What Do 15 Years of GlobeMed Actually Look Like?
When Northwestern student Victor Roy met Joseph, the head of a clinic in Ho, Ghana built by Global Medical Relief Program, Victor saw that the clinic supported by GMRP was not fully meeting the needs of the community it sought to serve. When he returned and shared that experience, he joined a group of passionate undergraduates who were brought together by their common determination to answer one question: How can we, as students, engage in global health in a way that makes a lasting impact?
Frustrated by the short-term and near-sighted options offered to them — donating money to humanitarian organizations, medical mission trips, or studying abroad — that group of 45 students set out to co-create and design a new model that better represented the world they envisioned. After receiving a sizable donation from the Abbott Fund, this group of health advocates built GlobeMed’s Global Headquarters and designed the GlobeMed model.
The model these students created was different. It committed to centering community leaders as the experts that would teach them about global health. Local leaders have the knowledge, relationships, and vision needed to create lasting change.
Through long-term, one-to-one partnerships, students learn first-hand the leadership practices that community leaders identify as crucial for the global health equity movement.
At our 15 year milestone, GlobeMed alums are leaders for global health equity across a myriad of disciplines, and we cannot wait to see the wake they leave as they further initiatives rewriting health equity.
Today, more than 1,000 students across 36 university-based chapters use the GlobeMed model to sustain one-to-one, long-term partnerships with grassroots organizations in communities across Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Through these partnerships, we are building a global network of human connection and impact.
The partnerships are also a hands-on learning environment for GlobeMed students, where they learn directly from grassroots experts about global health equity issues and how they can redirect the resources they have access to in order to contribute to those efforts. Whether that is fundraising, statistical analysis skills, or connections to grant opportunities, the relationships that are nurtured over the years between a chapter and an organization are focused on being mutually beneficial. And when it comes to funds that are raised by the chapters, the money is given without restrictions for each organization to use as they determine.
Each chapter is encouraged to have an executive board, or eboard. Eboard positions cover all the different activities that a chapter participates in, from facilitating partnership to health equity learning sessions, from fundraising to local engagements, and provide opportunities for students to put what they are learning about leadership into practice.
GlobeMed students can also participate in leadership development activities outside of Eboard. One of the most important pieces of GlobeMed is experiential learning, and who better to directly learn from than grassroots, community leaders? Small teams of three to five students visit their partner organization for four to eight weeks as a part of the Grassroots On-site Work (GROW) experience. Partners identify projects and areas that would benefit from the support of visiting students and work with the students to create a hands-on learning experience. GROW interns take part in preparation training before embarking on their experience through GROW Institute. The 7th annual GROW Institute took place on February 23–25, 2018 in Chicago. With more than 150 students from over 50 chapters in attendance, the weekend served as an opportunity for intensive pre-departure training, prior to GROW internships that summer.
The mutual learning that results from the GROW internships benefits both the student learners and community leaders. Back on campus, students share their learning with their chapters, equipping them with the firsthand knowledge to be improved advocates for the following year. Over the last 15 years, some chapters have partnered and re-partnered with new grassroots organizations as the organizations grow to be self-sustainable. Others have maintained their strong partnership and continue expanding their impact to neighboring communities. In fact, three chapters celebrated 12 years of partnership in 2020!
“[Scores] of community members attended our Kakoola outreach, eager to share their struggles and push for a better future. I remember seeing the chairperson of Kakoola’s future water user committee speak with Uncle Peter about the community’s needs; she spoke with great passion, urgency, and concern, and it was through her advocacy that my optimism rekindled. Progress is slow, but as demonstrated by the heroism and solidarity of the Kakoola village members, it is also attainable. We still have a long way to go, and that in itself is my motivation to continue advocating for our partner.” —Gareema Agarwal, GlobeMed at UCLA, 2019 GROW Intern
Ellie Privitera said, “When I think about global health I often think of research and care provision… in GlobeMed I’ve come to learn that is not necessarily the essence of this work. This story is emblematic of my view that a healthy world is one where all people — regardless of factors like age, socioeconomic status, race, nationality, and more — are able to determine and achieve their goals. Learning from Nan’s ambition and confidence made me grateful for our grassroots partner’s work to support people in achieving and realizing their potential, and I am even more humbled by the sacrifices Social Action for Women staff make to do so.”
Bhavana from GlobeMed at Lawrence University, one of the more than 60 chapters GlobeMed has worked with since its founding in 2006, shared her recollection from her GROW experience in 2016. “With the Health Development Initiative (HDI) in Kigali, Rwanda, we were part of a nutrition and food security project. We worked to do interviews of community members to collect baseline health information, like how many meals they ate per day, if they had access to soap and water, etc.. We also helped in the construction of portable sac gardens, the plants you’ll see in the white burlap sacs in the photos, which were meant to provide a sustainable food source for members of the community who could not otherwise own land to cultivate. HDI invited a community agriculture expert to provide guidance and instructions around planting!”
“I believe that GlobeMed’s work — developing committed, values-driven global health leaders; partnering to advance health initiatives; and fostering a diverse and collaborative community of change-makers — is needed now more than ever. I am excited and honored to have this opportunity to work with our students, alumni, partners, and stakeholders to amplify the impact of our model, while keeping us grounded in values and spirit that make our work exceptional.” Priya Fremerman said. Priya, now the executive director of GlobeMed, is also a GlobeMed at the George Washington University alumna.
GlobeMed is committed to anti-oppression and fighting systems of domination, which means shifting power to members of our network who have been marginalized. We believe all of our students, partners, and neighbors deserve to feel powerful in their journeys to living healthy lives. In fact, we believe everyone must be able to feel powerful if we are to build healthier, more equitable communities.
GlobeMed’s commitment to anti-oppression is present both globally and locally. As a minority-serving institution, GlobeMed at Georgia State University aims to extend GlobeMed’s curriculum to students underrepresented in the field of global health. There are currently nine chapters at minority-serving institutions, including one international chapter, with more to come. All chapters practice inclusive recruitment of their members to strive for ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural diversity.
When much of the world went remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic, GlobeMed did too. The annual summer GROW internships became virtual, as did each chapters’ meetings and operations.
As GlobeMed has shifted to virtual programming and supporting another year of virtual GROW experiences,, we look forward to a more accessible model that prioritizes the safety and health of our partner organizations and provides the most culturally enriching experience for students.
As part of GlobeMed’s 15-year anniversary, we’re stepping back to celebrate how far we’ve come and the meaning of our work over the years. This is part of a series of 15 stories we’re sharing about GlobeMed’s impact on partners, students, and alumni.
