Physical Health Thailand Project #12228

Healthcare and Education for Burmese Immigrants

by GlobeMed at University of Cincinnati

Project Report | Aug 31, 2016
GlobeMed at UC, September 2016 Update

By Juliana Madzia | Co-President

Dear Supporters of GlobeMed at UC,

We appreciate your ongoing dedication to and interest in our chapter. The new school year has just begun for us, and we have many innovative ideas that we are very excited to implement. We believe these will be very influential in strengthening our partnership with SAW, promoting our growth and success as a chapter, and increasing the impact that we can have as young change-makers in our communities.

In June, five of our chapter members traveled to Mae Sot to lay the groundwork for the next stage our project with SAW. Continuing from that, we plan to focus more on monitoring and evaluation of the project’s impact, successes, and failures so that we can better work with SAW to adapt and improve throughout the year. Additionally, these members assisted in the teaching of a GED class that SAW provides for young people who have recently come from Burma. This was a new development in the partnership that we found to be productive and very enjoyable. The exchanges that our members had with their students were meaningful and insightful, and we hope to continue assisting SAW in this manner in the future.

Soon we will be holding a Global Health Networking Event, where our members will have the opportunity to connect with university faculty members whose work is grounded in global health or social justice. Through this event, we hope to strengthen our relationships with people who have years of real-world experience in the field and extend our support network outside of the undergraduate campus. We are also aiming to make our Annual Benefit Dinner bigger and better this year than ever before. Our benefit dinner committee is already hard at work making plans for this outstanding event, which will take place on March 3, 2017 at the Phoenix in Cincinnati. Keep an eye on your inboxes and mailboxes for more information!

While we are working hard to fundraise and advocate here in Cincinnati, SAW is continuing to work even harder to provide community health workshops, gender-based violence programs, family talk workshops, and mobile medical care to rural communities in the Phop Phra region. Their ongoing commitment to sustainability and to truly listening to the needs of these communities are making noticeable, positive changes in the area that we hope will continue for a long time in the future. In order to continue supporting SAW in the work that they do, we ask that you help in any way that you can through making a donation of any size.

Donations to our chapter can be made here: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/globemedatcincinnati/. We thank you again for your enormous support and encouragement, and we look forward to all that the future holds for GlobeMed at UC.

Yours in Health,

Juliana Madzia, Linda Venturato, and the rest of GlobeMed at UC

Links:

https://globemed.org/impact/cincinnati/

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Jun 8, 2016
GlobeMed at UC, June 2016 Update

By Juliana Madzia | External Co-President

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your continued support of and interest in our chapter. This past year, GlobeMed at UC experienced unprecedented growth, both in membership and donor support. We are in an excellent position to take on ambitious goals, and we have many exciting plans coming up over the summer and into the next school year that we believe will be very influential in strengthening our partnership with SAW and promoting our growth and success as a chapter.

Having exceeded our fundraising goal of $10,000 for the 2015-2016 school year, we now start again from the ground and work our way up. Since the beginning of our partnership with SAW, we have raised over $56,000, all of which has gone toward Community Health Outreach Programs and a Mobile Medical Team. Through these projects, we have been able to directly impact 5,500 Burmese migrants and indirectly impact 1,500 more. Without the hard work of all of our chapter members, the people at SAW, and the generous support of people like you, such success would be impossible. Moving forward, we hope to increase our impact even further - both in terms of the number of people that we can reach as well as the extent to which we can serve them.

In June and July, five of our chapter members will travel to Mae Sot to lay the groundwork for the next stage of our project with SAW. In Mae Sot, these students will work with SAW staff to develop our Partnership Action Framework, a document that outlines the details of our partnership for the upcoming year. Additionally, these students will work to build personal relationships with everyone at SAW so that our partnership maintains the human aspects that are so vital to GlobeMed's mission. Within the next year, we plan to focus more on monitoring and evaluation of the project’s impact, successes, and failures so that we can better work with SAW to adapt and improve throughout the year.

This year, we are aiming to make our Annual Benefit Dinner bigger and better than ever before. Our benefit dinner committee chairs are already hard at work making plans for this outstanding event, which will take place on March 3, 2017. Mark your calendars now and keep an eye on your inboxes and mailboxes for more information!

We thank you again for your enormous support and encouragement, and we look forward to all that the future holds for GlobeMed at UC.

Yours in Health,

Juliana Madzia, Linda Venturato, and the entire chapter of GlobeMed at UC

Links:

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Mar 15, 2016
Healthcare and Education for Burmese Immigrants

By Juliana Madzia | External Co-President

Dear GlobeMed at UC Supporters,

As the semester continues, we are in the midst of our final fundraising push. On March 11th, we held our Third Annual Benefit Dinner at Music Hall in downtown Cincinnati, which is always our largest fundraiser of the year. Final profits have not yet been calculated, but we can be sure that the dinner was a success. Our keynote speakers were Dr. Chris Lewis, a Cincinnati family physician and founder of the Village Life Outreach Project, and Alyssa Smaldino, GlobeMed's current Executive Director. The benefit dinner could not have been the success that it was without the immense support of all who attended the dinner, donated items for the silent auction, provided catering, or volunteered at the dinner. We learned a lot from this event and look forward to begin planning next year's dinner!

As a recap on our history and our partnership, since GlobeMed at the University of Cincinnati’s start in 2011, we have raised over $46,000 for our partner and sent a total of 21 students to intern in Thailand. This year we have set our fundraising goal at $10,000 and will be sending 5 more students to Mae Sot to work directly with SAW to strengthen and sustain the partnership that is so vital to GlobeMed’s mission. Our project will directly impact 5,500 Burmese migrants in Thailand and will indirectly impact approximately 1,500 more. These impacts will be achieved by identifying health education focus areas and planning workshops to meet the health needs of communities in the Mae Sot area.

SAW aims to provide medical care to 58 communities by mobilizing a Mobile Medical Team and to train 20 additional Peer Educators, who will help to increase community reproductive and basic preventative health knowledge through the workshops that will take place in their own communities. SAW’s key target groups for this phase of the project are men and women ages 15-45 in the Phop Phra area and Burmese migrant students from 7 schools in Phop Phra.

Looking forward, the GlobeMed at UC and Social Action for Women partnership aims to increase the number of Peer Educators to satisfy the ever-growing need for health education in the Phop Phra region and to make health and safety a possibility for more and more people. GlobeMed at UC will be working in solidarity with SAW to maintain the strong sense of partnership that has been in place for the past 5 years. We hope to continue to be able to support SAW in a variety of ways, whether that may be financially or through an increased focus on advocacy that we plan to implement in the coming years. For the rest of the semester, we will be focusing on solidifying our plans for our summer trip to Thailand and continuing to develop our partnership plans for the coming years.

We are so grateful for all of you and your tremendous support. The work that we do would not be possible without your generosity and we consider ourselves lucky to have you in our network of supporters.

Yours in Health,

Juliana Madzia, Sami Nandyal, and the entire chapter of GlobeMed at UC

Links:

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