GlobeMed at Middlebury College

This Saturday, April 7, is the UN’s Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Rwanda Genocide. Check out this informative video on the causes and effects of this horrific period, made by our very own GlobeMed at Midd members Phoebe Carver and Moria Sloan. Incredible job, guys!

To sign up for the GlobeMed 5K Race, please visit the box-office page. We also welcome online donations at our Razoo page. Thank you so much for helping us expand GHI’s malnutrition program to one new health center this summer!

Courtesy of the national office, here are a few interesting longreads for the weekend:

• NGOs are the 21st centuries missionaries. They should look to the missteps of their forebearers for guidance
• Looking to Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilytch to explain the experience of death in modern medicine
• “Intellectual life in the Internet age. How to explain TED? It’s where the smart and the rich pretend they have something in common”

Wonderful news! Check out this article in the Middlebury Campus about a recent $40,000 gift to the College’s Global Health minor program. Both our co-presidents, Sam Peisch and Hannah Judge, were interviewed for the piece, since our GlobeMed chapter will benefit significantly from the donation. We look forward to discussing how best to take advantage of this incredible gift in future meetings!

From the national office, here are 5 things worth reading this week!

1. On bearing witness and American foreign policy from a Pakistani perspective
2. Fighting to excise rape from war
3. Examining the US Prison/Penal system
4. (Older) A review of the Ester Duflo/Dean Karlan view of Developmental Economics
5. Everyone is Brazil is Taught Philosophy (but that might not be a good thing…)

We apologize for the relative dormancy of this blog for the past couple of months, but that certainly doesn’t mean our chapter too has been hibernating! We have made some incredible strides over the holidays and during J-term, including a very fruitful Holiday Giving Campaign; an incredible lecture by human rights lawyer Brian Concannon, who directs the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti; and our annual Ski Race at the Snow Bowl.

Our original goal for the year was to raise $7,000 to support GHI’s Gukura Program by funding the development of micro-irrigation systems in Rwanda; thanks to the dogged efforts of our group and generous contributions from our community, we’ve already reached about $10,000!!!

After an exciting talk with the folks at GHI, we have a new, more ambitious and far-reaching goal to expand their malnutrition program to 1 new Health Center that would accomplish the following objectives:

We have an exciting spring term ahead of us, and we look forward to continuing to educate our community about global health issues while raising the funds to achieve and implement these goals. Thank you to everyone for your hard work and support!

Today is recognized by WHO as World Pneumonia Day.  This day is led by the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia.  The Coalition was started in April 2009 and consists of numerous organizations, foundations and NGOs all dedicated to raise awareness of the severity of Pneumonia.  According to the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia, Pneumonia is the leading killer of children under the age of 5. Pneumonia takes the life of a child every 20 seconds.  It is more deadly in developing countries because resources to treat it are less accessible.  Also people with compromised immune systems, like those with HIV/AIDs,  are more likely to get Pneumonia. One of the ways to help prevent Pneumonia is to have a consistant nutritious diet which is what our partner Gardens for Health in Rwanda provide HIV/AIDs patients.  Nutrition and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is the first step towards prevention of many of these diseases.  Making the option of having a healthy lifestyle obtainable is difficult but doable.  What the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia is asking people to do is to spread the word about this day and the interest will help perserve funding for the organizations that are apart of this coalition.   I have included a link to a video on this day and also please check out the website for the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia at www.worldpneumoniaday.org.

Some information attained for this post was found through www.worldpneumoniaday.org.

Last week all of the members that attended the meeting were asked a series of questions.  We all answered each question on a sticky note and posted it on the whiteboard.  After this exercise was done we all were able to look at all of these answers and really see what motivates and inspires the members of our group.  I have included the questions and some of the answers below…

Why are you in GlobeMed?

“To gain knowledge of myself as an individual capable of positive change-learn how to best and most beneficially help others.”

“I’m in GlobeMed because I want to take an active role in the shaping of the global health community and I want to do what I can to help those in need of help and resources.  It’s also so that I can broaden my horizons and work with new engaging people in this process.”

“So that I do not lose sight of the bigger picture while inside the Middlebury bubble.  To be part of something bigger than myself.”

What are your top 3 values and how do you integrate the values?

“Integrity, Altruism, Hardwork…

…Ideally I try to apply those values to everything I do whether it’s GlobeMed, soccer, school, or friends and family.”

“LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE”

“Justice: work to do what is right, not what is easy.

Understanding: Be there for people when they need you.

Compassion: Try to understand and care for what other people are going through.”

“My top 3 values are trust, honesty, and courage and I try to incorporate all of these somehow into my every day life by stepping out of my comfort zone and trying out something new everyday.”

“1. Good is more that simply the absence of evil.

2. Don’t change who you are because of how people around you are.

3. Always be honest—even when it is harder and may hurt more.”

“Commitment, compassion, loyalty…

…trying to treat friends, family and strangers well—giving everyone the benefit of the doubt.”

“Honesty and trust, laughter and having fun, hard work and resilience.”

“Being yourself-Doing what I like to do

Treating other people with respect-Being polite

Helping others-doing favors”

What about global health inspires you?

“The possibilities to make a difference, big or small.”

“The fact that so many of these problems can be solved if addressed in the comprehensive, sensitive way and with the right intensions.”

“people coming together to work towards a common goal—to improve health equity and the well being of others.”

“Global health inspires me because it is an effort for equity among everyone for something that is such a basic need and people coming together to support it.”

“The ramifications beyond health that improving health that improving health conditions facilitates.  Providing people with better health service doesn’t just make a healthy human it makes a capable citizen.”

“It’s simply the idea that there are people in the world that don’t have the same amount of resources that most of us do and the fact that we still waste that inspires me to participate in GlobeMed.”

“Global health’s want to improve the lives of many people around the world, especially its focus on health. Everyone deserves healthcare.”

What do you hope your legacy will be?

“That I always did the best I could to improve the happiness of people.”

“One I can be proud of.”

“For people to remember me with a smile.”

“ I hope my legacy will be one of balance: balancing altruism and fin, dedication and moderation, selflessness with self-care.”

“To give back more than I take.”

“I hope my legacy is left in the individuals I meet. And that I can have a positive/helpful impact on at least one person who needs help.”

“I hope that I will be able to point to at least one tangible difference I made in a person’s life.”

“Strong relationships, a social impact, and a happy family”

“I hope I positively influence those who surround me and contribute something to their understanding of truth.  I hope I help others and enjoy giving of myself—remembered as a passionate person.”

There was an article in the New York Times fairly recently about how cholera rates in Bangladeshi villages were able to drop by 50% simply by having an inexpensive cloth filtration placed over water.

Even though this is not in Africa, it is very applicable to Globemed at Midd. Help that may initially seem small (such as solar panels to provide electricity!) can have far-reaching and long-lasting impacts.