UNIVERSITY COALITIONS for GLOBAL HEALTH

Jordan Sloshower, Research Coordinator in Family Medicine at the University of Manitoba, Canada, tells us about his university’s involvement in the UCGH Week of Action. He also reflects on the reasons for the increasing interest in global health -Stephanie

During the week of March 24, 2008, the University of Manitoba played host to a lecture series on topics related to “Global Health”. This event was part of a larger “Global Health Week of Action” organized by Universities Coalitions for Global Health (UCGH)-a network of international health-focused organizations and individuals with a university presence.

The overarching goal of this international campaign was to bring together medical, graduate and undergraduate students to advocate for the right to health for populations that are underserved by drawing attention to a host of pressing issues, including gender inequality, HIV/AIDS, access to clean water, sanitation and essential medicines, and the global healthcare worker shortage.

Here at the University of Manitoba, lecturers spoke about their groundbreaking work in the field of infectious disease, about HIV/AIDS advocacy and activism, and about the relationship between health, politics and culture. In the lecture series’ keynote address, Professor Emeritus Dr Alan Ronald outlined his experience with the university’s global health initiatives in Kenya, Uganda and India and provided advice for students in health disciplines who wish to “change the world” through their life’s work. As this lecture series coincidentally overlapped with the launch of The University of Manitoba’s Alan Klass Memorial Program for Health Equity and the publication of a two-day report in The Winnipeg Free Press on HIV/AIDS prevention programs in India set up by Manitoba-based researchers and physicians, (1) the question arises, why there is so much interest and activity in the field of global health and health equity?

Part of the answer to this question surely lies in the fact that the search for solutions to global health problems presents unique challenges (and funding opportunities) to researchers who attempt to apply science and technology to the improvement of the human condition. However, an equally significant reason for the recent surge of interest amongst the public and academics worldwide is that achieving global health equity, or fairness in basic health care measures for rich and poor alike, is not just a scientific problem, but also a cultural, political and economic problem deeply rooted in rapidly changing social structures. In other words, the issues raised by the field of global health probe deeper into human consciousness, as they call into question the way we organize our affairs in society and raise ethical questions about our actions in an increasingly interconnected world.

The aforementioned report in the Winnipeg Free Press is illustrative of this point. Rather than focusing on Dr Stephen Moses’ groundbreaking scientific research on the effectiveness of male circumcision in preventing the spread of HIV, the report assumed a more humanistic perspective. By examining the sex-trade in India, the report outlined how underlying social structures and cultural norms on gender roles become embodied as disease in female sex-workers. In so doing, this article effectively conveyed the anthropological observation that “AIDS is a socio-cultural and political-economic phenomenon with biological manifestations.” (2) As a result, preventing HIV/AIDS is not just a problem for medical doctors, but is a complex initiative requiring collaboration between health workers, politicians, development workers, community leaders and ordinary people. The need for such an interdisciplinary approach speaks to the underlying reality that the problems afflicting the health of populations worldwide are symptoms of a web of social, political and economic pathologies that constitute social injustice. Hopefully, the growing interest in global health reflects the realization that assaults against human dignity should not only attract the interest of inquisitive scientists and researchers but should compel all constituents of global civil society into concerted pragmatic action. Jordan Sloshower: sloshowe@cc.umanitoba.ca

References

(1) Skeritt J. Where HIV flourishes:India’s culture makes AIDS campaign an uphill battle. The Winnipeg Free Press 2008 Mar 22. Available from:URL: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/special/aidsindia/story/4147383p-4737039c.html

(2) Marshall W. AIDS, race and the limits of science. Soc Sci Med 2005;60(11):2515-2525.

“[Governments] recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health…[including the] provision of adequate nutritious foods and clean drinking water.”-UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a worldwide water crisis among the world’s poorest people. The United Nations estimates that 1.1 billion people have no regular access to clean water, and 2.6 billion people lack access to proper sanitation. A lack of clean water kills nearly 2.2 million people a year, most of them children. Children in improvised nations have the same right to water as the rest of us!

Why Don’t Children Have Access to Water?
• Lack of public water systems
• Money for debt and none for water-in many nations more is spent on each year on debt payments to wealthy nations and banks than is invested in public water systems
• Water owned by corporations—the World Bank, U.S. government, and others are forcing communities to privatize their water systems instead of investing in water as a shared resource. People who cannot afford to pay for water are denied access to this life-giving resource.
• Collecting rainwater has been made illegal because rainwater has also been privatized.

Want to Learn more about Access to Water? Check out the UCGH Week of Action Toolkit or attend the World Water Day Summit that is being organized by Americans for Informed Democracy.

“Water is Life: Youth Leading Change on World Water Day” Summit

Summit: March 22
Training Day: March 23
Lobby Day: March 24

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
Johns Hopkins University
1740 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20036

Hosted by: Student Movement for Real Change, Americans for Informed Democracy, Food and Water Watch, Vestergaard Frandsen, Razoo.com, Carnegie Council’s Policy Innovations, Student Campaign for Child Survival, Chipotle, Whole Foods, Water Advocates

The Summit:
The Saturday summit will be a forum for dialogue, through panels, keynotes, workshops and service, between young people from around the United States and leaders, experts and social entrepreneurs on the issue of water and how it remains a global crisis.

With 1.1 billion people living without access to clean water, the issue is of the utmost important for alleviating poverty. SMRC and its partners invites young people to join us on World Water Day to help bring about change in our global community.

We are seven years away from 2015, the date that the Millenium Development Goals called for reducing by half the number of people who lack access to water. There is much work to be done. Join us in helping to meet that goal.

Interested in getting additional training on organizing and to lobby congress? Trip participants are invited to join us for two additional days of intensive training and lobbying, its optional and is FREE!

Clean Water Lobbying Day
You’ve mobilized your campus, and your community; now join us in Congress on March 24th, and help make clean water a national priority! Water is a basic public service and a human right. Here in the U.S., we are lucky to have some of the best tap water in the world. Still, many communities struggle to find the resources they need to keep their water safe, clean, and affordable. As droughts sweep the country, and our infrastructure ages, we need long-term solutions from our leaders, not short-term fixes. Meet with your elected officials on Monday, March 24th, and ask them to pass legislation that protects and funds our public water, not just now, but for future generations. Training and materials provided- no legislative experience necessary.

Building the Movement: Grassroots Skills for Water Justice
Join us on Sunday, March 23rd for action-oriented Advocacy Day! For students looking to gain concrete grassroots advocacy skills to take back to campus. Topics include: Media and Messaging, Recruiting and Cultivating Campus Leaders, Strategic Campaign Planning, and Legislative Strength: Running Effective District Meetings. Details to come!

Summit Speakers Include:
1. Vanessa Tobin, Deputy Director of Programmes, UNICEF
2. Ambassador John McDonald, Chairman, Global Water and Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy.
3. Andra Tamburro, Water Advocates
4. Daniel Wolf, International Lifeline Fund
5. Michael Deane, Environmental Protection Agency
6. Carol Collado, Child Health Foundation
7. Vesteguard Frandsen Innovations Representative
8. Policy Advisor, Food and Water Watch/Take back the Tap

Click here for more information! http://studentmovementusa.org/waterday_conference.php

Student Training Calls: March 13th at 9pm (EST) & March 14th at 12pm (EST)
Call in Number 1-888-296-6500 Code: 130039
Learn more about the week of action toolkit and speak directly with the UCGH national coordinators!

Check out the Week of Action and download the toolkit online

Global Health Week of Action 2008
The Many Sides of the Right to Health

WHAT: The member organizations of the University Coalitions for Global Health (UCGH) have come together again in the spirit of partnership to hold the 1st even Global Health Week of Action where we hope to bring together med, grad and undergrad students to advocate for the right to health for populations that are under served or where it is outright ignored by the governments responsible for their welfare. We will bring attention to the right to health by focusing on the following issues:
• Access to Clean Water
• Women and AIDS
• HIV and Malaria
• Access to Medicines and the Role of Universities
• Global Health Care Worker Shortage

Check out the Week of Action and download the toolkit online

This year’s activities include:
• Implementation of an Issue=specific toolkit created by the national coordinators of UCGH
• Online chats with Global Health Experts
• Student planning and advocacy training conference calls

WHEN: March 22nd-March 30th 2008 On your Campus!
Student Training Calls: March 13th at 9pm (EST) & March 14th at 12pm (EST)
Call in Number 1-888-296-6500 Code: 130039
Learn more about the week of action toolkit and speak directly with the UCGH national coordinators!

Contact: your national coordinator or sdevita@globalhealth.org to find out more!!!

Check out the Week of Action and download the toolkit online

Prepare for the most mind-blowing, earth-shattering, life-altering conference in human history. The Student Campaign for Child Survival and the Student Global AIDS Campaign are teaming up to bring you the second annual National Youth and Student Conference on AIDS, Trade and Child Survival. It’s March 29-31 in Washington, DC, at Georgetown University and will have workshops, speakers, and a national lobby day. For more information, visit us at www.globaljusticenow.org/conference or email hayley.hathaway@fightglobalaids.org

Hope to see you all there!

Hey All–This week is a busy one in Washington, because the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is up for Reauthorization this year and is going to “mark up” in the House tomorrow. I’ll have more updates on that later in the week, but first I’ll pass over the blogging baton to Victor from GlobeMed to talk more about what it is that his organization does and how you can get involved! Cheers!
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GlobeMed connects the resources of our thirteen student-led chapters at universities across the U.S. directly to grassroots health organizations to work in partnership to design and support innovative and vital health projects. For example, GlobeMed members at Northwestern worked with local partners near Ho, Ghana to construct a health clinic in Ho, Ghana that now provides health services to a rural population. Students at University of Michigan designed and implemented a health education program for a free clinic in an underserved area of Detroit. While a common vision and mission unite members at each of our campuses, the strength of the GlobeMed network rests in each chapter’s unique projects and efforts.

Our aim is not only to improve health in communities around the world, but to educate and train the next generation of leaders for global health. We stimulate critical thinking on global health issues and provide a framework in which students can gain personal and professional skills for affecting change. Through year-round programs on campus and across the country, we help catalyze students to commit their lives to social justice and global health. By tying education to action, GlobeMed is playing a vital role in advancing a student-driven global health movement.

-Victor

Hey there global health enthusiasts!

I owe you all a BIG thank you for participating in the poll on the Lancet Student website entitled “What issue would you most like to campaign on?” The results are in and as you can all see, the Right to Health is a straight shot winner followed by Access to Essential Medicines and Strengthening Health Systems as the top three.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, UCGH empowers students to ignite change on global health issues. Each year the UCGH Steering Committee (comprised of representatives from various student global health organizations) gathers to decide the coming academic year campaigns. This year we were blessed to have input from all of you (which seemly made our jobs easier) and based off your voting the Steering Committee has envisioned a new direction of UCGH advocacy.

Rather than arbitrarily choosing three campaigns, the Committee has listened to your voices and now is restructuring UCGH to have a clearly defined advocacy mission that will be the unifying trend between all campaigns. The UCGH advocacy mission will be:

“Through the empowerment of young people, UCGH aims to combat global medical apartheid by ensuring that all people have the right to health as defined by United Nations General Comment 14.”

This new mission allows UCGH to expand its campaigns and incorporate many more student organizations, because General Comment 14 not only calls for access to healthcare, but it also encompasses the underlying environmental, societal and cultural determinants of health. The right to health remained no more than a slogan for more than 50 years, but now General Comment 14 is starting an international movement to obtain quantifiable and measurable standards for the right to health and UCGH wants to join in!

Within this new larger mission, each year the Steering Committee will identify three issues that are crucial for instilling the right to health. This year the Committee has chosen; Access to Essential Medicines, Strengthening Health Systems and Ensuring Health Equity. Each issue allows UCGH to create several different campaigns. For example, under the Health Equity issue UCGH will be advocating for the HIV Prevention Act as well as the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We are unveiling these advocacy approaches this Fall.

Stay posted to hear more about UCGH campaigns!