Foundations of Global Health
Global Health Paper
Successes of BRAC and PIH
BRAC and PIH serve as two non-profit organizations which selflessly serve to help the impoverished and needy members of society that require medical attention. BRAC is based in Bangladesh and as Smilie illustrates, it helped to not only bring healthcare to the poor but served as a means to help people out of poverty. Unlike the PIH, this organization is based on a nationalistic philosophy. There were many areas described in the book which showed that this organization not only focused on improving healthcare but many aspects of life in general. For example it helped generate income for women, educated many rural girls, distributed funds to the lower class and last but not least offered healthcare to people in the area. The reason why it reached such success is because it gathered support from so many people locally and nationwide through income generated projects as well targeted many simple solutions to health problems (ex. Oral rehydration therapy for children with diarrhea). BRAC used people from rural communities to improve health and used cost-effective measures like micro-financing to help poverty-ridden areas. One example of the aforementioned is women in the community who were trained to be midwives to assist with childbirth as well as volunteers/local health-care workers who learned to help and assist with health-care services to the poor. An example of the latter is job opportunities that were created to help the poor and ease poverty. This was known as the dairy initiative. (141) Mr. Abed came up with an idea to create a milk processing plant. Gathering inspiration and information that he acquired from the Danish experts, the organiz...
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...bout change. Much of what was implemented in BRAC and PIH can be used for many different areas. With the right amount of money and education people within the community can come together and create the change they want to see in the world.
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Starting off as just a limited relief program in 1972 it has now become the largest development organization in the world. Their goal is to spread the solutions they have started in Bangladesh and hope they are continued around the world. With tools such as education, finance, healthcare legal service and even a community empowerment, BRAC has helped the lives of an estimated 135 million people in eleven different countries. These social programs are massive and are formed to alleviate poverty on a global scale, financial support is critical to keep these programs supported. On their website they state that a donation will, “help foster education, create wealth and improve life quality.” That is a broad spectrum of where your donation could be going. For someone who is concerned with exactly where their money goes one useful way to find out is a simple phone call. If a real person answers the phone that is automatically a sign of a charity that is legitimate. BRAC’s main goal is economical empowerment especially for household mothers. Strengths of BRAC, as stated on their website, is the ability to take locally cultivated ideas and making them globally effective. As well as their, “scale and reach”, serving over ten different countries. Negatives about BRAC are hard to come by however some question whether their micro-finance department and loan system is sustainable
People sometimes ask, “Why should I have to give money to this project? I cannot possibly make that much of a difference.” The founder of the Cooperative Program, or the CP, thought differently. Since Ecclesiastes 4:9 says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil,” how much more can one hundred people do? How much more can 16 million people do? Well, through the CP, an immense amount of success comes from its rich history, its concise system, and by its evidence of life-changing stories. Most importantly, the success of the CP cultivated a revolution in today’s world.
While the moral backing for public health in its current state may be sound, what many researchers fail to understand is that the many moral failings of its predecessors that color the legacy of public health internationally and at home. As discussed in the chapter “Colonial Medicine and its Legacies” within the textbook Reimagining Global Health arranged by Paul Farmer, before the conception of global health there was international health which sought to distribute health as a good horizontally across international, political lines. Under the framework of international health, public health workers became agents of a cold war enmeshed in the fiscal, geopolitical, and territorial struggles between two hegemons rather than the holistic value of community health. While international health as a framework has largely been abandoned, much of its rhetoric can be found within our current framework of public health such as the enumeration of certain parts of the world as "1st world", "2nd world",
Salil Shetty. 2016. Making Change, the Challenge and The Potential ( speech to IAVE World Volunteer Conference). Retrieved from
Studies had shown that, racial disparities, political and socioeconomic status are one of the most determinants of the use of preventive services. Whereas, public programs of international development agencies during this period were also targeting means of eradicating specific diseases such as malaria, cholera, yaws, smallpox, influenza, cancer and the like. After several years of investment in the vertical interventions, preventable diseases remained a major challenge. Therefore, the international health agencies including experts around the globe began examining other alternative approaches to health improvement which brought ‘’health for all’’ through World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to practioners and the global health planners at the International conference on primary health care in Alma Ata in Kazakhstan. Relative to this, the conference also intended to revolutionize and reform previous health
“If you look at the human condition today, not everyone is well fed, has access to good medical care, or the physical basics that provide for a healthy and a happy life.” This quote by Ralph Merkle shows that something so easily taken for granted is healthcare. Most of us wouldn’t even think about it as a privilege, something that has just always been there and always will. In America, we would never even imagine not being able to receive medical care in our times of need, in other countries that is not at all the case. Many will die from easily preventable and treatable diseases because they do not have medical care. The charity Doctors of the World is committed to helping those who do not have easy access to medical care
In conclusion, the prospects of controlling or eradicating Tuberculosis will be a difficult and lengthy task. In Social Science & Medicine, Jaramillo (1999) argued that the “current tuberculosis epidemic has persisted because current tuberculosis control programs focus exclusively on the biological cause and fail to take into account an integrated model of the causality of tuberculosis including biological, behavioural, and socioeconomic forces.” Therefore, control and eradication will only be possible with a more active worldwide public health policy with those most vulnerable, for example those who are HIV positive are given extra screening. As HIV keeps global TB infection rates high, only with more effective management of HIV patients will it be possible to control tuberculosis.
Giving to others through humanitarian projects is not only inclusive of providing monetary solutions for food. Philosophies and intention to reach specific goals are also associated with the needs of others. The Hunger Project is designed with the central goal of eradicating poverty. However, it is found that this is not done only by feeding the poor, but instead through empowerment initiatives that allow others to change their lives. When looking at the approach used to The Hunger Project, it can be seen that the ability to provide empowerment to others will assist in changing lives through donations. The impact which is made by making a donation creates an initiative not only through the power of changing lives of those in need. It also alters the socio political landscape and the global society at large. This impact is one which can redefine the overall functions in the globe, specifically by eradicating poverty.
...Department of Health and Human Services of United States proposed a goal to completely abolish tuberculosis from the Earth by 2010. However, several Missouri counties have stated tuberculosis' recent rise and saying it still is a threat as it is airborne and infectious; tuberculosis will persist to be a peril to humanity (Nochlin, 2010). People still need to defeat various obstacles to reach that goal as AIDS and TB are cooperating to kill victims faster as well as intensifying the dangers of certain TB. Different parts of the world are also in danger, including India and Africa and Africa is particularly in great danger. Twenty-five million there are HIV-positive and 200 million are infected with inactive TB (Zimmerman, 2003). Certainly, these statistics forecast an inevitable massacre and the white death may become the greatest health disaster in human history.
I first considered a public health career when I interned at the Ghana Health Service Family Health Department as an undergraduate student. Participating in national meetings focused on strategies to reduce maternal mortality in Ghana, I recognized that, in order to create sustainable advances, it is crucial to address the underlying social inequalities that exacerbate adverse health outcomes. To advance this goal, I am seeking admission into the Global Health and Population Doctoral Program at the Harvard School of Public Health.
London, England. The.. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine n.d., Session 5: The role of the state. in global health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, England. Ricci J.
The health of an individual is affected by numerous factors that function on multiple heights and during the course of the life. Even though politicians and healthcare professionals have voiced their concern about the significance of access to and quality of healthcare services in the nation, we have to acknowledge that prevention is also crucial. The prevention of diseases and promotion of health require addressing a much comprehensive set of health policies that shape health-related behaviors (Why We Need Health-Informed Policies & Decision-Making, 2011). Health policies are indispensable vehicles in providing precision with matters and undertakings that are precarious to health and safety. According to the World Health Organization (2017),
Even though I initially started my journey in public health after graduating from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, I acknowledged my interest and enthusiasm when I was working on my research thesis during the final year of my college. I conducted a research study to evaluate the effectiveness of planned teaching program to control hypertension among adults residing in selected rural areas of Bangalore in India. It happened to be my first exposure to the field of public health where I had an opportunity to interact with Bangalore’s slum-dwellers and witness their lifestyle, their access to the basic needs such as water, sanitation, and essential nutrients which raised a serious concern on my mind. Upon completion of the research,