Volunteering with Doc to Dock

For those of you who couldn't make the first SJM meeting, here is a short video on Doc to Dock, a non-profit under the Clinton Global Initiative aimed at redirecting medical supplies that would otherwise be wasted to clinics in Africa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOoxU4oQPxI

If this sounds like something you'd be interested in getting involved in, I've set up several tentative dates to visit and volunteer at the warehouse at the following link (which incidentally can also always be found in the side bar on the right). If you'd like to sign up for a trip, just click the link, find a day you'd like to go and enter your name and email. As the date approaches, you'll get a reminder email that will also address the logistics on getting there.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p5gqwk2rQnAapQt8XD1jfcA&hl=en

The dates and times that we go are always flexible, but there are only Friday dates from 2-5pm for now because of my personal schedule. If you'd be interested in arranging a separate trip, just let me know.

On that note, I'm looking for someone to share the responsibility of regularly organizing trips to Doc to Dock with me. If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, please write me!

Thanks,
Kevin

Forum on Global Health and Human Rights (FGHHR) Introductory Meeting next Tuesday

FGHHR is a student-run program that seeks to bring various fields together to discuss topics on global health and human rights.

Please come if you are interested in being involved in planning this year's forum. We also need your input so start thinking of ideas for possible forum topics and events you'd like to see! For example, past topics have included the ethics of global health education, water as a human right vs. a commodity, maternal mortality in developing countries, hunger and the global food crisis, environmental health and justice, and the dynamics of donor funding.

Tuesday, October 6 from 7:00pm - 8:00pm
RSVP to fwc2109@columbia.edu with "FGHHR Meeting" in the subject line by this Friday. We will inform you of the location thereafter.

Thanks!
Floria, Peter & Sara

Physicians for Human Rights & the Forum on Global Health & Human Rights present: Illicit Drug Use in Africa as a Neglected Public Health Problem

Thursday, October 1, 2009 from 12:30pm – 1:30pm in Hammer 305

Speaker: Joanne Csete, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Dinner will be provided.
Please RSVP to fwc2109@columbia.edu with "PHR: Joanne Csete" in the subject line by Tuesday, so that we have enough food.

Thanks!
Floria, Peter & Sara

SJM Kick-off Meeting

Come enjoy free pizza and drinks at Social Justice Medicine's kick-off meeting next week:

Friday, September 25th, 4pm (two Fridays from now)
Lewisohn 602

We'll be talking about the variety of volunteer opportunities and projects currently running and in the works, as well as how to get involved. Have an idea for a project you'd like to start? Then this meeting is the right place for you.

Hope to see you all there!

Village Health Works Event April 28th

Deogratias, who spoke at Columbia on behalf of SJM this past Febuary, is having an event to raise awareness about the medical realities of Burundi. Read on for more details.

Begin Message from Jim Augustine

As many of you know, I recently became involved with an exciting new organization called Village Health Works (VHW), a global health project bringing quality care - and with it, hope - to the people of Burundi. VHW's founder, Deogratias, had been in medical school when ethnic civil wars broke out in Burundi and Rwanda. Separated from his family then forced into hiding, Deo became a refugee in the United States, living homeless in NYC's Central Park while holding fast to his dreams of becoming a doctor and returning to Burundi. With the help of strangers who have grown into close friends, Deo made it to Columbia University, then Harvard, and finally into medical school. In 2006, he returned to Burundi, announcing to the people of the mountaintop village of Kigutu that, with their help, he intended to build a clinic there to combat the rampant spread of HIV, Tuberculosis, malnutrition, and other treatable maladies in the region. To date, VHW has treated over 20,000 patients - many of whom walk for days to reach the clinic. And now Deo's story has inspired a new book by Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award Winner Tracy Kidder, Strength in What Remains, to be released in August 2009.

I have been blessed to work with Deo over the past several months, building a media strategy that will help audiences of the soon-to-be-bestseller about his life become aware of and involved in the important work taking place at Village Health Works. In March, I traveled to Burundi to film the clinic in action, capturing truly heroic moments of the doctors, villagers, patients, and volunteers who struggle everyday against the misery that has so devastated the country. The trip changed my life. And now, I could not be more thrilled to share part of that experience with you.

NEXT TUESDAY, April 28th @7pm, the Tank Theater in midtown Manhattan will be hosting a FREE event to welcome Deo back to the United States. The event is not a fund-raiser, but rather a FRIEND-raiser intended to build in strength of numbers VHW's community of concern here in NYC. Come hear Deo speak about the birth of the clinic at Kigutu and the ongoing miracles that are happening there. As an extra bonus, you'll be the first to see a small portion of the footage I captured while on my trip!

Again, the tickets are FREE, but because of strict space limitations, you must have one to enter the event! So REGISTER NOW - and bring a friend! I promise, it will be the best zero dollars you've ever spent!

Village Health Works

Speaking Engagement

April 28th @7pm

The Tank Theater

354 West 45th Street

Between 8th and 9th Avenues

New York, NY 10036

For more information about this event or Village Health Works, please feel free to email or call me (917-749-9233) or visit their website: www.villagehealthworks.org.

I look forward to seeing you all soon!

Jim

Register for Village Health Works event – April 28, 2009

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Social Justice Medicine
School of General Studies
Columbia University
http://www.columbiasjm.blogspot.com/