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Weekly News and Notes
From the Duke Global Health Institute
Greetings!
This week we are pleased to bring you another update from our partners on the ground in Haiti. Family Health Ministries and its team of medical personnel and volunteers are seeing hundreds of patients every day. They are also putting the medical supplies donated by Duke REMEDY to good use, while dozens of volunteers in Durham are packing more supplies for transport to the devastated country. This is but one example of the ways the Duke community is reaching out to help. Find more ways to get involved here.
Tomorrow, Feb 3, DGHI is happy to host a visit from Harley Feldbaum, director of the Global Health and Foreign Policy Initiative at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Dr. Feldbaum will deliver a public lecture at 4:30 pm in the John Hope Franklin Center titled, "Health Diplomacy and the Politics of Global Health." Hope to see you there!
Until next week,
Geelea Seaford and Everyone at DGHI
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Hundreds of Boxes of REMEDY Supplies Continue to Pour into Rural Haiti
Another shipment of supplies are being prepared for delivery to Haiti with the help of dozens of Duke students and staff, and Duke Global Health Institute partner Family Health Ministries (FHM). Approximately 150 more boxes are already packed and more supplies are being sorted. These boxes will be ready for transport as soon as FHM staff can arrange the next shipment to their staging area in Florida.  At least three truckloads of REMEDY supplies have already arrived in Haiti, with more still in transport, since last month's devastating earthquake.
REMEDY volunteers expect to have about 200 boxes of supplies ready by next week. Volunteers include Duke Master of Science in Global Health student Jacqueline Ndirangu, also an employee of FHM.
 "My heart is invested in Haiti. The people of Haiti have become my brothers and sisters," said Ndirangu, who is working on a cervical cancer project in Haiti with FHM, and returned to Durham just days before the earthquake. "Although I would love to be out there helping out, whatever I contribute right here, in Durham, will make a difference in Haiti."
REMEDY is a Duke volunteer program that collects, inventories and packs usable surplus medical supplies from the Medical Center for donation to Duke-affiliated global health projects. Coordinated by Duke physician assistant John Lohnes, the group is also in the process of sending supplies to Honduras, Nicaragua and Afghanistan in an effort to help fulfill urgent needs throughout the developing world.
FHM Team in Haiti Puts Supplies to Good Use A team of 16 people, led by FHM Executive Director Kathy Walmer, is busy delivering much needed medical services in Blanchard, a community outside of Port-au-Prince. In an email to FHM supporters, Kathy reports that they have provided care to more than 450 people in less than two days. Here's an excerpt of a recent update: "Many of our patients share that they are too scared to return to their homes and continue to sleep in the streets. When one mother asked me today what she could do for her 3 year old daughter's anxiety, I naively answered that she needed to maintain a routine that the child was used to prior to the earthquake such as bedtime. The mother informed me that this is impossible to do since you cannot make your bed in the streets until people are finished driving their cars. She had a good point. I guess everyone is struggling to find a new normal. Unfortunately, most of this country is wondering what exactly this might mean." - Kathy Walmer, Executive Director, Family Health Ministries
For the latest updates on Haiti relief efforts and how you can help, visit our website. |
New and Noteworthy
Focus on Women's Health in East Africa at 3rd Annual Blue Jean Ball on Feb 13
 In collaboration with the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI) and the Hubert-Yeargan Center for Global Health, the OB/GYN department is developing a major focus in maternal health in East Africa. Each year, over 500,000 women die in childbirth, mostly in developing countries such as Tanzania. Countless more women are seriously injured as a result of poor access to adequate medical care.
Two faculty members, including member Dr. Jeffrey Wilkinson, Dr. Sumera Hayat, and Obstetrics and Gynecology Fellow Dr. Ruchi Puri are working at DGHI's field site in Moshi, Tanzania to develop programs designed to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality.
The Duke medical team has partnered with the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre to assist local doctors in their efforts to reduce maternal deaths and childbirth injury. They are developing a regional obstetric fistula referral and training center. Dr. Brandi Vazquez, who completed the Global Health Residency at Duke this fall, also worked to implement a course on emergency obstetrics care for Tanzanian health care providers.
With the donations from this year's Blue Jean Ball, Duke physicians will be one step closer to the goal of saving the lives of mothers and their babies throughout the region.
The 3rd annual Blue Jean Ball takes place on February 13 at the Sheraton Imperial in Durham. To register for the event, click here.
International Photo Exhibition Arrives at Duke, Highlights Life-saving Medical Care for Children
The Freeman Center for Jewish Life and the Center for Muslim Life at Duke welcome a new exhibit from the Israeli-based international humanitarian project "Save a Child's Heart," which provides life-saving heart surgery and follow-up care to children from developing countries.
 The photo exhibition now on display is jointly housed on campus at the Center for Muslim Life and The Freeman Center for Jewish Life through March 5. Consisting of approximately 40 photographs, the exhibit documents children in their native countries, arriving in Israel, staying at the Children's House, preparing and recovering from surgery, and returning home healthy.
The Duke Global Health Institute is one of 14 co-sponsors of the exhibition, which also includes DukeEngage, The Kenan Institue for Ethics, REMEDY, Duke Global Medical Brigades and the Center for Jewish Studies at Duke.
Save a Child's Heart (SACH), founded in 1995, provides on-site training in all fields of pediatric cardiac care as part of their outreach program with partner hospitals across the globe. Staff have undertaken numerous medical missions to China, Ethiopia, Moldova, Jordan and elsewhere, where they evaluate patients and perform surgeries together with the local personnel. Having changed the lives of over 2,300 children from around the world, more than 1,000 of them Palestinians, in the past fourteen years, SACH is known for bringing diverse people together in a frequently polarized region.
The Center for Muslim Life and The Freeman Center for Jewish Life are organizing a SACH photo exhibit reception on February 15. See our website for details.
The entire exhibit will be on display through March 5, Monday through Thursday, 10am-2pm, and by appointment.
DukeEngage Health Project Enhances Medical Professor's Teaching Experience, Research
In the three years since its establishment at the university, DukeEngage, the civic engagement program for undergraduates, has attracted more than 1,500 student applications since 2007-08. More than 800 students have participated in service around the world since DukeEngage began.
 DukeEngage has also attracted faculty into its leader ranks. Their reasons include being inspired by a connection to their research, an opportunity to work with students or a chance to enhance their teaching back at Duke.
Dr. Alex Cho is an assistant professor of medicine who works closely with Dr. Victor Dzau in the Office of the Chancellor for Health Affairs on special projects related to health policy and new models of care. Cho got involved with DukeEngage through otherwise unconventional means-through close collaborations with several entrepreneurial Duke students and in partnership with a Ugandan medical colleague in search of resources and support for a new hospital in Uganda.
Read his Q & A on Duke Today.
New Employment Opportunities
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Faculty News and Funding
 The State of the School 2010
Dean Nancy Andrews will deliver her annual "State of the School" address on Thursday, February 18. Andrews will discuss the basis for her optimism about the future of the Duke School of Medicine as it enters its ninth decade. All faculty and staff are invited to the event, which takes place at the Searle Center from 5-6 pm. A reception will immediately follow.
NEW! DGHI Request for Proposals: Transition Award
To encourage continued scientific development of international trainees at Duke who are from low-and middle-income countries and will be returning to their home countries, and encourage ongoing collaborations between the returning trainees and their Duke Global Health Institute collaborators, DGHI is offering transition awards of up to $20,000. Application deadline is March 1. Read more >>
DGHI Request for Proposals: Gender, Poverty and Health Research
The Duke Global Health Institute invites proposals of up to $25,000 a year for up to two years, for pilot research on the intersection of gender, poverty/class, and health. Smaller proposals for shorter periods are also encouraged. Application deadline is March 5. Read more >> NEW! Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Call for Proposals: Peaceful Pathways-Reducing Exposure to Violence
This special solicitation seeks nominations from diversity-focused funders for projects to reduce violence in traditionally underserved communities that are defined by race, ethnicity, tribe, gender, sexual identity or rural/frontier location. Read more >>
Recovery Act Limited Competition: Program to Enhance NIH-supported Global Health Research Involving Human Subjects (S07)
NIH invited applications from U.S. institutions for one year of support for resources and activities that will strengthen oversight of NIH-supported human subjects research conducted collaboratively with institutions in low- to middle-income countries. Deadline to apply is March 22. Read more >>
FICRS-F Announces New Fellowship in Global Mental Health Research
The Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars Support Center at the Vanderbilt University Institute for Global Health (VIGH) is pleased to announce a new one-year clinical research training program for persons in post-residency clinical fellowships, in other health-related post-doctoral programs, and/or within three years of their last major degree training (e.g., registrar, residency, fellowship, doctoral program). Deadline to apply is February 12. Read more >>
* * * For additional faculty opportunities, click here.
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DGHI Fieldwork Project Opportunities
The Duke Global Health Institute is accepting applications for more than a dozen projects in nine countries this summer, including Project Parivartan, in which students will conduct field research on the implementation of community-led structural interventions for sex workers. Other DGHI fieldwork opportunities range in topic from maternal health and infectious diseases to community development, health education and access to care. View all open projects. Applications for DGHI funding are due March 5.
Global Health Corps: Call for Applications
Global Health Corps is a fellowship program in health that works to mobilize a global community of emerging leaders to advance a movement for health equity. The organization recruits talented young professionals from around the world, train and support them, place them in year-long positions with great organizations, and then empower this growing community of young leaders to build lives dedicated to tackling health inequalities. Deadline is March 1. Read more >>
Public Health and Environment Field Practicum in Kenya
As an extension of its research, The School for Field Studies has created academic partnerships to respond to environmental health issues.This program is a graduate-level field course open to both graduate and qualified undergraduates in public health, nursing, pre-med, medical and health sciences. Deadline March 1. Read more >>
Benjamin H. Kean Traveling Fellowship in Tropical Medicine
The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene has established a fellowship that offers financial support to medical students for clinical and research electives in tropical medicine. Deadline to apply is March 2. Read more >>
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February 3, 2010 » 4:30-6 pm
John Hope Franklin Center, Room 240
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February 5, 2010 » 6:30 pm
Franklin Humanities Institute, Room 28
February 8, 2010 » 6 pm
FedEx Global Education Center, Conference Room 4003
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February 9, 2010 » 12-1 pm
Trent Hall, Room 124
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February 11, 2010 » 12-2:30 pm
John Hope Franklin Center, Room 240
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February 11, 2010 » 4:30-5:30 pm
Stedman Nutritional & Metabolism Center
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February 11, 2010 » 4-5 pm
Hanes House, Room 131
February 13, 2010 » 6 pm
Sheraton Imperial Hotal, Durham
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February 15, 2010 » 6:30 pm
Center for Muslim Life, 406 Swift Ave.
February 16, 2010 » 12-1pm
Trent Hall, Room 124
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February 17, 2010 » 4:30-6 pm
Perkins Library Room 217
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View more upcoming events.
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A Haitian physican who works with DGHI partner Family Health Ministries talks about surviving the earthquake.
-- WUNC's "The Story" with Dick Gordon
"Local Haiti Earthquake Survivor Gives Back Through Teaching Creole"
"I feel that I'm in limbo because I'm not supposed to be here right now; I'm supposed to be in Haiti."
-- Laura Wagner, who began teaching "Haitian Creole for the Haitian Recovery" at Duke last week.
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