PHR’s Student Program is always on the lookout for new health and human rights education opportunities — and we have a great one for you in Gulu, Uganda in January 2011. PHR members and friends Michael Westerhaus, MD, MA, Julian Jane Atim, MD, MPH, and Amy Finnegan, MALD, MA, have created an amazing social medicine course in Gulu, Uganda and are accepting applications for the second annual course in January 2011.
Beyond the Biological Basis of Disease: The Social and Economic Causation of Illness is an on-site immersion course in social medicine offered at Lacor Hospital in Gulu, Uganda from January 10, 2011 through February 4, 2011. This intensive course designed for 15 international medical students and 15 Ugandan medical students from Gulu University intersects the study of clinical medicine in a resource-poor setting with social medicine topics such as globalization, war, human rights, and narrative medicine, among others. This highly-interactive course is taught through a combination of lectures, small and large group discussions, films, community field visits, ward rounds, and clinical case discussions. Credit for away-rotations can also be arranged.
For more information, read the prospectus and watch the short video about this year’s course. If you have any questions or are interested in applying, please email the course instructors at social.medicine[at]yahoo[dot]com. Applications are due July 30, 2010.
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.
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.
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!
PHR’s National Conferencewill take place on Saturday, February 20th, at Boston University Medical School. This year’s conference, Health and Human Rights Education in 2010, will give you the chance to meet other leaders in the area of human rights education (both students and faculty), hear inspiring speakers, present ideas at the Education Innovations Expo, build your capacity to influence curriculum decisions, and design a concrete plan to help your school incorporate human rights into medical and public health education.
The conference is a chance to consider the daunting tasks that confronts physicians, nurses and public health specialists: building — and often rebuilding — health systems that are accessible to all; fighting infectious pandemics like HIV/AIDS; preventing and treating disease; providing humanitarian relief to people facing natural or man-made disasters; and more.
The last 20 years have shown the world that brilliant bio-medical advances cannot alone bring health to the world’s poorest people. Medicine must go hand-in-hand with human rights to eliminate health disparities and ensure a healthy population.
The recent earthquake in Haiti highlights this challenge. There are numerous reasons why a country might not be prepared to mitigate or respond to the destruction of an earthquake. Health professionals who are eager to respond to the urgent needs of the survivors must also be aware of the political, cultural, and economic context of the situation.
Health professionals are then confronted with the question: is this a human rights issue? Doctors, nurses, public health researchers and practitioners, and other professionals who have dealt with this question in the classroom will be more prepared to address it in their careers. (No need to wait until you are a health professional to help Haiti — take action for Haiti now!)
This year’s Conference aims to change the paradigm of medicine to one which embraces human rights by empowering student leaders to introduce human rights into their school’s curriculum. The Conference is the first of its kind to solely focus on bringing students and faculty together to discuss how to integrate human rights into medical education. This jam-packed day will serve as a springboard for future health and human rights initiatives and help students make lasting change at their university and in their profession.
The deadline to apply is January 20th — apply today!
Welcome back! We’re excited to confirm several world-renowned speakers who will be presenting at the National Conference on February 20, 2010.
Helen Potts, PhD, Chief Program Officer of Health Programs, Physicians for Human Rights. Dr. Potts will speak about the Right to Health on a panel entitled “Human Rights and Health Education: Dueling Frameworks or Essential Integration?”
Chris Beyrer, MD, MPH, Professor of Epidemiology, International Health and Health, Behavior and Society; Director of Johns Hopkins Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program. Dr. Beyrer will co-facilitate a Strategy Session entitled “Human Rights in Graduate Education.”
Vincent Iacopino, MD, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School; Senior Medical Advisor to Physicians for Human Rights. Dr. Iacopino will co-lead the panel entitled “Human Rights and Health Education: Dueling Frameworks or Essential Integration?” and will speak about the urgency of incorporating a human rights approach in professional medical training.
By leveraging connections with local experts, organizations, and other resources, many student chapters and faculty are able to build educational programming into their academics at a very minimal cost. However, there are some courses and initiatives that may need some extra funding. If you are exploring educational initiatives that call for additional funding, we recommend you check out our Funding Tips for guidance.
These are just a few of the resources available to support health and human rights education on your campus. You can check them all out in ourHHRE Toolkit.
Please let me know if you are interested in HHRE initiatives, or even just considering the option. I will gladly pair you with one of our Health and Human Rights Education Mentors, former chapter leaders that have successfully implemented health and human rights in their academics and are excited to share their knowledge with fellow student chapters.
Despite increasing recognition of the importance of human rights in the protection and promotion of health, formal human rights education has been lacking in schools of medicine and public health. PHR student chapters aren’t waiting for their schools to come around — they are leading the way in incorporating human rights in their education by creating electives and enhancing existing courses.
Your peers are also eager to help their fellow students in building health and human rights education at their schools! Student chapters from Washington University, Columbia University and Virginia Commonwealth University have provided their syllabi and lesson plansfor students to use in their curriculum creation. And knowledgeable student chapter leaders from all over have created a new network of Health and Human Rights Education Mentors who are eager to share advice, resources and support. Contact me to request a mentor.
These resources are just a few of the new components of our revamped Health and Human Rights Education Campaign. Use them to get your chapter involved in the movement to incorporate health and human rights in our nation’s health professional curriculum. Bring real, longterm change to your campus and help shift the paradigm of medicine to one that embraces human rights!
I am excited to introduce the new and improved Health and Human Rights Education Campaign (HHRE), which is committed to providing support, educational content, and organizational resources to student and faculty efforts to incorporate a health and human rights paradigm into their academic curriculum.
Realizing that a rights-based culture in health professional education helps students become more effective as both caregivers and advocates, students and faculty around the country are taking action to incorporate human rights into curriculum. To boost our support of these ground-breaking efforts, PHR now offers a wealth of resources and support, including:
A new network of HHRE Mentors.Mentors are student leaders who have successfully implemented formal HHR education in their school and are eager to share advice, resources, and support with student chapters. Contact me to request a mentor.
HHRE forums and workshops at all four Regional Advocacy Institutes, where attendees will learn from student and faculty experts on curriculum change and work together to come up with concrete ideas for advancing HHRE on their campuses.
Please let me know if you or your chapter is planning to get involved in health and human rights education at your school so we can best support your important work!
I’d like to officially welcome the PHR Student Chapters to the start of the 2009-2010 academic year! We’re very excited about all that we have planned, including the Regional Institutes, the National Conference, and a variety of action opportunities for advancing health and human rights!
2009-2010 Student Program Focus Issues
Global Health Action Campaign (GHAC)
PHR’s new Campaign aims to establish the right to health as the framework governments use to develop, implement, and fund health programs. Through this new campaign, PHR provides students with numerous resources to spark Right to Health dialogue on-campus and in the community, including film and book recommendations, case studies, and a discussion guide. We’ll be launching this new academic year with a national GHAC action, advocating for federal funding for needle exchange programs. Student chapters can also take part in the Global Health Action Campaign by participating in World AIDS Day (December 1) and the Global Health Week of Action (April 4-April 10). Visit the GHAC student siteto learn more.
Health and Human Rights Education Campaign (HHRE)
Education is a powerful tool for promoting a rights-based culture in the health professions and help students become more informed and effective advocates.HHRE provides resources for student and faculty efforts to incorporate a health and human rights paradigm into their academics, with a focus on curriculum change and elective creation. The revamped HHRE Campaign includes:
A Toolkit filled with guidelines, templates, and hands-on resources
A network of student mentors who are eager to support other chapters
Regional Advocacy Institutes
Join with like-minded students to learn about pressing health and human rights issues, build new skills and connections to develop your advocacy power, and network with experts and other students from the region! Find the Regional Institute in your region.
GHAC Fall Action: Strengthen Needle Exchange Programs
To support the Student Program’s initial action, advocating for needle exchange programs, PHR has distributed postcards, instructions, and educational resources to the chapter leaders. In September, the Senate will vote whether or not to end the ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs — a ban that has already been lifted by the House. Now is the time to urge your Senators to end the ban and ensure that unnecessary restrictions are not added to needle exchange programs. Mail those postcards to your Senators by September 7th so that your voice will be heard in time! Educational events and meetings with district offices are great accompaniments to this action (contact Danielle for more info). Learn about the political climate around needle exchange and check out some of our educational resources on needle exchange.
PHR has distributed many more resources and materials to help start the new year, including a welcome packet for chapter leaders and an updated Student Chapter Toolbox. If you have any questions or would like more information on PHR’s programs or actions, please contact Danielle.
As we gear up for the new school year, the Student Program team is proud to offer the support of new volunteer leaders, who are dedicated to helping student chapters whenever possible. The volunteer leaders, who include Training and Education Coordinators, Regional Student Chapter Mentors, and Student Advisory Board Members, are available to support you in your work and provide helpful advice, connections, and resources to chapters nationwide.
Who They Are and What They Do
The Regional Training and Education Coordinators are leading student voices helping to ensure that PHR offers engaging and effective trainings that cultivate students’ unique contributions as health and human rights advocates. The key project the Coordinators are working on is organizing an educational, fun, and resourceful Regional Advocacy Institute this fall. Click here to learn about attending your region’s Institute.
COORDINATORS:Alexandra Coria, Dartmouth Medical School (Northeast); Regan Gage, George Washington Medical School (Mid-Atlantic); Nia Imani Bodrick, Meharry Medical School (South); Shaheja Sitafawalla, Rush Medical School (Midwest).
The Regional Student Chapter Mentors serve the critical role of providing peer-based advising and support to student chapter leaders in their chapter development and organizing. They are great go-to people for chapter members who have questions, need encouragement, or have problems that need solving.
MENTORS: Neil Chawla, USC Medical School (West); Mark Henin, Medical College of VA (Mid-Atlantic); Robin Reister, UTX School of Health and Science San Antonio (South); Lauren Reusing, Wright State (Midwest); Jen Vreeland, NY College of Osteopathic Medicine (Northeast).
The Health and Human Rights Education (HHRE) Mentors are student leaders who have successfully implemented formal HHR education in their school and are excited to share their advice, resources, and support with other student chapters who wish to take on similar initiatives. Specific Mentors will be introduced soon.
HHRE MENTORS: Mentors will be introduced soon.
The National Student Advisory Board are a select group of student leaders who help advise the PHR Student Program and their input is crucial when planning Student Program events, such as the Regional Institutes and the National Conference.
BOARD MEMBERS: Jake Imber, UKS Medical Center; Ali Khan, Medical College of VA; Saranya Kurapati, Loyola School of Medicine; Aliza Norwood, UTX School of Health and Science San Antonio; Sujal Parikh UMI School of Medicine; Katie Ratzan, Dartmouth Medical School; Sohil Sud, Tufts School of Medicine. See theirbios here.
Connect with Your Region’s Leaders
Please contact me if you would like the contact information for PHR’s Volunteer Leaders.
PROSPECTUS: Beyond the Biological Basis of Disease: The Social and Economic Causation of Illness (16.0 KiB, 61 hits)
