GlobeMed Quarterly

EditorsBryana SchoenChi Chi UichancoDaisy ZhuDounan Alissa ZhuKerianne FullinNicholas WangWilliam Chang

Sponsored by Northwestern UniversityInternational Program Development / Global Health Studies

ContributorsDeepa RamaduraiDounan Alissa ZhuKerianne FullinMaya CohenNicholas WangShainee ShahWilliam Chang

2011 Newsletter staff

Recent developments at the H.O.P.E. CenterDeepa Ramadurai After a long year of reconfiguring staff positions and working out new forward directions for the Nutrition and Sexual Health Programs at the H.O.P.E. Center, the GROW Team returned at the end of the summer with some exciting new changes and ideas for the future of GlobeMed at Northwestern’s partnership with Ghana Health Services. A new head nurse has stepped in full-time for the H.O.P.E. Cen-ter, Nurse Love Agboka. Nurse Love has been an asset to the H.O.P.E. Center services (specifically taking charge of the Nutrition Program and Family Planning) for the past two years. She is a charismatic and dedicated individual who runs the daily clinical services in addition to making sure the outreach projects are continued. Additionally, Ghana Health Services employee Rita Fiagbor has taken up the position of Nutritional Officer at the Ho Municipal Office and has expressed keen interest of specifically involving herself with the unique outreach at the H.O.P.E. Center. Her scheme for Diet Diversification is being deemed Phase V of the overall Nutrition Program. Not only does this continue the use and distribution of protein supplements but it adds vegetable planting and distribution into the mix. This new element is meant to educate the community about the definition of a well-balanced diet and its importance in healthy lifestyle practices. The Sexual Health Program is being revamped under direction of Nurse Love in collaboration with the Ho Cultural Community Cen-ter. The theater troupe that works at the Cultural Center will now be educated and trained in developing dramatic interpretation of differ-ent sexual health dilemmas. They will take these performances into the villages of Ho, directly to the at-risk populations of adolescents

GlobeMed at Northwestern’s

Volume 6, Issue 1 | Fall 2011www.globemed.org/northwestern

Development of the Nutrition Program and Sexual and Reproductive Health Program will aid the H.O.P.E. Center’s goal to promote health in the community of Ho

and young adults to promote the resources offered by the H.O.P.E. Center and encourage discussion and to curb the stigma around sexu-ally transmitted infections. The interactive element of this program should build a higher level of comfort when discussing these issues and also allows a farther community reach. The future of the H.O.P.E. Center is looking promising with the programming expansions expected over the next year in addition to the current physical expansions that are in the planning stages. After assessing the population of mothers and mothers-to-be in and around Ho the past two years through surveys, GlobeMed at Northwestern has identified a need for a maternity ward at the H.O.P.E. Center and plans are in place to obtain a grant to fulfill this project over the next few years. GlobeMed at Northwestern is excited for the prospects this expansion could bring not only in terms of more outreach programs but first and foremost to better the accessibility of antenatal and ma-ternal care to the women of Ho.

Winter Individual Giving Campaign - Can you help us meet our goal?William Chang

The quarter is winding down and GlobeMed students look forward from final exams to winter break. As we transition into the break, GlobeMed at Northwestern is kicking off its Individual Giving Campaign. Teams of GlobeMed members will be competing to see which team can raise the most money during the month of December. All of the money raised will go towards the H.O.P.E. center in Ghana, and will be used to fund necessities such as protein supplements and farming plots. As we work hard to reach our fundraising goal of $3000 this month, we ask for your support during this holiday season. We encourage you, as a friend of GlobeMed, to donate to the H.O.P.E. center through one of the following options.

1. Visit http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/reduce-malnutrition-in-africa/ and donate to the H.O.P.E. center. If you want to support a particular team member, choose the “give as a gift in honor” option directly under the “donate” button and enter that member’s name. 2. Send a check payable to “Northwestern University” to 620 Library Place, GlobeMed National Office, Evanston, IL 60208 and specify on the memo that your check is for the GlobeMed Northwestern University Chapter.

We have appreciated your support of GlobeMed and understand that the H.O.P.E. center and its programs would not be possible without the support and donations of our friends. Every donation counts, no matter how big or small. We hope you will help us during this time of giving and we wish you a very happy holiday season!

The National Office of GlobeMed, located in Evanston, experienced a number of changes this past summer. We sat down with executive direc-tor Maya Cohen to help illuminate what these changes mean for the future of this organization.

Can you explain the administrative changes that have taken place in GlobeMed’s national office over the past six months or so?

The biggest changes that took place were purely administrative, but our office also took on a number of new programs. There are four full time staff at the national office, the Execu-tive Director, or ED, the director of develop-ment, and two program directors. We then also work with a team of 16 amazing Northwestern students, who work hard to put together the en-tire summit every year, implement the Global Health U curriculum, and to update the blogs and Facebook page. For the past two years we had a wonderful ED in Jon Shaffer. Jon was the ED during GlobeMed’s time of biggest growth; we expanded from 19 chapters to 46 in the span of two years. But after working as ED, he want-ed to explore other opportunities, so he took a job at Partners in Health as a Community En-gagement Coordinator. So when Jon was head-ing out, the board began searching for a new ED. I’ve been involved with GlobeMed for a while: I founded the chapter at Columbia, and last year I worked as a program director at the national office, advising thirteen chapters in the organization. And when Jon decided to head out I put my name in the basket and was cho-sen. Bianca Nguyen, the founder of the UNC chapter, moved into the director of development position after already working for a year as the other program director in the national office. So we had two open spaces for program directors. We hired Alyssa Smaldino, the former co-pres-ident of the George Washington chapter, and Sarah Endres, the co-founder of the chapter at

Future Directions for the National OfficeNicholas Wang

Rhodes. They both went on their GROW trips over the summer, and then came to work at the national office at Evanston. So that was the biggest change that happened, the whole musical chairs of moving staff around. The other changes were from the perspective of our programs. We have the goal in mind to start strengthening our relationships between chapters and partners and generally throughout the network. After two years of growing bigger, we really wanted to start focusing on growing deeper. So we started by revamping the entire Global Health U curriculum, with the help of Nicole Dussault, the current Global Health U director at Columbia. She interned with the national office over the summer and worked closely with our student staff to come up with these changes. The new curriculum refocuses the links between poverty and health, and pro-vides greater space for student discernment and professional development. The second program change was scaling up our partnerships. This involves increased trainings for GROW trips and greater communication between the na-tional office and worldwide partners in order to strengthen our relationships around the world. The third change was in our communications. We revamped our blogging, Facebook, and twitter into a more integrated communication network. Our goal is to make our communica-tions more globally focused. We are beginning to bring in partner voices, and highlight stories of our chapters across the network. We are also serving as an outlet for current events and news about global health. Finally, we also launched our alumni network. We started by launching three regional hubs for alumni to network: New York, Chicago, and Boston. These hubs will serve as opportunities for events and peer support. An important part of our outreach to alumni was to start the men-torship program. 60 GlobeMed students have been matched with 60 GlobeMed alumni who

serve as examples to these students of people who continue to integrate their passion for global health into their professional lives.

What do these changes mean for the en-tire GlobeMed network, and how will these changes impact the future of GlobeMed?

I was really excited to be able to bring in some new fresh staff into the organization, both our two new program directors and seven new members of the National staff. One of the best things about GlobeMed is that it is a youth-driven movement; everyone on our staff is be-tween 18-23 years old. Having fresh new faces brings new perspectives to the organization and is really central to the continued innovation and invigoration of GlobeMed and its programs. So we really hope these changes will have a greater impact on our students and our partner com-munities. The new Global Health U curricu-lum is greatly improved and we have already been hearing positive feedback from around the network. It is really important that students develop a critical view of these global health issues, and to relate these ideas to our partner organizations. On the partnership side, the last two years of GlobeMed have really been focused on growing our network. Now is our opportu-nity to ensure that all of our partnerships and relationships throughout the network are really strong; we really do not want a network where everything has to go through the national office but rather a spider-web network where ideas are spread between chapters and between partners. On the communications side, we hope that we are opening doors to share more amazing sto-ries from across the network. These stories will be shared with our members and supporters alike. The impact of the new alumni program will be felt by our students participating in the mentorship program. But more importantly, we are giving alumni the opportunity to stay con-nected to the network; we hope that students graduate and enter the world still striving to make a difference in global health and to remain engaged regardless of their career path.

Senior Spotlight: Shainee Shah

Here are some photos of the GROW Trip and our chapter retreat:GlobeMed Snapshots

Members munch on their fresh-picked organic apples from the 2011 Fall retreat at Apple Holler.

GlobeMed’s Global Medical Relief Program Center located in Ghana. See “GROW Trip Summer 2011” for Editor-in-Chief Kerianne Fullin’s account of her experience in Ghana.

The 2011 Fall retreat provided members a chance to bond.“If you want a successful organi-zation, you need friends,” said Shainee Shah, the co-director of the Community Building Commit-tee, who organized the retreat.

Dounan Alissa Zhu

Shainee Shah is the bright-eyed and enthusiastic co-director of GlobeMed’s Community Building Committee. The 21-year-old native of Texas has been a member of Northwestern University’s GlobeMed chapter since sophomore year. “I joined GlobeMed because I enjoyed the model.” The organization taught her the key to building sustain-able health practices is community sup-port. Throughout her two years with the club, she’s dedicated her time making sure the chapter has a sense of commu-nity by organizing icebreakers at weekly meetings, running fundraisers and plan-ning quarterly trips. Shah is currently preparing volunteering trips in the city to “get students exposed to health pro-grams in Chicago.” One of Shah’s favorite memories was attending the 2011 keynote address by Dr. Joia Mukherjee, a renowned scholar and activist against infectious diseases in developing countries, at the GlobeMed Global Health Summit which is held an-nually at Northwestern. “She was speak-ing and singing in the chapel at NU. She was talking about her health experiences

and saying to everyone anyone can go into health. She said it takes motivation and it takes drive and it takes the will-ingness to understand the people. There were 200-plus students from around the country singing with her - was just a magical moment that I loved,” said Shah. This was a turning point in Shah’s ded-

ication in health equity. Her passion in this subject was sparked by a trip to the slums of India where she helped tutor children in English. Shah said, “Before I was this naïve girl and it completely changed me as a person. When you have a problem you think about it- is your problem really that significant?” After graduating with a political sci-ence degree, Shah plans to study health law in law school and eventually work for an international organization. Shah said she wants to work on health dis-parities in the United States and travel abroad. GlobeMed has played a vital part in her decision to pursue global health equity. “You need to educate fu-ture leaders to stop disparity and the education starts in college which is an influential time where they don’t know what they want to do with their lives. To support this organization means creat-ing a sustainable model of leaders who are going to do amazing things.” “No matter where you live, what socio-economic status you have, it’s important to help those without access to health-care,” said Shah.

“No matter where you live, what socio-economic status you have, it’s important to help those without access to healthcare.”

This past summer I had the honor go to the H.O.P.E. Center with three other GlobeMed members- Neha Patel, Parul Kathuria, and current co-president Deepa Ramadurai. Rotarian and co-H.O.P.E. Center founder Joseph Achana graciously welcomed us to stay in his home, a mere 10 minute walk from the Center. Throughout our 7 week stay we conducted two research studies: one on antenatal care as it relates to financial and geographical accessibility, nutrition, and preventative care and the other on sexual and reproductive health and be-haviors. We also got to help out at the H.O.P.E. Center by assisting the nurses in the Child Welfare Clinic and visiting local schools for educational visits. Of course, there was plenty of time to get to know the dedicated staff as well as Ghanaian culture. We often took weekend trips to learn about the history and ecology of the nation, visiting landmarks such as Elmina Castle, Kakum Na-tional Park, Mount Gemi, and the Wli Waterfalls. And surely there is no better way to contextualize the Childhood Nutrition Program than to regularly shop at the local outdoor marketplace and walk through the surrounding villages daily. But most importantly, I got to know the dynamic personalities of the ded-icated staff of the H.O.P.E. Center and the Ghanaian Health Services that have contributed to the facility’s history and made it the effective clinic it is today. To follow our adventures, check out the GlobeMed blog at www.globemedgrapevine.wordpress.com.

Building a generation of global health leadersSince our chapter’s founding, more than one hundred students have become members of GlobeMed at Northwestern. These members, along with hundreds of other students on the Northwestern campus, have participated in GlobeMed’s high-impact programming. In addition to providing students with the knowledge and skills to address issues of global health, these events have mobilized participants to join in the movement for global health equity.

How to donateWith support from GlobeMed at Northwestern, the H.O.P.E. Center in Ho, Ghana is excited to embark on phase V of their nutrition project, which aims to reduce the amount of malnutrition seen among children in the surround-ing areas, especially children under the age of five. However, we need your help! Our projects would not be possible without help from you, our family and friends!

If you feel compelled to support us, there are two ways to donate: through online donations or through sending checks in the mail. Please see the Indivi-daul Giving article in this issue.

Thank you for all of your support! With your help, we can work together to fight for a brighter future.

ABOVE Former co-president Tiffany Wong walks with chil-dren from Ho, Ghana across a soccer field to where future crops of soybeans will grow.

GROW Trip Summer 2011Kerianne Fullin

From left to right: Kerianne Fullin, Neha Patel, Nurse Love Agboka (in the orange dress), Gifty Sedzro (in the blue dress), Deepa Ramadurai and Parul Kathuria