Local Engagement and Global Health: Exploring One Chapter’s Community Involvement
When people think of GlobeMed’s work, they usually think of grassroots international partnerships. However, plenty of chapters are using their skills and knowledge in global health equity to make a difference in their own backyards.
Neha Nagpal (University of Pennsylvania, ’24) is the Director of Local Engagement for GlobeMed at UPenn. That means she oversees their work with Prevention Point Philadelphia (PPP), a long-standing relationship the chapter has maintained for years in addition to their partnership with CHOICE Humanitarian. PPP is a nonprofit providing harm reduction services to the Philadelphia area, such as operating safe needle exchange programs and PrEP clinics, as well as other services such as a legal clinic, emergency housing, and food distribution.
In a normal year, 2–3 person teams of GlobeMed UPenn volunteers go to PPP on weekend mornings and help with tasks such as cooking and distributing meals, organizing clothing donations, and cleaning the building. Neha, on the other hand, joined GlobeMed and the Local Engagement Committee during the last school year, when UPenn’s COVID protocols didn’t allow them to volunteer in-person.
At the beginning of the year, the Local Engagement team had a call with the PPP Partnership Coordinator and other staff members. Everyone introduced themselves and got to know each other so they’d be starting off the difficult year with clear communication and knowing who their new co-workers were. “I think that’s a very valuable thing, is getting to know the human beings you’re working with and liking them and building relationships,” says Neha, recalling how GlobeMed at UPenn kept their relationship with PPP vibrant through a year of virtual engagement.
Over the virtual year, GlobeMed at UPenn continued to volunteer and fundraise for PPP. Local Engagement team members worked on projects such as inputting patient intake records, compiling soup kitchen calendars, and creating informational flyers that PPP staff could post around North Philadelphia. These flyers, which contained information on issues such as where to get a COVID test, how to get vaccinated, and where people could get a hot meal, were especially important because the demographic PPP serves doesn’t have a lot of access to technology to look up this information on their own. And at the end of that school year, some PPP staff members came to a GlobeMed at UPenn meeting in person to talk about the work they’d been doing throughout the year and meet more members of the chapter.
Now, GlobeMed at UPenn is able to go back to PPP in person, and Neha’s thrilled about the opportunities for members of the engagement team to better get to know each other and PPP staff members. To her, those individual relationships have been key to PPP and GlobeMed at UPenn sustaining their relationship throughout the years and the pandemic. So has GlobeMed at UPenn actively listening and responding to PPP’s needs. “We go there and we’re totally open to whatever their needs are. And I think that’s how partnerships like this should honestly work, because they are the organization that is doing all this work.”
Although local volunteering can be incredibly rewarding, battling burnout can be a real challenge, too. “Sometimes, when you see the global scale of these issues, that is a little overwhelming and daunting and heartbreaking [. . .] I’m doing this and we’re doing this and this is great, but to what extent is this making a difference?” Neha acknowledges. “That for me has always been kind of hard, but it’s only encouraged me more to get involved in volunteering rather than discouraged me.” Neha keeps herself engaged by focusing on small, concrete steps and reminding herself that every bit counts. And this humbling perspective on the bigger picture can go hand-in-hand with the rewarding aspects of the work: “I think that’s my favorite part of volunteering, honestly, is by helping others you realize how big the systemic problems that exist in society are and you feel like you’re really doing something meaningful.”
People often think that getting involved in global health has to mean working abroad, but the United States is part of the globe, too. Working in global health can include getting involved in local communities, applying skills learned through international work and partnership. The best place to start? According to Neha, it’s just making yourself aware, through research and conversation with others, about what issues need to be addressed. “When you don’t talk about them and you’re not consciously surrounded or reminded of them, it’s easy to just let it slip through your consciousness and not linger on it and be like, ‘This is important, and this is something I should want to do something about.’ [. . .] It’s shown me how much I care about these issues and how important it is.”
