http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/5th-amendment.html

http://www.google.com/imgres?

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McMaster students at MonWHO

This year’s MonWHO topic of discussion was Child and Maternal Health. Before attending the conference, delegates were required to formulate a position paper outlining their country’s current actions concerning MDG4 and MDG5. The simulation lasted three days and two nights, consisting of two regional block times and two plenary sessions. There were four regional blocks – The Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The purpose of the two regional block times was for the countries within each region to amalgamate their ideas and create a working paper to present to the other regional blocks during the plenary session. During the plenary session, each of the regions discussed their working papers and pitched their ideas to the rest of the delegates. It seemed that the four working papers were very similar in content. Each region wanted to increase training of rural health workers, strengthen health systems, and improve communication between rural and urban areas.

During the course of the weekend, I represented the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos). Although initially I wanted to represent Vietnam, I reveled in the opportunity to learn about a country that I knew absolutely nothing about besides the fact that it was located geographically beside Vietnam. While writing my position paper, I realized that Laos had already implemented a few strategies to address child and maternal health. They were mainly focused on increasing the training of rural health workers.

During the regional blocks, I witnessed political power at its best. The delegates representing countries that seemed to have more political power, stability, and resources spoke up the most and had many ideas to suggest. The most outspoken delegate represented China. The delegate often suggested a myriad number of innovative policy ideas. In addition, another interesting aspect to note was the collaboration between the delegates from Afghanistan and Israel. They would often bring arguments concerning cultural and religious sensitivity to the table and the incorporation of religious beliefs into the suggested solutions. This often initiated a number of arguments as several countries did not want to discuss religion. At the end of the regional block, there were two working papers that were produced – one that addressed health systems strengthening and another that addressed the training of rural health care professionals.

During the first plenary session, again, delegates representing countries that had the most political power and resources spoke more frequently. These included Canada, the United States of America, China, and the United Kingdom. It was interesting to note how long it took to accomplish anything as there were a number of formalities that needed to be addressed before anything could be done. It is understood that the purpose of this was to ensure that all countries had a chance to speak and that no conflict concerning etiquette arose from the discussion.. The first plenary session ended after the presentation and discussion of all the working papers.

The second plenary session involved more debate and discussion regarding the working papers. Some countries felt that various clauses in each of the papers could be amalgamated in order to create one unified paper. However, it was again interesting to note how easily it became an issue of pride as opposed to practicality. Each of the countries wished to have power over which paper was finalized despite the fact that many of the papers were very similar and proposed policies that were exactly the same. The only difference was that they were worded differently. At the end of the plenary session, an agreement was finally reached and a resolution was made.

After experiencing the World Health Organization simulation, I wondered about the frustration that one must experience when working with the World Health Organization. I also pondered about the frustration that one must also experience when working with policy makers, national leaders, and global health leaders. This has run parallel with the perspective I have developed after learning about the formation of policies. The debate between the effectiveness of the top-down and bottom-up approaches has been ongoing. It seems to me that every individual who has expressed interest in global health has been discouraged at one point or another because of how the process of inducing top-down changes can be potentially difficult and slow. I was exasperated at how long it took to come to a conclusion at MonWHO, and I realized that perhaps it does take that long for the WHO Assembly to make decisions. It seemed that half of the conversation and discussion during the conference were formalities to ensure that none of the delegates felt offended.

However, after this experience, I realized my preference for the bottom-up, or grassroots approaches. I started realizing how important it was to empower people to advocate for themselves. This was after learning about Avaaz.org, a website where citizens can petition for causes that they believe in. The most touching means for empowerment that I learned about this semester was the Mother-to-Mother knowledge transfer that occurred in The Gambia when mothers used song and dance to demonstrate the importance of including the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in the Gambian national vaccination program.

Participation in MonWHO helped me realize a number of aspects about global health that I had not considered before. Although I am intrigued by the formality of the World Health Organization and was able to learn a great deal about inducing change from a top-down approach, from this experience, I realized my preference for activity at the ground level.

Karen Ngo

Hamilton, ON

4th Year, BHSc

McMaster University

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Introduce yourself (age, grade, school, favorite subject in school, hobbies, what you do in your spare time). “Hi my name is …..”

My name is Karina. I am 21 years old and a senior at Emory University. My favorite course while in college has been Contemporary Chinese Politics. More generally speaking, however, I enjoy anything related to international relations and political science. I enjoy photography and film, and chase my family’s new puppy around the neighborhood in my spare time.

When did you start the idea of doing community service? How did this all start?

Initially, I began volunteering because it was mandated by my high school in order to graduate. My passion for volunteering actually started when I went to China specifically to volunteer. I always loved playing with children, and I have a soft spot for orphans, so I decided to volunteer in orphanages for disabled orphans in China. Seeing the direct impact that my actions had on making the lives of the orphans a little brighter made me truly love volunteering.

Growing up, what are some of the events/reasons that lead you to see a need for this project?

Living in America, it seems that we are separated from many of the crises and disasters going on in the world. Furthermore, as young people, there is a stereotype that we are lazy, self-centered and materialistic. I hope that this conference will prove that at least some of the young people of today care about the problems happening in other countries.

What are you learning through the EVSS Internship so far?

I believe that I am learning a lot about leadership through this conference. Having to be prepared for each team meeting and organize conversation for an hour is a more difficult task than it seems. But I have a wonderful team and I think we’re working together equally and successfully.

What are your future dreams in regards to helping others?

I want to live my life as someone who brings hope to others. My future career will most likely be in academia and research, and even though those areas seem a bit more distant from professions that directly help others like the medical profession, they do inspire hope in the future and future generations. I want to help others more practically in my everyday life. This is a continual process of molding my actions into being a person that I truly want to be.

If you were to say something to inspire your peers to do the same, what would it be?

Patience. It’s so rare today, and it’s a golden quality if you possess it.

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“What I’ve experienced is that I can’t know the future. I can’t know if anything that I do will change what happens tomorrow. I can’t know with certainty, but what I do know is if I do nothing, nothing will change.” – Dr. James Orbinski, former president of Médicins Sans Frontières

Hey there! My name is Karen Ngo, and I hail from the city of Hamilton, Ontario, in Canada. I’m in the process of completing my fourth year in the Bachelor of Health Sciences program at McMaster University, but nowhere near to completing my education. I’m also completing a minor in music, an interest I have maintained since I was a confused child, tinkering away at the piano. I also like to stargaze, paint, and go swimming in my spare time.

I started out volunteering with Scouts Canada. On Christmas Eve about fifteen years ago, my group took part in a Christmas Wish Present delivery drive. The moment that stayed with me was seeing how the children laughed and smiled were when we delivered the presents to them. You could say that this was the first official volunteering experience I had with a particular organization because volunteering can be anything, even a six year old child wandering into my kitchen and asking her mother if she wanted help with making dinner. My parents introduced me to more organizations in my community, including one called the Huong Viet Music Group – a group which organized charity concerts to raise money to build houses, schools, and washrooms in Vietnam. Though at first their intent was to have me keep in touch with my roots, as I grew older, I realized that motivation for continued involvement in these groups came from reasons a bit deeper than that.

It is slightly difficult to explain the reasons for the pride and love I feel for my culture and home country, as after all, I was not born in Vietnam. I was born in Canada and all that I know about Vietnam is simply what I read on the internet, what my parents have told me, and whatever I have picked up from attending Vietnamese school. However, it is through these stories that I have developed a special place in my heart for my heritage and culture, despite having no real understanding or experience of the scorching heat during July, nor the difficulty of the backbreaking labour of those working in the rice paddies in the countryside. It comes from this – the fall of Saigon on April 30^th,1975, which marked the end of the Vietnam War. Countless Vietnamese people fled from the country. After thirty five years, it is amazing to see how much the Vietnamese community has been rebuilt around the world by the displaced Vietnamese citizens.

Somewhere in Alajuela, Costa Rica

From the start of my internship with East Villagers in September, I have learned about the activity of various non-profit organizations around the world. My group members have provided insightful opinions and perspectives on their volunteering experiences. Most importantly, I have learned about the other side of a lot of the global issues I have been most concerned with. The only perspective that I have received is from those living outside Vietnam and so to be able to learn about the other side has provided me with a better understanding of the issue.

If anything, I’d say that it is impossible to live your life in a closed black box. Volunteering in different communities provides the opportunity to meet different people and broaden your horizons and perspectives on how you view the world. Everyone has so much to offer. There are only so many lessons you can learn individually or from a textbook, but there is so much more that life has to offer if you learn to live it outside of the box in the service of others.

Karen Ngo

Toronto, ON

4th Year, BHSc, McMaster University

Team 5: International Health

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Did you know that the White House has its own events planner? He or she is known as The Social Secretary, as well as the Head of the White House Social Office. The current secretary is Julianna Smoot, and her duties consist of anything from putting together a small tea for the First Lady or an event with more than 200 guests.

The first ever White House Social Secretary was Isabella Hagner, who served for the Roosevelt administration. Some of her duties: “White House entertaining, procedures, and protocol, as

well as carrying out other necessary secretarial duties.” It might not seem like much, but it encompasses a vast variety of possible responsibilities. And the list of duties has grown since then – I couldn’t find any official duties online, but from looking at the White House social calendar, I am sure they are numerous.

As I was reading about this, I felt very overwhelmed, and I realized that Mrs. Smoot must have some kind of checklist that she runs through every time she’s given a task. I looked online and found a comprehensive checklist which I thought might be similar to one she might use. Look at it here: http://www.thegreatevent.com/content/ap.asp?id=4.

While our team has figured some things out, like what the general theme will be (service and global issues) and where we are having it, etc, there are a few things we are still working on – on-the-ground support and “runners” for our catering needs, etc. We are working hard, though, and our weekly team meetings are devoted to at least some part of the conference.

All this to say that we need your help! Both my readers and fellow service scholars. To my readers: stay tuned for more news about the upcoming web conference and the fine details about times. To service scholars: if any of you are in the California area or think you might want to come to the conference, please contact me, Joy, or Karina. If you have any questions at all or suggestions for possible Non-Profit Organizations to invite, please do not hesitate to contact us.

I have never planned a large-scale event like this before, but as I have been doing research into event planning checklists, and even the National event planner (Mrs. Smoot), I feel increasingly confident that my team, with God’s help, patience, and enough foresight, that we just might be able to pull it off. Please keep us in your prayers as we plan this event, and again, any suggestions, comments, or questions are welcome!

Sources:

http://www.whitehousehistory.org/whha_publications/publications_documents/whitehousehistory_26-roosevelt.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Social_Secretary

Jenny Combs

Team 2: Servant Scholars

Alabaster, Alabama

Grade 11

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My team, the Servant Scholars, have been brainstorming ideas for an event we would like to organize for all EV Service Scholars. In this post, I’m going to outline our ideas for the event and hopefully get some feedback on your thought. My team members and I would greatly appreciate it if you take the time to read this and offer your comments and suggestions.

We are planning a conference to be held on Saturday, April 9, 2011 (date still tentative). The conference will be geared at all EV Service Scholars and youths (ranging from middle school to college). We hope to invite representatives from non-profit organizations such as such as the China Care Foundation, Invisible Children, the Asian Liver Center, and more. Representatives will talk about the role of their organization in addressing global issues such as disease, sex trafficking, orphan children, education, health care, and more. They will also be answering any questions you might have.

In addition, we hope to feature some EV Service Scholars who have been dedicated to service within their own communities. We hope to at least feature one or two individuals this way. Also, we would like to host a panel with EV Service Scholars (hopefully at least one from each team) to answer questions about getting involved within the community and your own experiences.

The purpose of this conference is to link young adults with opportunities for service and use our own experiences to demonstrate by example how young students can make an impact on global issues through their actions. I know that this is a cause all of you are dedicated to. We hope that most of you will be able to join us on April 9 in Milpitas, California for the conference.

In order to reach our target audience, we are broadcasting the conference live through the web on East Villagers for anyone interested in participating in the conference. It’s free and we encourage you to invite all your friends to attend. They can participate in any of the sessions that interest them. They will also have the opportunity to ask questions through chatboxes set up on the side.

Currently, we are still in the planning stages of this project. We hope to make it a great one for everyone involved, but we need your help and input to do so. Please post any comments you have about any of the following issues or contact any of the team members on Team 2. We really look forward to collaborating with you. Any input would be very helpful.

• What should the focus of the conference be? Is there a theme or central question we should answer?
• What can we call the conference? Can you come up with any interesting titles?
• What non-profit organizations do you know that can speak and would be interesting for many attending the conference?
• How should we publicize the event? Do you have any creative marketing ideas?
• How can we make the conference more interactive for the audience?
• What characteristics make a conference successful and worthwhile to you?
• What other events would you like to see at the conference?

If you have ideas for any of listed questions or others, please comment. With your help, we can make this conference a successful one. We hope that we will promote the message of East Villagers and foster a tighter bond within the EVSS community through it.

Joy Liu

Durham, North Carolina

Team 2: Servant Scholars

Freshman – Duke University

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An example of what a LGBTQ Panel would be like

My high school is lucky enough to have its own Gay-Straight Alliance, or GSA club, that allows anyone of any sexuality or gender to join and support the cause of equal human rights. Recently, a teacher who is out as a lesbian has taken it upon herself to form an LGBTQ panel. What this panel does is teach unaware and uneducated people about gender and sexuality, the issues circling it and personal experience and stories as an LGBTQ person from the perspectives of adults, family and friends, and of course, students. As a fellow member of GSA, I am proud to say I will be participating in this panel this upcoming Tuesday at my school, talking about my experience as a bisexual student and furthermore, talking about being an Asian bisexual student because of how much race has become a factor in both the community and the portrayal of LGBTQ Asians in media.
I know from the perspective of this teacher that planning such an event was not easy. For instance, for students to even come sit down and speak at the meeting, they need to sign a permission slip doing so, which can 1) prevent them from not participating or 2) force them to possibly come out to their parents when they are not prepared for it. Furthermore, I know that this teacher had to ask representative from the Trevor Project, Parents, Family (and Friends) of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), and sometimes even celebrities to talk in this panel like she ash done in the past. She also went through the trouble of trying to get teachers who were open or could speak in the panel to speak in the panel with a brave heart and hopes of being treated as equals among teachers and staff. Lastly, I know that this teacher also had to go be prepared with refreshments, with setting-up, with making sure everything was as perfect as possible to make this panel impact the people viewing it. An event as simple as setting up a panel to give people who were out as whoever they are is not as easy as it sounds and that bravery to even attempt to transform the norm of sexuality in an educational facility, like a high school, is a big leap for every LGBTQ student attending that school along with the future generations to come. To have the power to change the school’s take on gender and sexuality is a great privilege and responsibility on the shoulders of one teacher with the help of a few others to make this happen.
I’m hoping in my next article, I will be able to write more about the success of the event, a few words about how hard or easy it was to plan this event, and my overall experience.

Brynn Olivia Sy

Team 3: Youth Outreach

Cleveland High School ’11

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When: Friday, November 5, 2010 at 5pm – Sunday, November 7, 2010 at 7pm

Where: Creekside Inn, Palo Alto, CA (NOTE location change)

Why: Networking, peer panels, HBV Plushies, poolside fun, great food!

Registration is now closed. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Cost: $50 registration fee for first 3 delegates per chapter ($75 for each additional delegate)

Team HBV and the ALC are offering the following funds for ONE DELEGATE from each chapter:

Registration: $50
Travel: up to $300 if flying from outside CA, up to $150 if flying from within CA, and up to $50 if driving
Cost for Delegates 1, 2, and 3 includes

Guest room for Friday and Saturday night (single gendered double-doubles (4 guests per room. each room as two queen size beds.))
Dinner Friday, breakfast & lunch Saturday, and breakfast Sunday.
Registration for Delegates 4+ includes all of the above except guest rooms. We may be able to negotiate an $89/night rate for you, which is very affordable with roommates.

Travel
Per chapter the equivalent of one participant will be supported:
$300 max reimbursement if flying from outside of California;
$150 max reimbursement if flying from Southern California;
$50 max reimbursement if driving.
If flying, please save receipt. Driving will be reimbursed by mileage, so no receipt is needed, but you will need to provide a map.
Reimbursement will occur post-conference payable to one individual per chapter. It will be up to each chapter to distribute the reimbursed fund.

Payment
Checks must be postmarked by: Wednesday, 10/20/2010.
Address check to: APAVH
Memo line: Team HBV Conference 2010

Mail it to:
Team HBV Collegiate Chapters Conference
Asian Liver Center at Stanford University
490 S. California Ave., Suite 300
Palo Alto, CA 94306

To see the exciting and fun-filled activities planned for the conference, visit the Conference 2010 Schedule page. Please remember that this schedule is subject to change.

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The Team HBV Collegiate Chapter Conference brings together individuals representing Team HBV chapters worldwide, Jade Ribbon Campaign advocates, and hepatitis B and liver cancer experts. The conference provides a professional forum for Team HBV chapters to share insights, best practices, and strategies to advance hepatitis B outreach, education, and communication. The conference is an excellent opportunity to receive updated hepatitis B news and legislation, network with other chapters, and advance the future of hepatitis B and liver cancer outreach education.

Follow your friends and chapter members throughout the conference! All Team HBV Conference attendees will be sharing their thoughts and experiences LIVE throughout the conference using East Villagers and other social media networks.

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