PHR Student Blog

Every year, PHR’s National Student Program works with chapters across the country to organize and lead a Global Health Week of Action (GHWA). The GHWA is an opportunity to educate your campus about global health and encourage your colleagues to act on their new knowledge to make a difference.

Check out the new GHWA Toolkit for more information.

This year we’re encouraging chapters to focus their GHWA on the global health workforce crisis and the 2010 Global HEALTH Act, which will be introduced soon in the House of Representatives. You can raise awareness about the need for more health workers and better health systems in developing countries, and then take steps to address that need.

The first step: set your Global Health Week of Action date. Because April 7, 2010, is World Health Day, April 4-10 is the official week of action date. If you need to move the date because of spring break or campus calendars, go for it – just try to stay within 2-3 weeks of this date.

Please refer to the GHWA Toolkit to find resources for planning a successful week of events! The Toolkit includes an Issue and Action Guide, ideas for great events, suggestions on how to fundraise and publicize, and resources to share with your community.

We hope these resources – along with your creativity, energy, and education and advocacy skills – will help ensure that your GHWA has real impact.

Want more support? That’s what we’re here for. Email Hope O’Brien anytime at hobrien[at]phrusa[dot]org.

Saturday’s National Conference was packed with memorable moments. Fortunately, many of these moments were broadcast on Twitter by PHR’s Deputy Director Susannah Sirkin. We’ve collected some of our favorite tweets from Dr. Robert Lawrence’s keynote address, a panel on Health and Human Rights Education, and the closing town hall with Rep. Jim McGovern. Follow us at phrTweets!

Keynote: Dr. Robert Lawrence

As one of PHR’s original founders and our current Board chair, Dr. Lawrence offers unique insight into the vision and purpose of PHR.

1. 
   phrTweets Dr. Bob Lawrence opens
   #phred conference on medicine and human rights education now at BU School of Medicine; pays homage to Carl Taylor 20 Feb 2010
2. 
   phrTweets Dr. Lawrence I was history major in 1959 studying #south africa under apartheid; no faculy to advise on thesis http://bit.ly/cGePmt 20 Feb 2010
3. 
   phrTweets “What do you do when you’re 20 years old and no one interested in your topic? You take your thesis and wrap it in front page of NYTimes” 20 Feb 2010
4. 
   phrTweets Dr. Lawrence, “You have to honor great people in history like Steve Biko and his wife, Dr. Mamphele Rampele…” #phrEd 20 Feb 2010
5. 
   phrTweets Lawrence “Those of you studying psychiatry, you know about denial.” Harvard tutor forgot he had opposed history thesis on apartheid #phrEd 20 Feb 2010
6. 
   phrTweets Lawrence to students: reframe issues, channel energy to engage in social issues while protecting time to be best clinician #phred 20 Feb 2010
7. 
   phrTweets Lawrence: Carola & Eleanor Roosevelt my heroes. Jack Geiger, who was first to look at social determinants of medicine in 1960s #phred 20 Feb 2010
8. 
   phrTweets Alma Ata conference principles of 1978 remain as true today as now. http://bit.ly/asdG5u 20 Feb 2010
9. 
   phrTweets Dr. Julius Richmond led US delegation to Alma Ata in 1978. Dr. Lawrence reminding med and ph students of important doc http://bit.ly/asdG5u 20 Feb 2010

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During the post-conference reception, we were humbled to commemorate Navin Narayan and his contribution to health and human rights by presenting the annual Navin Narayan Student Achievement Award For Health and Human Rights Activism. This year’s recipient, Justin List, is a fourth-year medical student at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. A long-time member of PHR, Justin hopes to work to strengthen health care systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

Below are Justin’s remarks upon his acceptance of the award:

I’m honored and humbled that PHR considered me for this award and thankful for the generosity of the Narayan family for helping me get here today. I can only hope that my efforts to date and those to come honor Navin and his dedication to working for justice and reducing inequities around the world.

I grew up in a safe, quiet Chicago suburb with parents who worked hard to give my siblings and me access to good schools and opportunities. I had a sense of justice and a questioning of the world from as long as I could remember, but it was with a sort of quiet, Midwestern sensibility. I always knew whether or not I acted on it, that the world is what we make it more than the other way around; however, my involvement with advocacy and human rights really only developed 5 or 6 years ago.

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US Congressman James McGovern closed the PHR Student Conference with an inspirational speech in which he urged students to get involved in the political process and highlighted the critical human rights work he is spearheading on Capitol Hill.

Following are his prepared remarks:

I want to thank you for that very kind introduction. It’s a great honor for me to be here. I cannot emphasize enough how important is the role played by Physicians for Human Rights in my work on international human rights – and how important the role each of you will play today, tomorrow and into the future in shaping more humane, more human rights-based approaches to health care here in the United States and around the world.

I look at this audience and I see the future. And I want you to know one thing:  we need you. We need you to be active, engaged, smart and willing to be leaders on the right to health care and on the many human rights issues encompassed in and embraced by health care and health professionals. And when I look at this audience and the program of events and workshops held throughout this day – I also see the past and the road that has led to this day – and to this gathering.

You are following in the footsteps of heroes. Ground breakers. Path makers. Dr. Carola Eisenberg – psychiatrist, one of the founders of PHR, and custodian of the flame in so many ways. Dr. Vincent Iacopino, PHR’s senior medical advisor, a leading light in health and human rights education, and one of the leading doctors engaged for over two decades in stopping torture and making sure the world understood the health consequences of this heinous act.

Now, it’s your time to take up the torch, to lead the way, in your schools, your professional practice, your health care institutions, in your communities, states, the nation and the world.

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Even after months of preparation, I wasn’t ready for the incredible energy at Saturday’s 2010 PHR National Conference, Health & Human Rights Education in 2010!

Each of us, over 120 students and faculty from 43 US and International PHR Chapters, brought our own reasons for pursuing health and human rights education, and we all returned to different situations at our schools. We came together for one day to inspire others with our successes, share solutions to our challenges, and generate the energy that will sustain our work to advance Health and Human Rights Education (HHRE).

The day was designed to provide inspiration, resources, and skill-building. It began with PHR Board Chair Dr. Robert Lawrence’s compelling opening keynote, which offered participants an historical context, challenged them to approach obstacles from more than one angle, and inspired them with a sense of what might be possible. Panels and strategy sessions with HHRE pioneers and student-led workshops followed. Students inspired one another in the Education in Action Expo. The closing session, a Town Hall meeting with Rep. Jim McGovern, co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, sustained the day’s momentum with his straightforward take on promoting and protecting human rights.

I hope that you all left the Conference with concrete plans for introducing or improving HHRE at your schools. I was so impressed by the plans you shared at the end of the day.

How can PHR support your plans? Take a look at the HHRE Toolkit – either online or in the CD in your Conference Packet. Your Chapter will be contacted twice in the next couple of months by the Student Advisory Board to help you can take advantage of PHR’s network of support as you advance HHRE at your school.

We’ll also work with you to create tools for your Chapter (like the Regional Hubs) to gather useful information and share it with other Chapters. And we will soon share resources for April’s Global Health Week of Action to help engage people in your Chapter’s vision of HHRE!

We’re very much looking forward to meeting you at the National Conference this Saturday, February 20! We want to remind you about the two additional opportunities you’ll have to meet and mingle with fellow PHR chapter members from around the country.

• Friday Night Meet-Ups: Come to Boston the night before the National Conference to meet up with other PHR members from your region! Join your Regional Mentors and members at The Beehive at 8 pm on Friday night to connect with other passionate advocates and enjoy some of Boston’s best live jazz.
• Saturday Night Social: The fun continues after the conference on Saturday night! Join fellow conference attendees and PHR staff members at 33 Restaurant & Lounge, a South End hotspot. Please email Hannah at hlauber[at]phrusa[dot]org if you’re planning to attend the Saturday Night Social.

We hope to see you on both Friday and Saturday nights!

We’re looking forward to meeting you in person at PHR’s National Conference at Boston University Medical School on February 20, 2010!

To have the best possible Conference experience:

• Read the Health and Human Rights literature we have posted on the Conference website. These articles represent some of the foundational literature published by pioneering thinkers in the field, as well as more recent publications that highlight current developments and consider the future of health and human rights.
• Respond to the articles by commenting online. Share your thoughts and see what other participants are saying.
• Present at the Expo! Does your school offer Health and Human Rights Education (HHRE)? Inspire other Chapters by sharing your school’s approach to HHRE. This can be a course for credit, reading or film discussion group, or extracurricular activity, and it doesn’t need to be something that you or even your PHR chapter has started.
• Bring answers to the following questions to the Conference:
  • What kind of HHRE initiative would work best at my school? What do I envision as the ideal HHR curriculum at my school in two or three years?
  • What faculty members are our allies in this process?
  • How does curriculum get changed at my school? Who has influence on those decisions, and who has the final authority? Which offices and individuals should we consult?
  • What resources do we have and what do we need?

Please contact me at hlauber[at]phrusa[dot]org if you have any questions or need help brainstorming!

Make sure to arrive early on Friday night to attend the Regional Socials. Your Regional Mentor will be in touch with you soon with details. Also, check out the map of Boston University School of Medicine’s campus to familiarize yourself with the area!

We look forward to meeting you soon!