World AIDS Week Event Listing

Hi everyone,

Next week, there will be a series of activities at the medical school designed to be a week-long commemoration of World AIDS Day (December 1st). Here's a link to the webpage with a schedule of events:

http://www.geocities.com/finding_root/AIDS_Week.html

The webpage will hopefully be updated with more events and descriptions by the end of the week.

Faculty and 3rd/4th med students--there are a few evening events that have been planned in hopes that you will be able to join us.

Cheers,

Margret

A Thanksgiving Thank You!

Hi everyone,

So, a few days after my "Call to Action" post, I walked into the BMC student lounge to find this:

In all, we donated 37 cans (beans, tuna, assorted veggies), 3 tins of peanut butter, 2 jams, 5 boxes of pasta, a couple of 3-lb bags of rice, 3 packages of dried beans, a multi-pack of applesauce, and several packs of crackers and flatbreads. This is quite impressive, considering that I only gave you a few days notice before Thanksgiving Break!

So did we solve Rhode Island's poverty and food crisis? Probably not. But I think we deserve a collective pat on the back for putting forth our best small-scale effort. :-)

Hunger and food insecurity remain major challenges in Rhode Island and in other cities across the United States. As med students and physicians, we should try our best to be aware of these issues and their connection to health. If you want to find out more--or better yet, if you want to develop your own project--please visit the RI Community Food Bank website:

http://www.rifoodbank.org/matriarch/default.asp

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Margret

help needed for work on developing world health issues

By David Egilman MD, MPH Clinical Associate Prof Community Health

Are you interested in assisting the development of health professional’s education throughout Africa? Global Health through Education Training and Service (GHETS) is looking for interns to assist with a number of projects including support of the newly developed African Association of Health Institutions (AAHI).

AAHI developed out of a meeting in fall 2006, where a collection of academics from health institutions discussed the fact that there is no real equivalent to the American Association of Medical Colleges in Africa. Since African medical schools (and other health education institutions like nursing schools) are so under budgeted and overstretched, having a forum for collaboration and communication would be very helpful. Institutions could benefit from collective knowledge, tools, resources and experiences available regionally instead of depending on institutions in North America and Europe.

Currently, the organization consists of a taskforce with 4 members from different regions of Africa (Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya and Mozambique) who, since the inception of AAHI, have met three times to write a charted and draft a grant proposal. Intern projects assisting AAHI would include assistance in identifying funding sources for AAHI, publicity for the organization so as to increase membership (currently AAHI has members from approximately 30 institutions), research for a leadership development workshop members hope to hold in the near future, and development of a website for the organization.

For more information on this and other GHETS’ programs please see the our website at www.ghets.org

To learn more about GHETS intern positions, see out posting on idealist.org:
http://www.idealist.org/if/i/en/av/Internship/115526-156
GHETS offices are easily accessible by the commuter rail in Attleboro, MA

NY Times Magazine: Third World Clinic, First World Country

See below for a really thought-provoking article. Thanks to Jenny Humphrey for passing this along to us!

- Margret
--------------------

MAGAZINE November 18, 2007

Magazine: Third World Clinic, First World Country
Larry Towell/Magnum, for The New York Times

https://email.brown.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/11/18/magazine/20071118_HEALTHCARE_SLIDESHOW_index.html?ex=1195966800%26en=65574461c1507fa0%26ei=5070%26emc=eta3

Thanksgiving Call to Action

Hi everyone,

Check out this ProJo article, which chronicles the daunting task of social-service agencies struggling to help Rhode Islanders this year.

http://www.projo.com/news/content/TOUGH_TIMES_SUNDAY_11-18-07_NL7TAQG_v29.2547362.html

Here's an excerpt:

Jamie Cassidy, state social worker director for the Salvation Army, said fuel-oil requests are up significantly, and “we’ve also seen an extreme need in food assistance.”

Cassidy also reported that the level of donations for Thanksgiving baskets “has not even been close to what it was last year at this time” in the collection bins at Shaw’s supermarkets.

So before we all head off to enjoy our Thanksgiving holiday, let's try to do our bit to address food insecurity. Please make a food donation the next time you're at Shaw's or any other grocery store.

For med students without cars: I will be leaving a box in the BMC Student Lounge starting tomorrow (Monday) for any canned or dried foods you'd be willing to donate.

Thanks, and enjoy the upcoming Thanksgiving Break!

Margret

Reminder: Register for the Pizza Brigade!

The next Advocacy Pizza Brigade is less than a week away! If you haven't already, please remember to RSVP as soon as possible , or else you'll run the risk of not getting any pizza!

Again, here are the details:

When: Wednesday, November 14; 7-9 pm
Where: The house of Dr. Jody Rich; 21 Boylston Ave
Providence RI
tel 351-4996

***Please RSVP to margret_chang@brown.edu ASAP if you're interested in attending***