a webinar in the middle of August with forty college students from chapters all over the country to discuss new management and operating strategies designed for their chapters for the upcoming school year, I KNOW that those students are going to play very large roles in the public and global health fields in the future.       When I watch one Staff member explain their unique opinion on health as a human right during a ghU discussion and I see five eager hands go up immediately just dying to respond, I know something pivotal is happening in the minds of those Staff members.       When I meet someone who has heard of GlobeMed and knows what our chapter and even our national organization does as well as any of our Staff members, it screams to me that we're doing something that people want to support.        When I see that our network has recruited over two thousand people to our cause and raised $35,000 in a competition among charities around the world, I KNOW that we're different than other student organizations.       When I watch a collection of videos about what kind of world GlobeMed Staff members from all over our network want to live in by 2030, I have to be honest with you here, I get emotional, because I know I'm part of an organization that has the right values, the right vision, and the right people to change the playing field of global health.        I could easily have seen these things two years ago and not even have KNOWN WHAT WAS HAPPENING. It's not the single moments when I realize we're doing something special that have changed my mind about the impact that you and I can make, it's knowing that another student who has work and classes and other responsibilities in addition to GlobeMed sees them too and that they have the same powerful effect on her. The effect of those little moments of shared realization puts our organization on a different level than its peers. The mutual understanding that everyone in this room is part of something unique and capable of creating real, positive, and sustainable progress for both our partners and our network is what's changed my mind about the impact that we can make.  We're all on the same page already, and for the rest of this weekend, we'll be writing, word by word, as a network, the story of what GlobeMed is today and where it's headed tomorrow.       Being a part of GlobeMed's student movement made me believe again that I can have an impact. Being a part of GlobeMed taught me that by giving the right people the right tools, I can help them make their impact stronger than they could on their own. My experience in GlobeMed has changed my career plans in a direction I never imagined it would. It's shown that the best way for me to create the kind of change I want to see in the world is to partner with others who want that same change, and do my best to empower them to create that change.       That's the role that GlobeMed has played in my life; it's shown me what I want to do professionally and given me a set of values to guide me on that pursuit.  My question for you tonight is: What role will GlobeMed play in your own lives? Will it push you to explore a new vocation or career? Will it provide you a moral framework for your personal life? Will it develop you into a stronger and more capable leader or mold you into a lifelong advocate of social justice? Will it provide you with an opportunity to be part of a community that you will always be a part of and do your best to give back to as you grow into adulthood?       Undoubtedly, your GlobeMed experience will affect you.  I challenge all of you here tonight to ask yourself what you want that effect to be and to reevaluate the role that GlobeMed's vision and values will play in the rest of your involvement with it. Ask yourself why you're here and not at another conference sponsored by another non-profit. When you find your answer, redefine your involvement in GlobeMed to fit that answer and I swear to you, you'll find that you're not just part of a student organization or a movement, you're part of a innovative and groundbreaking way of facing the challenges in today's world, and you'll know what role you're going to play in tackling them. 2010-03-11T19:17:00-06:00 http://www.globemed.org/blog/panjabi-fills-the-minds-of-hungry-students/ http://www.globemed.org/blog/panjabi-fills-the-minds-of-hungry-students/#When:21:22:00Z Dr. Raj Panjabi, co-founder of Tiyatien Health in Liberia, spoke on Thursday night to a room full of hungry university students. After pizza was served, Dr. Panjabi launched a heartfelt and personal investigation into the subject of Ubuntu and Social Justice.Ubuntu, invoked most famously by Desmond Tutu, means in its most basic English translation “I am because you are.” For Panjabi, this is not only a novel idea; it is a method, a humanistic (and thus powerful) tool for achieving global health equity. Panjabi’s own experiences in Liberia have informed his argument. He kicked off the brunt of his lecture with the start of his own story. In 1990, he witnessed firsthand the evacuation of Liberia at the start of its brutal civil war. While waiting on the tarmac for his escape from the bloodshed, Panjabi saw a mass of women, all with bloodied lapas (the cloth tied around women’s backs to hold their children), being restrained by government police from escaping the bloodshed. He was able to escape safely. But as his plane took off, he could not get the faces of those women and their bloody lapas out of his mind. In this singular moment he saw some of the most inhuman injustices of our time, and he committed himself to alleviating them.In his attempt to battle these injustices, Panjabi helped establish the HIV Equity Initiative (modeled after Partners in Health’s model of the same name) which he emphasized spat in the face of those who claim that rural health initiatives cannot treat HIV effectively. He told the story of Mary, a former refugee turned peasant farmer, who went through the HIV Equity Initiative treatment. Within months of treatment, Mary gained her strength and actually joined the staff at the same initiative that treats her. For Panjabi, this proved a profound point, namely that being skeptical of immodest claims to feasibility helps human beings live the healthy lives they deserve. Along with this point, Panjabi harps on the need to be reflective on both our own actions and the local and global histories which affect the issues we are trying to solve. To close his speech, Panjabi calls his starving student audience to master the languages of power and of love in order to make any effective effort for social change. This point, which hits home for quite a few of the GlobeMed, clan is quickly becoming a modus operandi for students committed to fighting for global health equity.  2010-03-06T21:22:00-06:00 http://www.globemed.org/blog/why-is-global-health-a-social-justice-issue/ http://www.globemed.org/blog/why-is-global-health-a-social-justice-issue/#When:22:22:00Z As we commemorate the 2010 World Day of Social Justice, it is important to undertand the reasons why we in GlobeMed consider global health a social justice issue. A recent post on change.org by Victor Roy, former Executive Director of GlobeMed, reminds us of the need of such an approach to global health: "Let's face it: notions of social justice are often absent in global health debates. Other frames -- global health as "foreign policy" or as "economic investment," for example -- have far more powerful champions and advocates on an institutional level. Large global health funders generally eschew the language of social justice in favor of other vocabularies to describe their efforts.But there are serious reasons to consider global health a social justice issue. And to mark today, the World Day of Social Justice -- a new holiday celebrated for the first time last year -- I figured it was a timely argument. Accordingly, here are three major reasons why global health advocates should continue to frame global health as a social justice issue..." ...read the three reasons here.  2010-02-20T22:22:00-06:00 http://www.globemed.org/blog/building-an-alumni-strategy-for-globemed/ http://www.globemed.org/blog/building-an-alumni-strategy-for-globemed/#When:17:18:00Z When we "imagine 2030," GlobeMed alumni are a big part of the picture. Imagine physicians, business leaders, teachers, NGO workers, journalists, elected officials - all bound together by their common experiences as members of GlobeMed chapters and by their aspirations for delivering on the promises of the movement for global health equity.  Now lets imagine that all of these alumni were working together - across universities, NGOs, businesses, foundations, and in many other arenas. Imagine that we could tackle the big challenges in global health in cross-disciplinary, cross-sectoral ways. That's precisely what GlobeMed is positioned to do, as we graduate young, passionate leaders who come from various educational backgrounds and experiences and move ahead into a diverse array of professional paths. What's more, we're bound together by our friendships in GlobeMed and our commitment to social justice and a solidarity-based movement.  To help make this vision a reality, GlobeMed has been taking some small but important steps. Since the summer of 2009, a small group of GlobeMed alumni have been discussing ways to develop a broader alumni strategy for our network.  The group has organized an informal "Alumni Council"  that holds bimonthly conference calls and working group sessions aimed at creating tangible program ideas.   The goal of the Council is to connect Alumni with each other as well as to current members at GlobeMed chapters. The needs have become clear through these dialogues: developing mentorship and peer support programs (for both Alumni and current members, esp juniors and seniors), creating outreach and "community-building" strategies (to help alumni stay connected with each other), and building a strong database of alumni to allow GlobeMed to tap into the immense human capital that we possess. One of our first outcomes has been organizing a webinar on "The Next Step" for GlobeMed members interested in learning from alumni about how to make the leap after college into the world of public health.  The Alumni Council hopes to formalize and launch a strategic plan during the spring of 2010, after further conversations at the Summit with graduating members and current alumni.  Look for more in the coming months! In the meantime, if you are interested in getting involved or have an idea to share, feel free to email Kristina Redgrave (kristina@globemed.org). 2010-02-17T17:18:00-06:00 http://www.globemed.org/blog/when-do-politics-matter/ http://www.globemed.org/blog/when-do-politics-matter/#When:18:06:01Z “Solo se puede cambiar la salud con cambios politicos.”   Changes in health can only happen with changes in politics.                                                                                                                            -Dr. Miguel OrellanaAfter a brutal   civil war, the 1992 Peace Accords, and 20 years of right wing rule by the Arena Party, last March El Salvador elected its first FMLN president, Mauricio Funes, with 51.3% of the vote.  Sitting in Dr. Miguel Orellana's office learning more about ASPS, we weren't expecting a lesson on the manifestation of the former guerilla party's ideology in contemporary Salvadorian nonprofit work.  According to Dr. Orellana, many of the leaders of current social justice/human rights/global health equity oriented groups are headed by former "compas" (former guerilla army fighters and sympathizers).  Though opposing political groups malign the FMLN as a "terrorist organization", according to our faithful Lonely Planet guide,"El Salvador's FMLN has proven to be a model example of a former guerrilla organization successfully joining the formal political process." Several meetings into our time in El Salvador we've recognized the strength of this network and its ability to effectively enact community-based health interventions. It seems now, that the government is on their side, this network and the work it is doing really has an opportunity to blossom. And though we were warned by another organization in San Salvador to stay away from the language of "human rights" and rather focus on "human needs" so as not to isolate ourselves politically, this type of language has in fact been a strong context for connecting GlobeMed with some of the organizations that have excited us the most.  There has been an on-going debate in our network both about how GlobeMed as an organization should relate to political issues and campaigns and about how an individual chapter should relate to the politics of its partner's country.  How do you understand GlobeMed's current relationship with politics? Given that the values of these self-proclaimed left-leaning organizations align so intimately with our own, we are inclined toward pursuing potential partnerships with these organizations.  Would these partnerships, however, be inherently political?  How would this type of partnership relate to GlobeMed's concerns about being overtly political? Are we already political? If these explicitly left-leaning, politically-minded groups are the originations doing the most effective community health work in a country, do their politics matter?  This post is #7 of an ongoing series for the GlobeMed Partner Search Fellows Program, through which GlobeMed's two PSFP Fellows, Rachel Berkowitz and Hannah Robbins, aim to build partnerships between GlobeMed and 15 new community-based health NGOs in Central and South America. These posts will help us follow their journey, as Rachel and Hannah help GlobeMed expand to new university chapters and community-based partners this coming year. To read the entire series of blog posts, click here.   Partner Search Fellows 2010-02-15T18:06:01-06:00 http://www.globemed.org/blog/la-raan/ http://www.globemed.org/blog/la-raan/#When:06:46:00Z  Two weeks ago Rachel and I traveled to a city called Siuna to learn more about the work Salud Sin Limite is doing in La RAAN. La RAAN, the North Atlantic Autonomous region, has a fascinating history full of the detrimental influences of colonialism (the Atlantic coast was colonized by England, whereas the Pacific coast was colonized by Spain), conflict between indigenous and non-indigenous groups, a strong presence of Sandinistas (though it seems like everyone in Ortega's Nicaragua is a Sandinista...or at least they say they are), and the extraction of natural resources by foreign interests in spite of laws against such practice (Costa Rica, Canada, and our very own U.S. of A. seem to circumvent their own stringent environmental laws by extracting resources from the Bosawas reserve, where laws exist, but aren't well enforced). This video explains a little more about Siuna and the work of Salud Sin Limite. Frazzled by the sound of the arriving plane behind me and trying to translate from Spanish (¨jovenes promotores¨) to English, I left out some statistics and information that may help put things in perspective: Siuna has a total population of around 80,000 people (20% of whom live in the one main city and 80% in the surrounding 140 rural communities). The one private ambulance you see for a moment in the video is meant to attend to this entire population. Salud Sin Limite´s main project is working with both urban and rural primary and secondary students to train them as health promoters for their communities. The health promoters share the knowledge they learn from health ¨tecnicos¨ with children and parents in their community and sometimes travel to other communities to train new health promoters. The current theme of the health promoters ¨charlas¨, or health talks, is sexual health and reproductive rights. The health promoters of the urban center of Siuna have also been developing health-focused radionovelas. Check out their program on Sunday at 2pm central time here! This post is #6 of an ongoing series for the GlobeMed Partner Search Fellows Program, through which GlobeMed's two PSFP Fellows, Rachel Berkowitz and Hannah Robbins, aim to build partnerships between GlobeMed and 15 new community-based health NGOs in Central and South America. These posts will help us follow their journey, as Rachel and Hannah help GlobeMed expand to new university chapters and community-based partners this coming year. To read the entire series of blog posts, click here. Partner Search Fellows 2010-02-07T06:46:00-06:00 http://www.globemed.org/blog/this-country-is-not-my-playground/ http://www.globemed.org/blog/this-country-is-not-my-playground/#When:18:14:00Z During our time in Nicaragua, I have been encouraged by many of the relationships that I have observed between dedicated foreign workers and their equally dedicated Nicaraguan counter-parts (of our recent meetings, Salud Sin Limite, JHC-CDCA, and Fabretto Children‘s Foundation seem to be good examples). These and other organizations seem to work with the same sense of "pragmatic solidarity" with which GlobeMed chapters hope to work in their own partnerships. In some cases, however, the focus of foreign workers seems to be solely on the projects and ideas of the foreign workers, with little or no attention being paid by the foreign workers to the long-term impact of their projects on the communities or the continuation of those projects after the foreign workers have left. The experience and goals of the foreign worker seem to be elevated to a level of ultimate importance. As we continue to meet organizations that may partner with one of our new GlobeMed chapters (establishing a new transnational relationship), these observations bring up lots of questions. What is the effect of the presence of foreign workers? How can one work most responsibly and productively in an international setting? What sort of collaboration is truly best and most effective for doing "good work" - direct presence/staff, hands-off fund contribution, or other hybrid forms (like GlobeMed's approach, which includes the potential for fundraising, collaborative resource generation, and direct on-site work)? What climate is ideal for any of these types of involvement? When do foreign workers do more harm then good, and what are the implications of their actions for future foreign workers? How can one truly work in "pragmatic solidarity"? Though my conclusions continue to form and evolve as we meet different people, the one sentiment that has continued to reverberate in my mind is this: this country is not my playground. That reverberation has manifested itself for me in poem form. If you do not wish to read my attempt at free form poetry, do not read further. But please, PLEASE comment. I would love to continue grappling with your thoughts as well as my own. This country is not my playgroundIt is not for me to frolic about‘Experiencing' amazing thingsWith no regard for my statusAs a visitor. As a guest.This country is not my playgroundI may not hug the ‘precious' childrenWithout considering how their hunger, their sicknessIs related to my presenceAffected by the history that follows my personAnd is considered by everyoneAs I walk by.This country is not my playgroundIt is not for me to leap forwardGuns blazingReady to tackle the "issues"As clearly only I canWithout stopping to seeAll the "issue"-tackling that is already occurringBy those far more qualified to do soBy those who know their communitiesWhose passion and work is far more awe-inspiringThan anything I could possibly doI am privileged to listen, to learn, to hopeThat by working hand-in-hand with thoseWhose work will continue long after I am goneI can add-on, I can support, and I can developA relationship born out of mutually-held ideas and values,Encased in a sense of solidarity.And if we play, we must play togetherTo learn each others' gamesFor this country is not my playground.- Rachel Berkowitz  This post is #5 of an ongoing series for the GlobeMed Partner Search Fellows Program, through which GlobeMed's two PSFP Fellows, Rachel Berkowitz and Hannah Robbins, aim to build partnerships between GlobeMed and 15 new community-based health NGOs in Central and South America. These posts will help us follow their journey, as Rachel and Hannah help GlobeMed expand to new university chapters and community-based partners this coming year. To read the entire series of blog posts, click here. Partner Search Fellows 2010-02-04T18:14:00-06:00 http://www.globemed.org/blog/globemed-stands-with-haiti/ http://www.globemed.org/blog/globemed-stands-with-haiti/#When:19:16:01Z The GlobeMed Network is standing with the people of Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake on January 12th. GlobeMed chapters and students across the country are supporting the efforts of Partners In Health to provide much needed emergency care to those injured in the earthquake while at the same time gearing up for the long-term task of treating the sick and building back better. Students are holding fundraisers, organizing educational events, and engaging their administrations in leveraging university resources for those affected in this tragedy. GlobeMed students at Northwestern University and Rhodes College have emailed and met with their university presidents to coordinate meaningful responses. GlobeMed students at Barnard College have been working with their student government to educate students on the underlying causes of the disaster. GlobeMed students at University of Colorado-Boulder organized other student groups to plan fundraising events for Partners In Health's work in Haiti. In addition, dedicated student volunteers at the GlobeMed National Office have been advising students at universities where GlobeMed chapters are not present on how to coordinate efforts and mobilize their campuses to support Partners In Health. Please consider supporting the work of Partners In Health through:Donating to PIHCreating a fundraising page for yourself, your university, or your organizationEmailing students@pih.org for advising and guidance on hosting events and supporting the work of PIH 2010-01-29T19:16:01-06:00