PHR made the following video in collaboration with our Kenyan partner group, the Health Rights Advocacy Forum. In this 6-minute video, four health workers at Mbagathi Hospital talk about  the challenges they face every day — and why they stay and practice medicine in their home country. This moving video can be shown on campus or at your workplace to stimulate discussion and urge people to take action.

For more personal stories, check out Africa’s Health Care Worker Crisis: Views from the Ground, a PowerPoint presentation that outlines six main drivers of the health workforce crisis in Africa and explores these challenges through the eyes of four Ugandan medical student leaders. Feel free to use this to make a presentation on campus or in your community, or use facts from it to drive home the need for action.

And watch our slideshows of Dr. Fred Katumba and Clinical Officer Jane Byarugaba following them through a typical day as they provide health care to the rural poor in Southwestern Uganda. Dr. Katumba’s work has propelled Lyantonde District to #2 out of more than 90 districts in terms of health outcomes — a phenomenal accomplishment and testament to Dr. Katumba, his staff, and the millions of hard-working health professionals who help communities realize the right to health every day.

Approximate number of Washington, DC residents: 600,000

Population size of Ethiopia: 80.7 million

Ratio of doctors in Washington, DC to doctors in Ethiopia: 2:1

Number of countries the World Health Organization identified as having severe shortages of health workers: 57

Number of times quarterback Jay Cutler spoke the phrase “you know” during a televised interview within five minutes: 57

Vehicles recalled by Toyota in October 2009 for faulty floor mats: 4.3 million

Number of missing health workers in 57 severe shortage nations: 4.3 million

Of the 57 shortage nations, percentage of which are in Africa with severe health worker shortages: 69

Ratio of physicians to total Liberian population (2007): 1:21,000

Ratio of physicians to total U.S. population (2009): 1:386

Percent increase in number of health workers required to address African nation shortages: 140

Temperature in Celsius degrees for the boiling point of aspirin: 140

Additional health workers (doctors, nurses, midwives) required to alleviate severe health workers shortage in South East Asia region: 1.2 million

Minimum number of new health workers the US government has committed to train and help retain in the 2008 PEPFAR legislation: 140,000

Number of applications currently available for Apple’s new iPad: 140,000

Number of health workers in Africa the Japanese government has promised to train by 2013: 100,000

Amount of funding G8 nations have jointly agreed to commit to addressing the health worker shortage: $0

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.

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

Panel: Dr. Helen Potts, Dr. Vincent Iacopino, Sujal Parikh

To fight for every person’s right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, it is essential to understand the Right to Health – and apply the framework to our work every day.

1. 
   phrTweets Amazing panel starting on health and human rights- VInce Iacopino, Helen Potts, @sujalparikh http://bit.ly/djnKmB #phrEd 20 Feb 2010
2. 
   phrTweets Dr. Helen Potts “slippage” btwn health & rights and “right to health” What’s the dif? http://bit.ly/djnKmB #PHREd 20 Feb 2010
3. 
   phrTweets International law is real and has impact. We must all agree on that. Potts at phr conf. today http://bit.ly/cGePmt #phred 20 Feb 2010
4. 
   phrTweets Potts – Right to Health emerges from Article 12 of UDHR. No elaboration for decades. http://bit.ly/asdG5u #phred 20 Feb 2010
5. 
   phrTweets Potts: Right to Health is Real! I’ve learned it’s sometimes not effective to use term. But it’s far more than access to health care. #phrEd 20 Feb 2010
6. 
   phrTweets Dr. Vincent Iacopino – PHR med. advisor; Human dignity should be object of concern as much as morbidity and mortality. #phred 20 Feb 2010
7. 
   phrTweets Dr. Iacopino: #Poverty & equality = the apartheid of today, he tells #medical students at PHR conf. http://bit.ly/djnKmB #phred 20 Feb 2010
8. 
   phrTweets Vince – study of schools of #medicine shows huge gaps in human rights education http://bit.ly/djnKmB 20 Feb 2010
9. 
   phrTweets Dr. Iacopino: We need to integrate #humanrights into curriculum, #medical leadership, culture. We need hr education in public schools #phrEd 20 Feb 2010
10. 
    phrTweets Iacopino, As future #medical leaders, you need to have broader understanding. Have courage to move away from bedside. #phrED 20 Feb 2010
11. 
    phrTweets Sujal Parikh U Mich med student at #phred http://bit.ly/cGePmt As we progress in our careers, we need to figure out how to stop violations. 20 Feb 2010
12. 
    phrTweets All medical students should be given copy of #UDHR when they start med school. Sujal Parikh at http://bit.ly/cGePmt #phred 20 Feb 2010
13. 
    phrTweets Parikh: Until day med schools recognize importance of #humanrights into curriculum, we have to rely on you (students) #phred 20 Feb 2010
14. 
    phrTweets Iacopino, Handing out UDHR at med or #public health school way too little, way too late. Need public culture of human rights ed #phrEd 20 Feb 2010

Town Hall: Rep. James McGovern

“Health and Human Rights” isn’t just a nice idea. It’s real. And it’s our job to protect and promote it by demanding accountability. Representative Jim McGovern’s role on the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission allows him to do just that. We’ve also posted the full text of Rep. McGovern’s prepared remarks on the blog.

1. 
   phrTweets Cong. Jim McGovern speaks @PHREd student conf. noting importance ofPHR’s work in shaping a more humane and rights based approach to health 20 Feb 2010
2. 
   phrTweets Individuals can change course of history. In Andes, they call it a Minga – getting together to make change. Rep Jim McGovern #phred 20 Feb 2010
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   phrTweets I can’t believe there are members of the Congress who still believe in #torture. Rep. Jim McGovern at #phrEd conf. 20 Feb 2010
4. 
   phrTweets Campaign to Ban Landmines is an example of success of organizing for rights. We need to stand up for right to buy food, not to be killed 20 Feb 2010
5. 
   phrTweets People need you to stand up for their rights, to heal their wounds regardless of their politics, Rep Jim McGovern at #phred 20 Feb 2010
6. 
   phrTweets And I need you to do this, because we need help, As a member of #Congress, I need your expertise Rep McGovern at #phred 20 Feb 2010
7. 
   phrTweets #humanrights work is not just for politicians. It’s for everyone. Rep, McGovern at #phred 20 Feb 2010
8. 
   phrTweets I participated in conf on how #hospitals can help end #hunger in their communities. When they sign patients up for Mass health plan. #phred 20 Feb 2010
9. 
   phrTweets …with another click, they can sign them up for #foodstamps. 20 Feb 2010
10. 
    phrTweets Rep. Jim McGovern @ phred Hunger is political. We need to end global hunger and create a world with #food security 20 Feb 2010
11. 
    phrTweets McGovern: So much of our debate revolves around national security. We need a new definition of national security. #phred 20 Feb 2010
12. 
    phrTweets Needs to include whether or not we have health care, purity of our environment, a pure and transparent justice system. Rep. McGovern #phred 20 Feb 2010
13. 
    phrTweets It is in our national security interest to be on the side of human rights. Rep McGovern #phred 20 Feb 2010
14. 
    phrTweets “If people like you, they won’t want to hurt you.” Rep. Jim McGovern at #phred 20 Feb 2010
15. 
    phrTweets Good speeches are not enough. We need to help the President keep his promises for #humanrights Cong. McGovern #phred 20 Feb 2010
16. 
    phrTweets When you come to #Congress, you will learn that if you push and push, you can have an impact. Rep. McGovern @ #phred 20 Feb 2010
17. 
    phrTweets Question re #uganda anti #gay bill to Rep. McGovern @ #phred “We want them to move away from this terrible position” 20 Feb 2010
18. 
    phrTweets Rep, McGovern In MA we are paying for #healthcare for people in other states who don’t have healthcare. #phrEd 20 Feb 2010
19. 
    phrTweets As Co-Chair of Congressional Human Rights Commission, it’s hard to prioritize because so much impacted by events around world #phred 20 Feb 2010
20. 
    phrTweets Right now, for #humanrights in US priority for us should be #healthcare says Jim McGovern @ #phrEd conference 20 Feb 2010
21. 
    phrTweets In terms of priorities, I’m influenced a lot by people coming to see me. We’re doing 2-3 #humanrights hearings a week. #phred 20 Feb 2010
22. 
    phrTweets McGovern, I’ve been pro-choice member of #Congress since I got elected. I thought w/ D Congress, we’d have pro-choice vote. We don’t #phred 20 Feb 2010
23. 
    phrTweets McGovern: “Pro-choice movement needs to re-organize” #phred 20 Feb 2010
24. 
    phrTweets Rep McGovern: #healthcare reform process has been most transparent process in our history. If after all this we get nothing,… 20 Feb 2010
25. 
    phrTweets I’m going to fight to move ball forward on #healthcare until the very end, says Rep. McGovern. @#phred 20 Feb 2010

— These quotes were brought to you by quoteurl

For almost a decade, PHR has been a world leader on building human resources for health. What does that mean? We advocate to governments and funders around the world to help increase the number of health workers in developing countries so they can help communities realize the right to health.

We have a MAJOR opportunity to advance health workforce capacity coming up in April. Congress will be introducing a new bill, the Global HEALTH Act, which would provide $2 billion dollars for developing countries to build their health workforce capacity.

On World Health Day, April 7, we’ll ask you to send an email to your Congressperson urging him or her to co-sponsor this bill. Until then, we’ll be posting 1-2 blog posts a week about the Global HEALTH Act so you can learn more.

To start off, we’ve created this fact sheet with some important information about the Global HEALTH Act, which you can download, read, and share with colleagues: Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Check out excerpts below to learn more about the bill. And spread the word: doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health workers around the world—and the communities they serve—will thank you!

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.

I was introduced to PHR by Christine Curry back in 2005 when I started at Loyola. She heard I had been involved with global health in graduate school and she sought me out. That’s when I became more serious about and started feeling that I could play a role in health and human rights advocacy. By second year of school, I had the exciting opportunity to lead our PHR chapter and our AIDS Week of Action. I had a dynamite co-leadership team and we developed a student involvement strategy that culminated with a week of lectures and an AIDS Week Talent Show with over 300 attendees. Meanwhile, classmates and I engaged in ongoing public health work with a community outside Nairobi that kept us working at grass roots efforts for a truly global partnership. This work has brought me there 3 times during medical school.

Most recently, I lived in Uganda during the 2008-2009 academic year working on tuberculosis research. I had a year of many powerful experiences and so many stories. One of the highlights for me was the East African Student Health and Human Rights Leadership Institute co-sponsored by PHR. I encourage you to find Mona Singh who came over for it from the US for a week. Advocacy also took a different form for me in Uganda.

In the clearest delineation I had seen personally to date, it was in Uganda where I saw the links between health and human rights play out right in front of me and patients. In Uganda – a country where essential TB meds were supposed to be freely available – these drugs were neither completely free in some instances nor widely available. And there was a near complete drug stock out at the main national referral hospital. There was no controversy as to whether or not they should be free or available. There were other issues perhaps with inefficiencies or corruption, with misunderstanding, with donor complications; to date I still never learned the exact reasons why despite my best efforts. But I saw the shortage’s potential effects on patients and heard it talked about among doctors and learned that no one was publicly raising awareness about this problem that had been going on for months. With the help of Emily Bancroft at PHR and at the request of Sandra Kiapi at the Ugandan group Action Group for Health, Human Rights, and HIV/AIDS, I had the chance to “practice what I’ve been preaching” the past few years and gave a public testimony about the drug stock out at the Stop the Stock Outs! campaign in Kampala and spread the word through interviews with two of Uganda’s national newspapers.

Before I spoke, I was warned that I might suffer some sort of retribution. I should note, I’m generally a risk-averse person by nature, but I was convinced there was more fear than truth about these threats. I knew the truth had to be spoken publicly, and I knew the blue passport offered some status and protection my coworkers did not have. My coworkers with whom I spoke about this at length had some fear about speaking out themselves, and encouraged me to do so, knowing full well that threats could be made against them despite my attempts for their anonymity (and in one newspaper incident, an empty threat was made in fact). But I felt confident with Sandra and Emily supporting me along the way. And due to the efforts of many Ugandans, when I left Uganda, medications for adults were available again with pediatric formulations supposedly on their way. But there is still yet work to be done and so I’ll see where I fit in.

I should say I did not expect this. I’m a pretty non-descript soft-spoken guy who usually was one of the last runners from cross-country team to finish a race in high school. But that’s part of my message. No matter who I am, where I’m from, what I’ve done or not done; no matter who you are or where you’re from; we share the burden of knowledge about health inequities and that we can’t wait for someone else to address them. We know and seek to better know how to advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves or who feel that they cannot, those who live in fear to speak out and who are doing the best they can to live a full life in difficult environments. People who do not feel entitled to their health rights. We know that we can partner with them to voice that their lives count, that their health counts, and that they are not alone. It could be in Uganda or on the South side of Chicago where my sister works, or in the parts of your cities and towns where need exists. And so we answer the call.

For me, this award is definitely shared recognition. I feel like I have been able to work for health and human rights because of the community of supporters that empowered me to try to empower others. And my message today is that I am the same as you all with a few unique experiences. But we all have them. I believe we all can make a difference here and abroad, and that knowing who turn to in the health and human rights world makes us collectively stronger. I hope you continue to strengthen your ties with PHR and each other so you can encourage each other to better advocate and more often. Think a classmate of yours might be interested but not proactively? Talk with that person. I don’t know what would have happened if Chris Curry hadn’t approached me one-on-one.

So I accept this award on behalf of my classmates who made our PHR chapter tenure a success at raising awareness about health and human rights as well as Pete Witzler, Danielle Fox, and Saranya Kurapati; on behalf of the amazing Ugandan leaders in the Stop the Stock Outs! advocacy network in East Africa; and on behalf of the promise we are all entrusted with to pursue health and human rights for our patients and communities around the world. In solidarity, thank you.

We are honored to continue Navin’s legacy, and to work toward accomplishing his dream of health and human rights for all.

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.

I don’t know if any of you have noticed or been following this – but there’s been a bit of a debate recently over health care in the United States. Regrettably, it’s become more a debate over how to reform the health insurance system of the United States rather than a debate over how we can make sure every American in the United States receives quality health care – as a right, not a privilege. Health care is supposed to be a basic human right. But you wouldn’t know that from listening to the debate here in the United States.

So, while I know you’ve probably heard this a dozen times already throughout the day, let me repeat it one more time: Article 25 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) clearly enshrines the right to health: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.” These UDHR provisions are similarly enshrined in international human rights law by Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

And even though we don’t tend to talk about meeting these basic needs as basic human rights – the right to food, clothing, housing, medical care – as health professionals it is critical you enshrine this in your heart, in your mind, and in how you carry out your professional responsibilities and practice.

What might the debate on health care have looked like if rather than angry Tea party members disrupting town hall meetings throughout the summer we had seen armies of doctors, nurses and other health care workers descending on their Members of Congress demanding that access to quality health care is a basic human right of every individual and family living America?

I believe committed individuals can make a difference. I believe committed individuals joining and organizing together – like Physicians for Human Rights – can change the course of policy, perhaps even history. The indigenous peoples of the Andes call this a “minga” – the coming together for common purpose and action. I think it’s time to “minga” – maybe to “minga-things-up.” Are you ready to “minga”?

I’ve been lucky enough to travel to many places around the world. I tend to go to places where the people are poor, vulnerable and often confronting a life of daily violence, war and oppression. They are often hungry, and without schools or doctors. And yet I consider myself lucky to have met them and to know them because they always inspire me with their hope, their dreams and aspirations, their ideas, their resilience, their mercy and compassion, and their determination to give their children a better life than their own. Just as I have dreams for my own children.

And I believe it is my duty – your duty – to stand up for their basic human rights. The right not to be murdered or tortured. And, as an aside, I m horrified that there are Members of Congress and political leaders who still advocate in favor of torture. They are wrong – and we need to say so.

We need to stand up for the right of men, women and children to walk from their homes to their schools and not lose their lives or their limbs to a landmine. We need to stand up for their right to grow enough food or be able to buy enough food so that their children can grow and live up to their full potential. We need to stand up for their right NOT to disappear one day and end up in a mass grave. The right to speak their mind, vote for their leaders, and meet with their neighbors without the fear of death or intimidation. The right to drink clean water and live in an environment free from pollution.

Doctors, nurses and health care workers have a responsibility to these people and to the oath they took as physicians to help and support these people and communities achieve these rights – because every single one of these rights are necessary to their health and well-being. They don’t need you to tell them what they need – or even what they need to do. They need you to stand with them in solidarity for their rights. They need you to be partners and to work with them to achieve these rights and fulfill their aspirations.

And they need you to be their witness and to fight for justice when they have been denied their freedom or lost their lives. To exhume their graves, identify their remains and tell the story of how they died and who did this to them. To heal their wounds, without regard to their views, philosophy or politics. To repair bodies and minds broken by rape, abuse, violence and torture. To stand up for your own ethics should you ever be asked to break your healer’s oath and asked to observe, advise, monitor, study or carry out acts of torture or to violate your medical neutrality in any way. They need you to demand that weapons of war that deliberately target and harm civilians – anti-personnel landmines, cluster munitions, chemical and biological weapons – are banned forever.

And I need you to do this. As a Member of Congress who fights for human rights, I need your expertise; I need your eye-witness reports and testimony; I need you to be actively engaged in the fight to shape our policies abroad and right here at home. I love America. I love my home town. I love Massachusetts and my country. I love the democratic experiment started so long ago and is still a work in process today. I love working to make our nation a more perfect union – and I need you to be engaged in the same work. Because if you aren’t, it’s not that I might fail – it’s that we all might fail our nation in living up to its true potential.

President Obama has pledged to end child hunger in America by 2015. Not reduce it or cut it in half – but end it, eliminate it. What a glorious health and human rights initiative to get involved in. Right here in Massachusetts we’re working to create hunger-free communities, with a special focus on children. And the health care system and health care professionals are a critical component of this campaign.

Just a few weeks ago, working with Project Bread and UMass Memorial Health Care right here in Boston, I participated in the launch of a guidebook on how hospitals can help fight hunger in their communities.

Hunger is a fact of life for more than 554,000 people in Massachusetts. If good food is the first medicine, then we have to take steps to make sure that all patients and their families receive adequate nutrition. It’s the right thing for their health; it’s the right thing for their lives; and it’s an action that upholds their basic human rights.

We need to do this right here in Massachusetts. We need to do it across America. We need to do it in refugee camps and HIV/AIDS clinics and schools and communities around the world. We need to end global hunger and create instead a world with food security.

And you need to teach this to the current and future generations of health care professionals. You need to practice it in your professions so that current and future generations of health care professionals and workers have models to emulate and build on. And I believe you CAN do this.

I want to give a heartfelt thanks to the students of Boston University School of Medicine who helped organize and put together this national conference. If you can do this, then you’re ready to take the next step – and change the country and the world.

Thank you one and all.

Many thanks to Congressman McGovern for his presence at this Town Hall forum and for his dedication to health and human rights world-wide.

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!

• 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!

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!