Letter from Ankur Asthana, GlobeMed’s Development Director
Posted on Feb 1, 2010 by Jon
Dear Friends,
Over the last two years GlobeMed has been fortunate to receive support from a small number of very committed donors and institutions. Because of this support, we have been able to expand from 7 to 19 chapters and train over 500 students. The projects supported by our chapters have grown: from small clinics with no electricity or clean running water to operational district health centers providing care to mothers and their children; from community health worker pilot programs to annual training conferences that build local health care workforces. Meanwhile, GlobeMed members have also grown: from college students passionate about global health into budding doctors, Fulbright scholars, domestic health care policy aides, and infectious disease researchers.
Yet, as the devastating effects of the recent earthquake in Haiti should remind us, there remain tremendous inequities and a huge need for improving local capacity and health care systems. GlobeMed partnerships are helping to address these inequities by making these improvements happen in 19 communities around the world. But there is more to do. That is why we are hoping to expand from 19 to 60 student-led chapters by the fall of 2011. If we are successful in this growth we will not only be improving health care in 60 communities, we will be educating and training over 1,800 college students every year to become leaders in global health.
As the Director of Development, I have been inspired to see our GlobeMed network mobilize to respond to the earthquake in Haiti. GlobeMed students at Northwestern University and Rhodes College emailed and met with their university presidents to spur meaningful responses from their administrations. GlobeMed students at Barnard College have been working with their student government representatives 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 to support work being done in Haiti. In this moment of need for Haiti, GlobeMed students are stepping up into leadership roles, while still maintaining their commitments to supporting their health partners working in communities from Uganda to Nepal.
As Haiti works to heal, it is important for us to remember that support for global health equity cannot just be an ephemeral response, but something we are deeply committed to supporting now and into the future. As we grow to 60 universities and reach 60 communities, GlobeMed will need more friends and supporters than ever before to make the long-term commitment required for building a more just and equitable world. When we imagine our future and the leaders shaping that world, I hope we think of the students in GlobeMed: students with the humility and commitment to work in solidarity with grassroots leaders who are rebuilding their own communities, and young people who have the skill and passion to be leaders that we can rely on to build a more equitable world.
I hope that you will continue to work with us in the months and years ahead as we advance this movement for global health equity. In solidarity, Ankur Asthana
Dear Friends,
Over the last two years GlobeMed has been fortunate to receive support from a small number of very committed donors and institutions. Because of this support, we have been able to expand from 7 to 19 chapters and train over 500 students. The projects supported by our chapters have grown: from small clinics with no electricity or clean running water to operational district health centers providing care to mothers and their children; from community health worker pilot programs to annual training conferences that build local health care workforces. Meanwhile, GlobeMed members have also grown: from college students passionate about global health into budding doctors, Fulbright scholars, domestic health care policy aides, and infectious disease researchers.
Yet, as the devastating effects of the recent earthquake in Haiti should remind us, there remain tremendous inequities and a huge need for improving local capacity and health care systems. GlobeMed partnerships are helping to address these inequities by making these improvements happen in 19 communities around the world. But there is more to do. That is why we are hoping to expand from 19 to 60 student-led chapters by the fall of 2011. If we are successful in this growth we will not only be improving health care in 60 communities, we will be educating and training over 1,800 college students every year to become leaders in global health.
As the Director of Development, I have been inspired to see our GlobeMed network mobilize to respond to the earthquake in Haiti. GlobeMed students at Northwestern University and Rhodes College emailed and met with their university presidents to spur meaningful responses from their administrations. GlobeMed students at Barnard College have been working with their student government representatives 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 to support work being done in Haiti. In this moment of need for Haiti, GlobeMed students are stepping up into leadership roles, while still maintaining their commitments to supporting their health partners working in communities from Uganda to Nepal.
As Haiti works to heal, it is important for us to remember that support for global health equity cannot just be an ephemeral response, but something we are deeply committed to supporting now and into the future. As we grow to 60 universities and reach 60 communities, GlobeMed will need more friends and supporters than ever before to make the long-term commitment required for building a more just and equitable world.
When we imagine our future and the leaders shaping that world, I hope we think of the students in GlobeMed: students with the humility and commitment to work in solidarity with grassroots leaders who are rebuilding their own communities, and young people who have the skill and passion to be leaders that we can rely on to build a more equitable world.
I hope that you will continue to work with us in the months and years ahead as we advance this movement for global health equity.
In solidarity,
Ankur Asthana
