Blogs

FGHL Blog: Kelly Tschida - Learning from one another: Nyamata Hospital

Dec 01 2009

Read More - FGHL Blog: Kelly Tschida - Learning from one another: Nyamata Hospital
I have now transitioned to working with the physicians. Each physician is responsible for admitted patients on one of the floors and seeing patients in the outpatient consultation area. This change has been eye-opening.

Each morning starts at 7:00 with prayers, singing, and a short sermon. Watching my colleges sing and dance is an incredible way to start the day. By 7:30 we start rounds. There are usually about 40 patients to see and it has to be finished by 9:30 when the outpatient consulting begins.

Sen. Bob Corker at Belmont University: Water for the World Event

Nov 23 2009

Read More - Sen. Bob Corker at Belmont University: Water for the World Event
by Jenny Dyer, Ph.D.
Belmont University hosted an event today with Senator Bob Corker announcing his co-sponsorship of the Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009. Joining Senator Corker included water activists Dan Haseltine and Jars of Clay with Blood: Water Mission, Dave Barnes with Mocha Club, and Bill Hearns of EMI for Healing Water International.

FGHL Blog: Kelly Tschida - Rwanda: Remembering the Genocide in Nyamata

Nov 18 2009

Read More - FGHL Blog: Kelly Tschida - Rwanda: Remembering the Genocide in Nyamata
Nyamata, Rwanda: Today

Although the Rwandan genocide occurred fifteen years ago, I see its impacts everyday in the hospital. The region I live in was an area of great violence. There is a memorial site here in Nyamata were 10,000 people crammed into a small church seeking refuge, only to be killed. It is hard to believe that the reserved, kind spirited people I know went through such a horrible event.

FGHL Blog: Danielle Dittrich - From Guatemala: Primeros Pasos Update

Nov 17 2009

Read More - FGHL Blog: Danielle Dittrich - From Guatemala: Primeros Pasos Update
To be a practitioner in Guatemala, one needs to find harmony between western and traditional medicine. I had never thought about or tried natural herbal medicine before coming to Guatemala. Though I still don't usually recommend it to my patients, I have begun exploring the natural remedies so that I can hopefully help my patients to navigate their own health. The women's program teaches patients that if their symptoms do not improve after two days of at home treatment with herbal remedies, they need to go to the doctor for medication.

Tracking Survey on U.S. Role in Global Health

Nov 13 2009

Read More - Tracking Survey on U.S. Role in Global Health
by Jenny Dyer, Ph.D.
FROM Kaiser Family Foundation: The Foundation has issued its latest global health survey, Views on the U.S. Role in Global Health Update, which probes American public opinion about efforts by the United States to improve the health of people in developing nations. According to the poll findings, most Americans support current U.S. spending to improve health conditions in poorer nations despite the economic recession. Two thirds of the public supports maintaining (32%) or increasing (34%) spending on global health, while a quarter say the country is spending too much. More of the public prefers an emphasis on health infrastructure rather than fighting specific diseases. When asked to rank the importance of the two approaches, 58 percent say it is more important to emphasize programs that help countries build their health system infrastructure, under the theory that stronger health systems can better handle a variety of problems. In contrast, 36 percent say it is more important to emphasize efforts to fight specific diseases like AIDS and malaria because efficient methods for treating such diseases already exist and can save large numbers of lives. All the survey materials are available online.

This is interesting and great news given our economic climate that the majority of Americans still care deeply about helping those with the fewest resources worldwide. I find intriguing that the American public has marched forward from embracing the issues of HIV/AIDS and the global pandemic, or malaria and the need for bednets, to realizing the need for health systems, working together, to build infrastructure for smart, efficient use of assistance. Health systems and health infrastructure are far from sexy topics, but that is what is needed and needed now.

Gates Foundation Living Proof Project

Nov 12 2009

Read More - Gates Foundation Living Proof Project

by Bill Frist, M.D.

A couple weeks back, the Living Proof Project was unveiled in Washington, D.C. by Bill and Melinda Gates. The goal of this great project is to share the good news of the implementation of assistance. U.S. investments in improving global health are delivering real results. From significant declines in child deaths, to global eradication efforts against polio, to insecticide-treated bed nets that reduce malaria transmission, global health initiatives are working. At http://www.gatesfoundation.org/livingproofproject you can learn more from their progress sheets. Watch the speeches of these "Impatient Optimists."  I have the pleasure of serving on the Advisory Council.
 
The video below was shown yesterday at a Save the Children Survive to Five Council meeting in NYC. This is a great example of real results, combating infant mortality. Saving the life of a little one.

 

FGHL Blog: Krista Ford - Tanzania Update; Africare

Nov 11 2009

Read More - FGHL Blog: Krista Ford - Tanzania Update; Africare
The end of October marked the end of my first quarter here at Africare and the start of the second quarter seems to have brought with it all types of change. In the office we are currently in the midst of several big changes, the biggest being the addition of a new CDC funded home-based care project. Africare will work with some small Civil Service Organizations and existing community structures to provide home-based care for people living with HIV/AIDS. The start up of this project has required a lot of time and energy, including interviewing for about 20 new positions. With between five and ten candidates being interviewed for each position, you can imagine that this has been a very time consuming process. Everyone from the Country Representative, to the program's Chief of Party, to the junior staff has been pitching in to assist in the interviewing process. I've been working very closely with the Human Resources Officer to test the candidates' practical skills, compile summaries of interview results, and create briefings of panel recommendations to be reviewed and approved by the Country Representative and our headquarters in Washington, D.C. I even had the opportunity to sit on the interview panel for a few of the positions and it was quite a different experience being the interviewer instead of the interviewee. One of the new staff that has been hired is the new Program Assistant, Gloria.

Stealing the Pulpit: Visiting Christ Church, Nashville

Nov 09 2009

Read More - Stealing the Pulpit: Visiting Christ Church, Nashville

by Bill Frist, M.D.

Yesterday morning, I had the honor of speaking at both services at Christ Church in Nashville. Over 5000 people attended. The services were dedicated to the doctors and nurses in the community, recognizing all health care workers for their healing care. It was a wonderful opportunity to share the work of Hope Through Healing Hands at home and abroad. As you know, HTHH's selects Global Health Leaders, annually, to travel to underserved clinics around the world to bolster health care and training of community health workers for sustainability. Right now, we have Leaders in Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, and Guatemala. We are proud to support their efforts, using health as a currency for peace. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly."

Thanks to all at Christ Church for the warm welcome.

 

 

Celebrating World Pneumonia Day: Reception

Nov 09 2009

Read More - Celebrating World Pneumonia Day: Reception
by Bill Frist, M.D.
Today, I joined Save the Children, the US Coalition for Child Survival, the World Pneumonia Day Coalition and Vicks at a breakfast reception on Capitol Hill to recognize the first annual World Pneumonia Day, a day for people everywhere to turn awareness into action to control the #1 killer of children under age 5: pneumonia. Each year, a disease which often starts as a cold, claims the lives of nearly 2 million children under age 5 -- more than malaria, AIDS and measles combined. Despite this staggering death toll, childhood pneumonia has never been a global health priority, and the current basic maternal child health programs --that need to be in place to control the disease-- are under-funded.

Help-Portrait: Photographers Giving Back

Nov 04 2009

Read More - Help-Portrait: Photographers Giving Back

by Jenny Dyer

November 4, 2009

How can art save the world? Photographers have the gift to capture a moment of beauty. And, capturing moments of beauty for a person who has never known s/he is beautiful, can give life back to the most downtrodden of spirits--proving everyone holds a spark of the imago dei.

Jeremy Cowart wondered how he could give back, offering his gift of capturing the lovely in those who may have never seen that loveliness. His Help-Portrait movement has sparked interest around the world to provide photos to those individuals and families in need. His website provides the tools to do the following:

1. Find someone in need

2. Take their portrait

3. Print their Portrait

4. And Deliver Them.

If you're a photographer -- check out this movement. Your art could change the world. Consider joining the community:

What does Help-Portrait Look Like?

 

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