globemed at the university of south carolina quarterly newsletter

GLOBEMED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA Issue 1

GlobeMed at the University of

South Carolina

STUDENTS FOR THE MOVEMENT OF GLOBAL HEALTH EQUITY IN THIS ISSUE

Founded in 2012, GlobeMed at the University of South Carolina is one of 50 GlobeMed chapters working to improve the health of people living in poverty around the world. We partner with Alternative for Rural Movement (ARM), a grassroots organization in Orissa, India, to empower and develop the village people of North Orissa, with emphasis on women, children, and Dalit communities.

WHAT IS GLOBEMED?

Established in 2007, GlobeMed is a student-‐driven non-‐profit organization committed to building a movement to improve global health. There are currently 50 university chapters throughout the nation that are partnered with non-‐governmental grassroots organizations in countries throughout Africa, Asia, North America, and South America.

These chapters have been forces in making sustainable impacts in their partner communities and in spurring development of new global health programs and curricula on their college campuses. Each chapter works to improve the health of people living in poverty around the world by focusing on basic foundations such as nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene, maternal health, and communicable disease prevention.

OUR PARTNER

Our GlobeMed chapter is partnered with Alternative for Rural Movement (ARM). In existence for more than 30 years, Alternative for Rural Movement (ARM) is a community-‐based organization in Northern Orissa, India that employs a comprehensive approach to improving the lives of villagers in rural Orissa. While its work is far reaching, ARM’s major goals can be summarized into four main areas of impact: women, children, farmers, and the community.

ARM aims to empower women by developing reproductive and maternal health programs as well as providing legal aid and micro-‐entrepreneurship opportunities. Advocacy of education, health, and legal aid for children through primary school programs and workshops aims to build and further enhance future generations. Innovations in agricultural techniques along with training and support in business enable farmers to bring in increased income. ARM also supports the community at large by maintaining the Primary Health Center and providing basic sanitation. Overall, ARM works to solve problems ranging from chronic cholera and immunization to preventing the trafficking of young girls. It has received recognition and international support for its extensive and successful work within the community.

LATRINES (and why you should give a crap) Learn about what a Latrine is and why it is so important to global health.

Page 2

INFLUENZA SORBET Fight the flu with this fun and delicious recipe!

Page 5

GLOBEMED GOALS FOR THE YEAR

1. Construct eight latrines to combat water and sanitation-‐related illness

2. Provide infant warmers for premature and critical condition babies

3. Provide a surgical stand light for the maternal delivery ward

4. Develop a study on maternity care

GlobeMed at a Glance by Shiksha Sharma

February 11, 2013

GLOBEMED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA | Issue 1 2

FUN FACTS ABOUT THE MOST VISITED PLACE IN THE

WORLD- THE TOILET

LATRINES (and why you should give a crap) by Joey Swisher

• The toilet is flushed more times during the super bowl halftime than at any time during the year!

• The average person spends three whole years of their life sitting on the toilet.

• The first toilet cubicle in a row is the least used (and consequently cleanest).

If you’re a student, a teacher, or anybody who happens to walk down Greene Street daily, I’m betting that you’ve either seen, heard about, or own a Sandstorm T-‐Shirt. You’ve probably walked by the sales table with those crazy kids screaming nonsense and you wonder, “What the heck are they even yelling about”? Maybe they even heckled you into staying and talking and you’re thinking to yourself, “WHY DID I MAKE EYE CONTACT?”

They proceed to tell you that they are raising money to buy latrines for some place in India. For the few cultured students out there you probably already knew that a latrine is just a fancy name for toilet. For the others, like myself, you probably just shook your head feigning knowledge.

DID YOU KNOW?

90% of the population in India practice open defecation

53% of households in India do not have a toilet

So, in your head you’re probably imagining one of these….

But what if I told you most latrines look like the one of these….

Yes folks your eyes are not deceiving you. This is the most common type of toilet in India and this is a relatively nice one. So, why are latrines so important anyway?

If you didn’t already know, feces is bad, but how bad is it? Well, to put it into perspective, one gram of feces can contain 10,000,000 viruses, 1,000,000 bacteria, 1,000 parasite cysts, and 100 parasite eggs. Crazy, right?!

Hygienically separating human excreta from human contact will significantly reduce health risks to humans.

India has a massive and rapidly growing population, which is putting a strain on the country’s natural resources. Most water sources are contaminated by either sewage or agriculture run off.

Inadequate sanitation kills people, spreads diseases, hurts the environment, and according to the World Bank, costs India 38.5 billion US dollars every year. The people hit the hardest from this inadequate sanitation are the poor and young children. In India more than 1,000 children die every day due to diarrhea. This is quite sad considering that most cases of diarrhea can be prevented with soap, water, and a clean place to perform bodily functions.

Now you know why latrines are important. Having a proper place to do your business will save money economically, prevent deadly diseases, and help preserve basic human rights. According to the organization World Toilet Day, every dollar put into sanitation yields a return of five dollars. So, next time you’re walking down Greene Street and you start getting heckled by one of those crazy GlobeMed members, take a minute and listen to what they have to say and do what you can to help out. You can help provide adequate sanitation for someone who desperately needs it.


SAVE THE DATE-‐ UPCOMING EVENTS

World Day of Social Justice • Wednesday, February 20th

• World Day of Social Justice Panel

Honors B110 at 7:00 PM

Come and listen to various speakers discuss different social justice issues! Healthy refreshments provided!

Charity Tennis Tournament • Saturday, March 23

• Location: TBA

• All proceeds go towards Alternative for Rural Movement (ARM).

GlobeMed Banquet • Sunday, April 7th

• Location: TBA

• All proceeds go towards Alternative for Rural Movement (ARM).

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK : GlobeMed at the University of South Carolina

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER : @SCGlobeMed

WEBSITE : http://www.web.sa.sc.edu/globemed

It’s just another Sunday afternoon with the family. The big game is on today, and your dad is grilling some steak while you watch. Your favorite team takes the field for the first possession. A quick pass play for a first down. You’re already screaming at the television for your team to get the big W! Suddenly, you hear a loud pop coming from the game. A player is down, likely unconscious while the defensive player who dealt the blow celebrates. A helmet-‐to-‐helmet hit has occurred. The medical staff rushes on the field to tend to the downed player.

These hits have been hurting the NFL since the game was founded. Players lead with the crown of the helmet, meaning the very top, and smash it into a defenseless receiver’s helmet. Since the defensive player knows what’s coming, they usually leave the scene unscathed, while the receiver lies there unconscious and likely not to return to the game. One of these hard-‐hitting helmet-‐to-‐helmet players is Steelers linebacker James Harrison. Harrison is 6 feet tall, weighs 240 pounds, and runs a 4.85 40-‐yard dash. You don’t have to be a physics major to know that he’s going to pack a punch! He’s infamous for his heavy hits that lead with the crown of his head. These hits are incredibly dangerous, and are just recently being addressed by the NFL, but at what cost? A couple thousand dollar fine? That’s pocket change for what the millions that these NFL stars are making.

Junior Seau, a former linebacker for the San Diego Chargers, passed away from a self-‐inflicted gunshot wound. Just recently, UCLA released a report that due to the constant hits to the head, Junior Seau had developed CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopthy,

which is linked to dementia, memory loss, and, in Junior’s case, depression. Junior’s family has decided to sue the NFL and Riddell Inc., the makers of the helmet.

A player’s safety should come first before the fans entertainment in this league. The NFL needs to dig deeper into this problem and not only fine the player making the hit, but also eject him from the game and add suspensions of multiple games depending on the hit. Despite the fines, the amounts of helmet-‐to-‐helmet hits in the league are still ridiculously high. The game needs to become safer to protect the well being of the players. These men are not gladiators that sacrifice themselves for our entertainment, they are humans that deserve to have their health protected just like everyone else.

SOCIAL MEDIA

NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF HELMET TO HELMET by Safi Khan

GLOBEMED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA Issue 1

Healthcare in the United States has been one of the most sensitive topics in the recent years. It is no secret that the US falls behind in quality of healthcare compared to other economically stable countries. In fact, the US spends the most amount of money on healthcare and yet is ranked 38 in quality of healthcare.

In 2008 Barack Obama was elected to be our 44th president. One of the landmark and most controversial bill that he passed was the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as ObamaCare. This act will ensure that more Americans will be within reach of quality and affordable health care. However, this act became extremely controversial due to the idea that America was becoming socialist. Though, many people don’t quite fully understand what the Affordable Care Act entails. We ourselves didn’t fully quite understand all of the details and provisions presented in the Act until we took some time and read it almost in its entirety. So we decided why not explain what the affordable care act means to YOU and the benefits you will receive from it. Here are some of the main bullet points of the care act:

Insurance companies no longer have free power to cancel your policy, deny you coverage because of a pre-‐existing condition, or charge women more than men

Nearly 13 million Americans will receive a rebate because their insurance company spent too much of their premium dollars on administrative costs or CEO bonuses.

The law has helped 6.6 million young adults who have been able to stay on their parents’ plans until the age of 26, including 3.1 million young people who are newly insured.

If you are one of the 30 million Americans who don’t yet have health insurance, starting in 2014, an array of quality, affordable, private health insurance plans will be available for you to choose from.

Millions of Americans will soon be eligible for tax credits to ensure that their health insurance is affordable. If you can’t afford insurance or you’re a small business that wants to provide affordable insurance to your employees, you’ll get tax credits that make coverage affordable. Starting in 2014, if you can afford insurance and you choose not to purchase it, the taxpayers will no longer subsidize your care for free.

In conclusion, this Affordable Care Act entails some very positive benefits for the American public. Before this act, many troubling trends could be seen within our health care system. One example of this is the inflation of capita as the American citizen became older. The line graph below was assembled by Carnegie Mellon University professor Paul Fischbeck and was reported in December of 2009.

However, let it be known that this act does have some flaws and it will take a while for our quality of healthcare to vastly improve. But, we believe that we are finally headed in the right direction.

We hope by giving you this basic information about the Affordable Care Act, you can be a more informed individual. In turn, if you are an informed individual, you can relate to other countries’ health care systems and be more in tuned to Global Health.

GET INVOLVED- Community Service Opportunities by Aysha Mushtaq It is extremely important for college students to get involved with the community. However, many students do not know when or where to start. Fortunately for us, there are many community service opportunities to partake in around the University of South Carolina and it is easy to get involved! Some of the opportunities provided are: SERVICE SATURDAYS: Saturdays that students devote to different types of community service events.

• Volunteers go to varying sites from 9 am-‐1:30 PM to complete service.

• http://www.sa.sc.edu/communityservice/servicesat/

FREE MEDICAL CLINIC: A clinic that provides health care, at no cost, to residents who are not able to afford these types of services and do not own any health insurance. The clinic is always looking for volunteers and is very grateful for all those who aid them in their venture.

• http://www.freemedclinic.org/ • Contact Info: 803-‐765-‐1503

DANCE MARATHON: This event is held from March 1st-‐2nd, in which participants dance for 24 hours in order to raise support as well as funds for Children’s Miracle Network.

• http://www.uscdm.org

RELAY FOR LIFE: A fundraising walk that raises money as well as awareness for cancer through the American Cancer Society.

• April 19-‐April 20th, 2013 at the Blatt Fields

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT by Ryan West & Reema Parekh


By now, we have all been told to avoid the flu – that nasty viral infection that has mercilessly been spreading everywhere this season. There are plenty of warnings out there that give people tips on how to take precautions, some of which include keeping stress levels to a minimum and getting seven to nine hours of sleep every night. As a college student, though? Yeah, right. As simple as they may sound, these tips are not totally feasible. Going into college, we practically signed up for homework-‐induced sleep deprivation and stress, so these tips are much harder to follow than we would hope. Because keeping away from the flu is easier said than done, it is no surprise that so many of us have been affected by it and other sicknesses this It isn’t all bad news, though. Instead of swallowing cough drops that taste more like detergent than the “cherry” flavor they claim to be infused with, there is a new alleviant that can help ease the ailments of the cold or the flu, and your taste buds won’t cry when you introduce them to this remedy. It’s an influenza sorbet, and it contains citrusy juices, soothing cayenne ginger, and liquid pectin and/or honey. These ingredients compliment each other to make a brilliant recipe. The orange and lemon juices are more likely for taste than for immediate relief purposes, seeing as sudden doses of Vitamin C in the body do not have any short-‐term effects. Ginger and cayenne are spices that help relieve discomfort brought on by fevers and aches. They can actually replace swallowing a tablet of ibuprofen to get rid of these symptoms short-‐term. The liquid pectin is a gelatinous substance that serves to coat the throat’s mucous membranes. The honey does the same thing while adding a sweet taste. Put these things together in the right proportions, and you’ve got a soothingly chilly temporary medication for your annoying fever and cold.

If you find yourself feeling sluggish in your day-‐to-‐day activities, excessively warm, or have muscle aches, then you should probably take your temperature. There’s a good chance that you have come down with something. But before you turn to Advil and bitter cough drops, take a look around your kitchen and ask a friend to make this influenza sorbet for you by following the recipe for 1 quart below.

• 2 cups fresh orange juice • 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice • 2/3 cup of white sugar • 1/3 cup of plain honey • ¼ tsp ginger • 3 oz. packet of liquid pectin • 1/8 tsp cayenne

In a saucepan or pot, boil the juices, sugar, honey and ginger together. Take this mixture off of the stove and set aside. In a separate bowl, mix the liquid pectin and cayenne together. Add these to the first mixture. Refrigerate these until cool. Then freeze it for at least 4 hours if you want it to be firm. Eat it and feel better soon!

GlobeMed at the University of South Carolina

Executive Board Members 2012-2013

Co-Presidents: Runjhun Bhatia and Angela Kao

Directors of Communication: Joey Swisher and Shiksha Sharma

Campaign Coordinators: Jas Guram and Riley Chambers

GhU Coordinators: Leila Heidari and Nathan Biyani

Director of Finances: Michelle Chapman

GROW Trip Coordinator: Sarah Law

Director of Community Building: Sidrah Khan

WANT TO DONATE?

Donate online at: http://www.razoo.com/story/Globemed-‐

At-‐University-‐Of-‐South-‐Carolina

We accept every donation!

CONTACT US

[email protected]

ADVISOR

Dr. Deborah Billings

NEWSLETTER EDITORS

Shiksha Sharma, Joey Swisher

INFLUENZA SORBET: A DELICIOUS WAY TO FIGHT THE FLU By Priya Purohit

globemed at the university of south carolina quarterly newsletter

Documents

health of people

globemed chapters

globemed goals

maternal health programs

rural movement arm

primary health center

rural orissa

maternity care globemed