Monthly Archives: November 2013

END7 Student of the Month: Heather Priedhorsky

END7, Student Advocacy,

 

Executives of Creativity for Change. From left to right: Annie Kehler, Jenn Oswald, Sarah Menke, Heather Priedhorsky

Executives of Creativity for Change. From left to right: Annie Kehler, Jenn Oswald, Sarah Menke, Heather Priedhorsky

As a School of Theatre Arts student, there is little time and opportunity to volunteer. That’s why three of my best friends and I created the student organization Creativity For Change. Our goal is to use the arts to bring global awareness and positive change to Illinois Wesleyan University.

All four of us are fans of Sevenly, a clothing company that donates $7 for every purchase to the organization of the week. Over the summer, Sevenly paired with END7 and that is when I first heard about END7. I brought END7 to the table as our organization to work with this semester and everyone agreed that it was the best choice. Almost every college student has 50 cents to spare which is why we decided to create Entertain to END7.

Entertain to END7 was a cabaret we put together of student performers. From singers to slam poetry to improv, we had it all. It was an amazing collaboration of people from all over campus. In addition to the event itself, we set up a donation page online and sent it to friends and family.

In total, Entertain to END7 raised over $800. We were so overwhelmed by the generosity of the people around us. Entertain to END7 wouldn’t have happened without all of the wonderful performers who donated their time, along with our stage manager, and of course my fellow Creativity For Change founders.

Grace Gannon: What Does End7 Mean to You?

NTDs,

 

As part of our GivingTuesday series, we asked our supporters to tell us why they became involved in END7, and what they’re doing to make a difference. To submit your story, email Alex at

grace-end7-prof-picI first heard about Neglected Tropical Diseases from Dr. Peter Hotez, author of Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases. I had read the book over the summer and was fascinated with the extent to which NTDs prevail throughout the world, especially as something I had never heard of before.

I then had the privilege to meet with Dr. Hotez to ask what I as a student could be doing to make a difference for people suffering from NTDs. The answer he gave profoundly impacted the way I see the world. Dr. Hotez encouraged me that advocating for NTD treatment did not have to begin only when I had graduated from medical school, equipped with the necessary tools to treat affected persons. He convinced me that through involving the UT community, with a student body of over 50,000 and one of the most extensive and organized alumni networks in the country, I could begin to raise awareness right away.

Immediately I accepted the challenge, and it has been an incredible journey learning how to reach out and advocate for NTDs. It is incredible to think that for just 50 cents a year, we can spare someone from the horrible fate of living with a deadly and disfiguring disease! Realizing this has completely changed the value I place on things in my life (is that dress really worth $100?), and has challenged me to make sacrifices in the way I spend my time and money.

Now, through END7 at UT, I am able to put my passion for fighting Neglected Tropical Diseases into direct action. END7 at UT is reaching out to the UT and greater Austin communities to educate people about NTDs. Our goal is to enlighten the public to the widespread suffering that is silently prevailing across the developing world. We believe in health as a human right and want to educate and raise funds for the implementation of successful public health interventions such the Rapid Impact Packages that END7 works to distribute. Overall, having the opportunity to participate in ending NTDS has been an incredible honor, and I cannot wait to see what END7 at UT will be able to accomplish.

ASTMH Roundup

NTDs,

 

astmha

 

For those of us in the neglected tropical disease (NTD) community, Washington, DC was an exciting place to be recently. World renowned experts gathered in the nation’s capitol at the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene’s annual meeting, sharing their latest findings and innovations that have the potential to make a direct impact on the improvement of people’s health and financial well-being.

The Global Network attended many of the sessions, ranging from how to integrate NTD treatments with water, sanitation, and hygiene programs and assessing progress in the fight against lymphatic filariasis to mapping NTDs. Here are just some of the highlights:

Women and Out-of-School Children in Determining the Success of NTD Programs: Next steps include investing in gender-sensitive education, recognizing guidelines on how to treat pregnant women, collecting better data, engaging women from the onset, and integrating various interventions to reach out-of-school children, including mass drug administration (MDA) for NTDs, polio vaccines and vitamin A.

Fred L. Soper Lecture: Dr. Frank Richards, director of the River Blindness Program, Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program, Schistosomiasis Control Program and Malaria Control Program at the Carter Center, celebrated the achievements of the Carter Center’s Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas (OEPA). OEPA has led an aggressive onchocerciasis elimination program, contributing to Colombia’sverification from the World Health Organization (WHO) that it successfully eliminated onchocerciasis; Colombia was the first country in the world to achieve this milestone. Dr. Richards noted the important elements that have made OEPA successful, including being data-driven and having prolonged political will, and he encouraged African nations to consider the twice a year treatment for onchocerciasis to help meet global elimination targets.

The Global Health Funding Landscape: Who and What You Need to Know and Why: Research and development (R&D) funding for NTDs has generally increased due to increased investments from the pharmaceutical industry, while public funding has largely remained steady. To help increase investments, communicating NTD research to the public and making NTDs relevant and important issues to local communities in the US are essential. Engaging scientists in advocacy work can also help make a difference because they can share first-hand experiences to policymakers.

The Critical Role of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Controlling Neglected Tropical Diseases: Improvements in sanitation has a substantial impact on trachoma. There is also a strong association between a lack of wearing shoes and hookworm infections. Randomized controlled trials and development strategies for high prevalence areas will help further assess the linkages and inform future efforts.

The Global Program to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis: Where Are We Now?: Global progress has been made in lymphatic filariasis (LF) elimination thanks to mass drug administration and unified international policies to address the disease. Morbidity management and disability prevention programs are also critical undertakings; while 27 countries have these programs in place, there is a need to scale up programs to reach everyone who has morbidity (40 million people).  To continue sustainable progress, there will need to be better integration of NTD control and elimination activities in primary health care settings.

Thanks to ASTMH and all of the presenters for engaging, interesting conference!

Jacob Jordan: What does END7 mean to you?

END7, NTDs, Student Advocacy, ,

 

As part of our GivingTuesday series, we asked our supporters to tell us why they became involved in END7, and what they’re doing to make a difference. To submit your story, email Alex at

430145_389242434436838_1318146568_nI have always been interested in helping others and finding ways to give back to my community. But before this year, I had viewed global issues such as world poverty, lack of education and the spread of infectious disease as issues that were too big of a problem for someone as young and inexperienced as me to handle. However, joining the End7 at UT team has really changed my perspective as to what our potential as young adults really is.

Joining the End7 movement this year has helped me realize that you don’t have to have a PhD, or be the CEO of Microsoft in order to start making a difference. We all have the means right here and right now to make the world a better place and improve the quality of life for those living in it. I think the biggest concept that really hit home to me was the fact that treating a person for 7 NTDs for an entire year is as easy as donating just 50 cents! That’s probably less change than what most people have in their pockets right now!

So right now you’re probably thinking “Yeah, yeah, ok I got it. It only costs 50 cents to treat a person for a disease. That’s great.” But wait! If we can stop for a second and think about what that actually means, I think it might just blow your mind!

Let’s say that we were able to convince every student at the University of Texas to give just $1. That would raise approximately $50,000 or the price of saving 100,000 lives!! If you tried to meet every one of these people whose lives you affected at the rate of one person a day it would take you about 274 years to meet them all!!

The fact that such a small few can make such a large difference through this organization is what has inspired me to continuing fighting for this cause. As a student chapter of End7 at the University of Texas at Austin it is our goal to educate, raise money, and raise awareness in hopes that our efforts will bring happiness, health, and prosperity to those who need it most. I feel incredibly privileged to be able to join the fight against poverty and NTDs and I can’t wait to see the difference this organization will make in the upcoming years!