Global Medical Relief Program

Second Annual Conference of Affiliates

Friday February 4 – Sunday February 6, 2005

Saturday February 5, 2005- Norris Community Center, Illinois Room

Welcome

·                  Ashley Pasen, President

·                  Jill Placek, Executive Director

Munveer Bhangoo, Affiliate Coordinator

·                  Shipment Protocol

Louis Levine, NU Coordinator

·                  Involving general membership

o       Inventory Days

o       Supply Drives

·                  Involving campus

o       Fundraisers

§         Variety show

§         Krispy Kreme Sale

§         Athletic Concessions

·                  Involving Community

o       Scooter Raffle

o       Dinner Benefits

§         Rural Mexican Health Benefit

§         HOPE Initiative Benefit

·                  Questions

o       UMKC, Grace Lim: How do you keep general membership involved?

NU, Louis Levine: Hold people accountable

UIC, Courtney: Take Attendance

NU, Ashley Pasen: Give members ownership of individual projects

NU, John Broach: Don’t have too many required events Questions

Colleen Sherkow, External Relations

·                  Different approaches to getting items to health centers throughout the world:

o       Give individuals completes form letter for customs

o       Oversight

·                  Work with other nonprofits

o       NU worked with IRD: Tsunami Relief and Cameroon shipments

§         Dorm food drives

·        Encouraged students to use meal “points”

·        Worked with dorm government leaders

§         Local Drugstore Drives

·                  Finding own projects

o       e.g. NU Morocco shipment

§         Director of Kellogg Business School’s conference center on campus is from Morocco

§         Worked with him to arrange a shipment of 15 boxes and find on-site contact

Electronic copy of speech (coming soon)

·                  Questions:

o       UIC Courtney: How do we package the health kits?

NU, Colleen Sherkow: plastic bags

o       UIC, Saif: Where have we received our supplies from?

NU, Colleen Sherkow: home suppliers, operating rooms, hospital departments

NU, Munveer Bhangoo: Get your name out there and meet people

Marissa Petrou, Director of HIV/AIDS Programming

·                  2002, Marley AIDS Foundation contacted us to do an AIDS Rally which turned out to be more of a convention, Fall 2002

o       Contacted student groups, sororities/fraternities, professors

o       Discussed the situation of AIDS in various countries and areas

§         Effected Demographics

·                  Grant Writing to fundraise

o       $10,000 grant matched by Marley AIDS Advocacy

HOPE INITIATIVE

·                  What diseases need to be targeted?

·                  What are the methods of prevention/testing?

·                  Who do we need to contact?

o       Main diseases: HIV, Malaria, Typhoid, TB

·                  Provide doctors to speak, song/theater groups

·                  Address Women/Children, minority group

o       Comic book series

·                  Getting volunteers to run the center

o       Contact Nurses training center and polytechnic school

·                  Provide transportation to/from hospitals

·                  Encourage modern medicine rather than “traditional remedies”

o       UIC, Andree LeRoy: Non-institutionalized insurance system makes medicine too expensive

o       Marissa Petrou: Ghana is in the process of developing an insurance system, although we aren’t currently planning treatment

·                  Starting from scratch

o       Right now we need a waiting room and a class room, but somewhere down the line we want visitation rooms and a fulltime medical staff

·                  2004 World AIDS Day Conference

o       DATA, Open Hand, Better Living with HIV

o       Art from BEHIV and African Studies Department

o       African Students Association Presentation

o       Involved the community

·                  Questions

o       UMKC, Grace Lim: What is the plan for staying away from the culturally hegemonic Western mindset?

NU, Marissa Petrou: Showing preventative methods such as hand-washing, covering stagnant pools of water; bigger problem with AIDS- more of a stigma; making it a peer-run program from part of the center

NU, John Broach: Joe Achana contact in Ghana advising curriculum contact, etc.

à avoids problem of Western NGO mindset?

o       UNC, Eve: Where would the staff come from?

o       UIC, Andree: How does one balance school with the organization?

NU, Marissa, Ashley, Jill: Make it a release from work, not another job

NU, John Broach: Our work is never done, but remember the cause.

o       UIC, Andree LeRoy:  Where will funding come from to keep it running

Electronic copy of speech (coming soon)

Affiliate Presentations

UCLA- Vanessa, David

·                  Projects

o       Gathered Supplies and brought half to NU, half to Foundation of International Medical Relief for Children

o       Brought 100 kg rice and clothing to Vietnamese orphanage over Winter Break 2004

·                  Structure of affiliate

o       Collaboration of officers in stead of hierarchical structure

UNC- Eve

·                  Hunger Lunch Projects

o       Sell lunches at UNC

o       Bring $ to India for nutritional supplements

o       Bolivia- building water tank, irrigation system

o       Summer 2005- Project Hope in Uganda: soy beans and vitamin distribution

·                  Structure of affiliate

o       Under hunger lunch umbrella

o       Upcoming drive at Wal-Mart, ushering at B-Ball Game

UIC- Farah, Saif, Courtney, Andre

·                  Currently undergoing re-shuffling of the board

·                  Current Problems

o       Low involvement members

o       Loss of ideas

·                  Andre- working on a project with Health for Humanity to send a consignment to Physicians for Peace

·                  Upcoming projects

o       HALO tournament

o       Working on getting a car donated to junk in the quad during finals week

UMKC- Grace Lim

·                  Uncle passed away living in Samar Island in the Philippines, from a mild stroke, due to lack of basic supplies: ventilator, suction for aspiration, transportation to Manila

·                  Went through the process of school recognition in April

·                  Gained recognition from nationals in June

·                  Gopi, Director of External Affairs; Anna, Assistant Director of External Affairs:

o       Establish relationships with hospitals

§         Make contacts to get hospitals to contact them when they have supplies, rather than having to call the hospitals

§         Often able to donate on a monthly basis from overstock. Etc.

o       About 15 people on the External Affairs committee

o       Projects

§         Shipments to Haiti, Liberia, Grenada

§         Phone-a-thons

§         Supply drives

Questions

·                  How do you make these contacts?

o       Get a hold of them and then meet with them face to face (especially a supplies director, or contact a doctor you know who works there)

o       How quickly do you receive the donations?

o       First pickup within the month

·                  UIC, Andre: Did you prepare a presentation? Length? Content?

o       Introduce yourself: mission statement, give personal connection, describe recent project; offer tax exemption; mostly their just happy to get it off their hands;; give them your contact information

·                  NU, John Broach: Explain the phone-a-thon

o       Grace got in touch with woman who runs facility for alumni solicitation and requested use of the facility; researched pharmacies in Kansas City and called; some unresponsive, some requested DA Number from a physician, 7 allowed pickups

·                  Robin Patel, Director of Logistics; Cary Duckworth, Director of Fundraisings

·                  Pick up supplies, pack them, contact storage facilities

·                  120 members, 40 consistent

o       Robin: Don’t just concentrate on getting members; have projects ready when members sign up

o       Cary: Have passion; it can’t sustain itself

·                  Projects

o       Committee fundraising initiative: 5 months to raise $50 x 16 people

o       Pastry sale: Panera and Krispy Kreme donate

o       Rose sale on Valentine’s Day

o       April: Run/Walk to benefit HOPE Initiative

§         Try to get a DJ donated to play at event an publicize

§         People raise per lap

o       150 Health kits

§         Walgreen’s allowed them to solicit on a particular weekend once a month at several locations

o       2 packing days

o       Inventorying 2-3 pending shipments

o       Local Office Depot has offered to donate double-layer boxes

Questions

·                  UIC, Courtney: How do you find shippers?

o       UMKC: Contacts

o       NU, Munveer: Logistics company, but expensive

·                  UIC, Courtney: Can we do local shipments/projects?

o       NU, Ashley: Yes, complete site proposal form

o       NU, Munveer: not restrictive, just oversight, ensure legitimacy

·                  UIC, Farah: How do you publicize on campus?

Open Discussion

·                  Publicity

o       NU, Emily: Keep your image the same- consistent message is one of the important aspects of marketing

o       School-specific methods

§         E.g. NU: paint the Rock , the Arch banners, flier to sidewalk

o       UCLA, David: List serves, ask leaders of organizations if you can present at their meetings

o       Appeal to other majors and cultural groups; broaden scope, not just science/pre-med majors

o       NU, Jill: Get people early and appeal to freshman, e.g. activities fair

o       UNC, Eve: Talk to companies immediately after the beginning of the fiscal year because they a lot their $ and supplies early.

o       NU, John Broach: cultivate good relationships with the local media

·                  UKMC, Cary: Keeping people involved

o       David, UCLA: Membership application- Why join?

o       Grace, UMKC: What times work for you to meet? How did you here about GMRP? How do you see yourself contributing?

o       UIC, Andree: Cultivate motivation, be receptive to any small effort, encourage

o       UCLA, David: Sign-in sheets

·                  Fundraising

o       NU, Munveer: Did you like the common fundraising effort? (selling scooter raffle tickets for HOPE Initiative)

o       UCLA, David: printing cartridge recycling

o       UCLA, Vanessa: Late, Late Show pays for audience members

o       UMKC, Andre: ‘Befriending’ other groups, seeing opportunity for cooperation at every event; operas, galas, dinners for donors à college level: dance groups, fashion clubs; recognize interconnectedness and mutual benefits

·                  Contacts

o       NU, Munveer: Are you finding it difficult to find contacts?

o       David, UCLA: taking advantage of Mexico’s distance; approached by contact to bring supplies?

o       NU, Munveer: What do you want us at Nationals to do you for you?

o       David, UCLA: How does the tax form work?

o       NU, John Broach: We are going to be applying to the IRS for individual affiliation tax exemption

Keynote Speaker, Kearsley Stewart:

·                  A tale of two cities in Eastern Africa: Kampala and Hoima

o       Noerine Kaleeba and the girls of Duhaga Senior Secondary School- groundbreaking work at the community-level; UN: Geneva is developing HIV/AIDS programming based on her work (ABC program)

·                  Uganda, East Africa (equator)

·                  Overview

o       Introduction

o       Medical Anthropology, International and Global Health, Epidemiology and he study of HIV/ADIS in Africa

·                  Fulbright New Century Scholars 2002: Challenges of Health in a borderless world

o       Cohort 30 international and interdisciplinary scholars

o       One distinguished scholar leader:  Mrs. William Fulbright

o       Three international meetings in 12 months

o       Working groups of international scholars

o       Balance of powers not from Westerners but from developing world: How does that change the research agenda?

§         2002- Global Health

§         2003- Women: Gender Development

§         2004- Peace and Reconciliation

·                  What does a medical anthropologist do?

o       Study of culture, human biology, healing arts and sciences

o       Application of anthro methods outside academia

o       Teaching, research, government, NGOs, Non-Profits (Hispanic, Health Council, UN, USAID, FHI, DHS)

§         e.g. What issues effect 15-17 year old girls infected with or being tested for AIDS

·        Social models were based on monogamous couples, not unmarried teenage females.

·                  Paradigm Shift in the study of Health: International Health à Global Health

o       What is international health (1960-80s)?

§         Comes out of modernization, development, world bank in the developing world

§         Development and modernization is about building infrastructure correlates to building hospitals (the way to improve health is to transfer our resources from here to there- bilateral exchange from  “us” to  “them”)

§         Old thinking of what health and disease is: evolutionary- start with infectious disease, conquer it, and then move onto chronic/life-style illnesses: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, asthma

à they have infectious diseases in undeveloped nations and we have chronic disease in developed countries

·                  We now know that’s not true: SARS, AIDS, etc. are infectious and in the modern world

·                  Current Issues in Epidemiology and HIV/AIDS in Africa

o       How do we get away from statistics and their numbing effects?

o       Why do statistics matter to us?

§         1996 UNAIDS formed

§         2000 UN Security Council Resolution 1308

§         2001 Landmark UN General Assembly Special Session of HIV/AIDS

§         2002 CIA- AIDS seen as a security issue

§         2002 UN and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria

§         2003 Bush $16 billion initiative to combat AIDS

o       Describing things in terms of trends, instead of numbers

§         Disproportionate burden of disease in Africa

§         àWhy is their a higher incidence in Africa? What resources do we need in order to address this

§         Shift in focus from research and discovery (except vaccine) to refining what works, but links strongly to global issues and policy

§         Uganda and Senegal success vs. South Africa and Nigeria failures- why?

§         Life expectancy in Africa would increase by decades in some countries without HIV

·        e.g. Botswana (43 years with HIV, 73 years without)

o       Controversies

§         “myth” of declining incidence rates in Uganda: racism or caution

·        Some folks in public health think we need to go to the old method of quarantining people (backlash/retreat from human rights)

·                  6 June, 1986: Noerine Kaleeba discovers her husband is HIV positive, and she decides to conduct herself as though she is infected, without testing herself; it’s not the test results that our important, but what we do with the results, how we conduct ourselves (Testing didn’t become widely available until the 90s anyways).

o       At this time, being HIV positive was essentially a death sentence

o       She realized people need to focus not on positive/negative, but on making a change

o       Founds TASO: community/family based; reduced stigma

o       Celebrates PEPFAR in Entebbe, Uganda 7/03 (U.S. efforts to stem AIDS in Uganda, delivery of a treatment center

·                  Various groups of women in Africa

o       Boarding School Women

o       Working Women

§         Farmers

§         hair dressers

o       Elite women- stigma: irresponsible journalism of free press in Uganda leads to an anxiety of independent, strong women claiming they have loose morals and are the cause of spreading AIDS in Uganda

§         e.g. of girl being thrown out of university for posing on the cover of a magazine with her thighs showing

§         e.g. “Kafunda Stage” television program: forceful young woman trying to make it as a bus driver, confronted by opposition

·                  CULTURAL ANXIETY OF WOMEN ACHIEVING SEXUAL AND ECONOMIC DEPENDENCE à Sense of defiance and redefining gender roles.

·                  Balancing images in the media

o       e.g. woman posing for magazine article: Living Positively with HIV

o       e.g. “Straight Talk” monthly newspaper insert for males on prevention

·                  The story of girls of Duhaga Senior Secondary School

o       Held meeting with professors in which the theme was sexual health

o       Structure of room reinforces hierarchy (age trumps every other forms of social hierarchy in Africa)

o       Asked professors: Why don’t we have condoms for sale in the school canteen?

·                  Prior to the end of colonialization, there were month-long retreats in which you were transitioned into becoming an adult, but now there is not distinguishable line between when you are and are not ready to be sexually active

Web Resources

TASO: http://www.taouganda.org/

Noerine Kaleeba: http://www.un.org/events/women/iwd/2004/bio_kaleeba.html

Straight Talk: http://www.straight-talk.or.ug/

Contact Kearsley Stewart: kstewart@northwestern.edu

Questions:

-Incidence of homosexuality in Africa and its stigmatization in reference to AIDS

+In Africa, 60% women 40% men infected, always discussed as a heterosexual disease vs. U.S.