Provide Public Health for Orphans in Uganda

A new school year is officially underway and a new GlobeMed team has been established at Northwestern! After a pretty intense application process (we had over 150 applicants!), our Northwestern chapter has grown to 66 members strong! The members were informed about a week ago and we had an official "meet and greet" to get to know everyone last Sunday where the treat du jour was cupcakes glazed with the GlobeMed symbol! 

Our first official chapter meeting was held this past Wednesday evening (October 6th) where we outlined the objectives of GlobeMed as an organization and introduced our new members to our partner organization, the H.O.P.E. Center in Ho, Ghana. We also highlighted our current campaign: the Global Marketplace! This is an initiative we created collecting clothing, books, accessories, DVDs etc. on and off campus in Evanston to bring together on October 19th to sell off in our very own marketplace. The event lasts from 11am-4pm in the Norris Student Center. 

Other important information on the agenda was setting goals for this upcoming year and explaining our progress in Ghana from the past summer. Things have been going very well at the H.O.P.E. center and the G.R.O.W. trip members from this past summer did an outstanding job with their own personal research projects and with exceeding the expectations for the work we had in mind. We are currently starting up the childhood nutrition outreach program for a new batch of kids! In addition also over the summer, we decided to set a chapter goal of $10,000 to fundraise over the next year!

Thanks so much for taking the time to read up on our progress!

Links:

• Read our chapter blog!

After an amazing summer working at our partner site, the Health Outreach and Peer Education (H.O.P.E.) Center, in Ho, Ghana, I am pleased to announce that exciting new initiatives are looming on the horizon.

With the support and guidance of the Center’s staff and community members, the four of us GlobeMed students were able to help develop new avenues to take the Childhood Nutrition Program. During our time in Ghana, the number of community demonstration farms was expanded to a total of four (one at the Center, two in the nearby village Ando, and another one in the village Kodzobi). The addition of these farms will help to reach a broader community, as more people are taught how to properly plant and harvest soybeans to fortify their children’s meals.

To promote sustainability, the peer education training materials of the program were updated and six more people will be trained in the coming year. Currently, three women have been educated as nutrition program ambassadors. They are responsible for helping run the cooking demonstrations and counsel community members in proper nutritional practices. These peer educators will act as liaisons between their community and the H.O.P.E. Center by promoting the nutrition program and identifying any concerns that come to light.

In addition, each student conducted community mapping surveys to better identify areas of health (infectious diseases, nutrition, sanitation, and sexual health) that can be improved among the Center’s catchment areas. Our results indicate that there are specific knowledge gaps, especially in relation to proper nutrition, that exist within certain subgroups of the communities. For instance, there is the potential to expand the nutrition program to include pregnant women. This population group could greatly benefit from the lessons taught during the nutrition program, since healthier eating during pregnancy can lead to a healthier mother and child. Already, work is underway to expand the nutrition program to include pregnant women.

Our time working at the Center this summer convinced us of the significance of the Nutrition Program; we have seen first-hand its positive effect on the community. One mother in Ando explained to me how she has gained a much deeper understanding of proper nutrition and consciously works to promote healthy eating practices among her friends and family. It is our sincere desire that more people will have the opportunity to experience the positive effects of the Nutrition Program and act as advocates within their own communities. It is easy to see that this dream is rapidly becoming a reality and we can’t wait to see what the upcoming year will bring!

Links:

• "GlobeMed Grapevine" chapter blog