Education and Nutrition for Ugandan Youth

Dear GlobeMed family and friends,

In our first project update, we introduced you to two of our campaigns that helped us raise a total of $13,513.95 during the 2012-2013 academic year. After transferring those funds to our partner, Uganda Development and Health Associates (UDHA), we were excited to send three eager staff members to Iganga, Uganda, to intern with UDHA. The three interns, Rachel Bridge, Rachel Hoffman, and Alex Rosenthal, worked mainly with UDHA’s Youth Resources Centre (YRC) through a GlobeMed program called Grassroots On-Site Work (GROW). We are thrilled to report that their experience was a great success!

The GROW interns focused the majority of their efforts on helping UDHA redesign and develop the YRC’s school outreach program, which focuses on adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) education. UDHA and the GROW Team selected five secondary schools based on both need for the program and administrative support of the project. At each school, the UDHA/GROW intern team interviewed and selected two peer educators—one male, one female—who will act as a resource within their school and with a selected partner primary school. Another part of the school outreaches is a music, dance, and drama (MDD) program, in which the MDD team sings, dances, and tells stories using traditional techniques to convey messages about ASRH. The GROW interns even learned (i.e. tried to learn) how to dance the traditional dance, and they performed in front of two of the schools along side the regular MDD team. One of the most innovative and fulfilling parts of their experience with UDHA was when the interns helped design and install a “Health Box” project at the ten schools. Every month, UDHA staff members will collect and respond to questions students deposit in the Health Boxes. After the first installation, the team found at least 50 questions in each school’s Health Box! The interns were also able to participate in GlobeMed’s first ever East Africa Forum in Kampala, Uganda. GlobeMed interns from 12 different university chapters who are working in East Africa this summer came together along with representatives from our respective partner organizations to gain insight on different strategies to work towards global health equity and social justice, the heart of each GlobeMed partnership. Please feel free to view pictures from the team’s 9 weeks in Uganda at: http://globemed.smugmug.com/GlobeMed-at-WashU/GROW-2013/32174790_NZL7TV

As we now embark upon a new academic year, we look forward to further developing our fundraising campaigns and to continuing to educate our staff at meetings so that we are all prepared to advocate for health as a human right. This year, we have made a commitment to UDHA to raise at least $13,200, and we will need your help! Every cent that we commit to raising is painstakingly accounted for in UDHA’s annual budget, and even the smallest donation affects whether UDHA can buy anything from a simple box of pens to a delivery bed- everything that helps drive them to continue their hard work. We will be fundraising throughout the year, so please keep GlobeMed and UDHA in mind whether you are considering a donation in honor of a loved one’s birthday or are feeling especially giving one day. The staff members of GlobeMed at Washington University in St. Louis and of Uganda Development and Health Associates are so grateful for your help in this past year. Without you, we would not be able to achieve our goals and make such concrete differences in people’s lives. We thank you sincerely for your continued support.

In solidarity,

GlobeMed at Washington University in St. Louis