2009 Global Health Summit challenges members and unites GlobeMed Network
Posted on Apr 21, 2009 by Victor Roy
written by Divya Mallampati, National Office Summit team For a link to photos from the summit, click here. In its third year, the 2009 GlobeMed Global Health Summit brought 140 students from 17 college campuses to Northwestern University from April 2-4, 2009. The Summit theme, From Idea to Implementation: Securing Health as a Human Right, challenged GlobeMed members from across the country to explore health as a human right and ways in which they could apply this concept in their work to advance global health equity.
Keynotes remind of a shared humanity and argue for a more effective global response
On Thursday April 2, Stephen Lewis (former UN Special Envoy and current Co-Director of AIDS-Free World ) opened the Summit to a packed auditorium filled with over 500 students in a lecture open to the public. In an impassioned speech, Lewis drew upon his experiences and his particular interest in HIV among women and children to argue that health is basic human right. Lewis used the Millenium Development Goals to outline the current failures and challenges in global health, the urgency for a better response from the international community, and the importance of investing at the community level. A reception following his speech gave an opportunity to GlobeMed members to meet Mr. Lewis. Maya Cohen, the founder and President of the Columbia chapter of GlobeMed, engaged Lewis in a discussion on the role of food and local agriculture in addressing the AIDS pandemic. Like Maya, many students came away from the evening energized and inspired.
Christine Gorman, the second keynote, spoke on Friday night in a speech titled "Health and Human Rights: One Journalist's Perspective". Gorman recounted stories from her past, focusing mostly on her experiences in the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, and reflected on how they had shaped her career as a reporter. In her speech, the former TIME magazine reporter and blogger at Global Health Report encouraged the audience to expand the conversation and language surrounding human rights so that it is accessible to all. To conclude, Gorman powerfully and eloquently issued the warning that "the struggle to recognize heath as a human right is about what is fair in a world that is demonstrably unfair, in which progress is never guaranteed and even the best of intentions can, and far too regularly do, prove harmful."
Plenary panels bring together diverse viewpoints for debate and discussion
By Friday morning, the Summit was in full swing as students prepared to address theoretical issues behind the concept of health as a human right through a stimulating debate. Dr. Evan Lyon (Partners In Health ) used both his experiences in Haiti and Boston to address the ethical principles that define health as a universal entitlement. Nirav Shah (Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago), through his experiences in Cambodia, asserted that the human rights framework is not useful in making effective decisions in global health; rather, a cost-effectiveness approach based on empirical data is more effective. Laurie Zoloth (Center for Bioethics, Science, & Society, Northwestern University ) countered both positions by stating that while health is a human right, rights hold no weight if we do not realize that we have "duties" to one another to fulfill these rights.
The Saturday morning panel went beyond this debate to understand how various actors play different roles in the field of global health. Brook Baker (Northeastern School of Law), Arlan Fuller (FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University ), and Dr. Neeraj Mistry (APCO Worldwide ) each individually addressed the existing state of global health inequity and the plethora of new resources would require rethinking the roles of their sectors and the potential ways of working together. Following an informative discussion, students challenged the panelists to consider the applicability of human rights in their respective fields, how the global financial crisis would influence these actors, and other relevant current issues. Summit informs and inspires students to strengthen the GlobeMed mission and the movement for global health equity Throughout the summit, students were able to participate in group breakouts and skills workshops with over twenty global health professionals. These sessions provided summit delegates a way to practically apply what they had learned and develop personal and professional skills for work in global health. For example, Dr. Dave Law, of the Joy-Southfield Clinic, examined health inequalities in Detroit while Dr. Mary Fabri presented post-conflict Rwanda as a case-study for examining depression, trauma, and the experience of HIV among women and children. John Neafsey, of Loyola University, led a discussion about vocational discernment and encouraged students to think about what a life committed towards social justice and service truly means. While the summit was engaging and informative, it was also a way for GlobeMed to unite its network. Chapter leaders worked through a series of discussions on Friday afternoon to examine and challenge the core values of the organization. Students also worked with leaders from other schools in an effort to share ideas and further collaborate to improve GlobeMed's programs. On Saturday night, students ended the summit with a dinner to celebrate and honor members' hard work throughout the year. Graduating seniors Jon Lichkus from Penn State and Christine Lin from Truman State, both former presidents of their chapters, spoke about what GlobeMed had meant to them over the past few years. Additionally, the network welcomed the incoming Executive Director, Jon Shaffer, and bid good bye to the outgoing Executive Director, Victor Roy.
Overall, the weekend was a chance to further strengthen the GlobeMed Network and inspire a passionate group of young leaders! As one freshman participant from Penn State wrote: "The summit truly inspired me. I am so excited to go back to college and follow in the model of the exceptional human beings I've met here to enact change in my chapter and in my life."
In its third year, the 2009 GlobeMed Global Health Summit brought 140 students from 17 college campuses to Northwestern University from April 2-4, 2009. The Summit theme, From Idea to Implementation: Securing Health as a Human Right, challenged GlobeMed members from across the country to explore health as a human right and ways in which they could apply this concept in their work to advance global health equity.
Keynotes remind of a shared humanity and argue for a more effective global response
On Thursday April 2, Stephen Lewis (former UN Special Envoy and current Co-Director of AIDS-Free World ) opened the Summit to a packed auditorium filled with over 500 students in a lecture open to the public. In an impassioned speech, Lewis drew upon his experiences and his particular interest in HIV among women and children to argue that health is basic human right. Lewis used the Millenium Development Goals to outline the current failures and challenges in global health, the urgency for a better response from the international community, and the importance of investing at the community level. A reception following his speech gave an opportunity to GlobeMed members to meet Mr. Lewis. Maya Cohen, the founder and President of the Columbia chapter of GlobeMed, engaged Lewis in a discussion on the role of food and local agriculture in addressing the AIDS pandemic. Like Maya, many students came away from the evening energized and inspired.
Christine Gorman, the second keynote, spoke on Friday night in a speech titled "Health and Human Rights: One Journalist's Perspective". Gorman recounted stories from her past, focusing mostly on her experiences in the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, and reflected on how they had shaped her career as a reporter. In her speech, the former TIME magazine reporter and blogger at Global Health Report encouraged the audience to expand the conversation and language surrounding human rights so that it is accessible to all. To conclude, Gorman powerfully and eloquently issued the warning that "the struggle to recognize heath as a human right is about what is fair in a world that is demonstrably unfair, in which progress is never guaranteed and even the best of intentions can, and far too regularly do, prove harmful."
Plenary panels bring together diverse viewpoints for debate and discussion
By Friday morning, the Summit was in full swing as students prepared to address theoretical issues behind the concept of health as a human right through a stimulating debate. Dr. Evan Lyon (Partners In Health ) used both his experiences in Haiti and Boston to address the ethical principles that define health as a universal entitlement. Nirav Shah (Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago), through his experiences in Cambodia, asserted that the human rights framework is not useful in making effective decisions in global health; rather, a cost-effectiveness approach based on empirical data is more effective. Laurie Zoloth (Center for Bioethics, Science, & Society, Northwestern University ) countered both positions by stating that while health is a human right, rights hold no weight if we do not realize that we have "duties" to one another to fulfill these rights.
While the summit was engaging and informative, it was also a way for GlobeMed to unite its network. Chapter leaders worked through a series of discussions on Friday afternoon to examine and challenge the core values of the organization. Students also worked with leaders from other schools in an effort to share ideas and further collaborate to improve GlobeMed's programs. On Saturday night, students ended the summit with a dinner to celebrate and honor members' hard work throughout the year. Graduating seniors Jon Lichkus from Penn State and Christine Lin from Truman State, both former presidents of their chapters, spoke about what GlobeMed had meant to them over the past few years. Additionally, the network welcomed the incoming Executive Director, Jon Shaffer, and bid good bye to the outgoing Executive Director, Victor Roy.
Overall, the weekend was a chance to further strengthen the GlobeMed Network and inspire a passionate group of young leaders! As one freshman participant from Penn State wrote: "The summit truly inspired me. I am so excited to go back to college and follow in the model of the exceptional human beings I've met here to enact change in my chapter and in my life."
