2018- 2019 | agphi

2018-2019 Highlights

Our members engaged in diverse, impactful initiatives worldwide. We worked with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, raised funds to combat mycetoma in Sudan, and collaborated across continents and time zones to drive positive change in Uganda. Pushing beyond our comfort zones, we even ventured into songwriting and challenged ourselves to master new data visualization software.

SPEAKERS

Talk on Ebola in the DRC: Social Science and the Response

Presented by Juliette Bedford

Dr. Juliet Bedford, adjunct professor at NYU GPH and Founder & Director of Anthrologica, led a discussion on her work addressing Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Anthrologica, a research-based organization specializing in applied anthropology in global health, plays a critical role in shaping response strategies. As the lead anthropologist for the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, Dr. Bedford provided a unique cross-sectoral perspective on the crisis. She highlighted how mistrust, misinformation, conflict zones, and porous borders continue to hinder efforts to contain the outbreak, underscoring the importance of community engagement and culturally informed interventions.

COLLABORATIONS

Building Public Health Narratives Through Music with Carlos Chirinos

In December, AGPHI partnered with Professor Carlos Chirinos' Music and Social Change Lab and GPH's Comms Academy to engage students in developing skills in public health storytelling. Students were divided into groups to create a verse of a song to send to Les Amazones d'Afrique to inspire public health-focused messaging for their newest album. Students focused on themes of domestic violence and presented their lyrics at the culmination of the workshop.

#ItsNotFine

Little girl growing up, eight years old
Seeing her family in her home
Her mom has bruises, black & blue
She says “Momma what has happened to you?”

She said “Don’t you mind, honey, this is fine
We’ve been taught to stay in line
Don’t you mind, honey, this is fine”
You say it’s fine, but…
This life is mine.

Student Narrative 1: Becca Newbold, May Li, Emily Holzman, Ashley Newcomb, Vaibhav Srinivasan, Anjali Kumar, Jenna Mote

#LibertéFeminine

3 minutes late
What is he going to do now
Red around the dark of his eyes
I’m a person
Why does he do this?

Tremors in my leg
Fire in my eyes
You say you love me, but
I think you own me.
I’m a person
Don’t touch me.

Student Narrative 2: Jinal Shah, Farid Bagheri Ardestani, Vicky Radios, Miah Roberts, Patty Medina

Working on teams is essential to and expected in the field of global public health, and we get plenty of practice in AGPHI. Teamwork is not always easy; it requires compromise, open communication, and the balancing of personalities and tasks, and we encourage our members to embrace these challenges and learn from them. All of our teams have been hard at work over the last few months to define the scope of their projects, manage expectations, and communicate effectively with their teammates and outside agencies. Despite time differences, technological difficulties, and budget constraints, these teams are learning, persevering and accomplishing amazing things in the process.

PROJECTS

Mycetoma in Sudan

Mycetoma is a chronic, progressively destructive inflammatory disease, primarily affecting the foot, caused by certain fungi or bacteria entering the skin. In Sudan, where the disease is endemic, it disproportionately impacts individuals of low socioeconomic status, particularly young men (ages 20–40) engaged in manual labor, often working barefoot in rural areas. Due to limited healthcare access and awareness, mycetoma is frequently diagnosed at an advanced stage, leaving amputation as the only treatment option. This not only results in disability but also deepens economic hardship for affected families. Despite being added to the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) list in 2016, mycetoma remains underfunded and largely overlooked.

A team from AGPHI, led by Eiman Ahmed, collaborated with the Mycetoma Patients Friends Association to develop strategies for delivering treatment to rural Sudanese communities. The team raised awareness and crucial funds to support those affected, including providing protective footwear—a simple yet effective measure to prevent infection. The team prioritized initiatives, refine strategies, and secure resources to improve health outcomes in underserved areas of Sudan.

Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals in Urban and Peri-Urban Uganda

Meeting the SDGs in Urban and Peri-Urban Areas of Uganda is no easy task. Like many low and middle-income countries (LMICs), Uganda faces a range of challenges to achieving “good health and well-being” for all of its people, not limited to a lack of infrastructure and human capital. As we see time and time again in public health, health outcomes vary significantly between regions, cities, and villages, and Karamoja, specifically, has significantly higher maternal, infant and child mortality rates than the national average.

Working across time zones, with two MPH SDG students in Uganda and four MPH students in New York City, the team overcame technological and communication issues to map important public health actors in the region, conduct a systems-level analyses, and design an on-the-ground case study.

Team Members: Butemba Jonathan (abroad), Edward Galiwango (abroad), Farid Bagheri Ardestani, Jinal K Shah, Vicky Radaios, and Miah Roberts

UNICEF Cox's Bazaar & AGPHI Partnership

What began as AGPHI member Corbin Kappler’s internship project in Cox’s Bazar evolved into a two-team collaboration with UNICEF. The humanitarian response to the Rohingya refugee crisis has been ongoing for several years, with over 900,000 refugees now settled in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. While UNICEF and other organizations have collected vast amounts of valuable data, the urgency and scale of the crisis have delayed comprehensive analysis. As a result, there is an immediate need to improve information sharing and disaster risk modeling to enhance long-term planning and response efforts.

The team focused on two key priorities outlined in the UNICEF-AGPHI partnership:

Optimizing Information Sharing – Assessing UNICEF’s current data-sharing practices, identifying bottlenecks, and providing strategies to strengthen coordination and accessibility.
Enhancing Disaster Risk Visualization – Developing a clear, intuitive platform to help UNICEF, the Bangladesh Army, and other response organizations model and anticipate disaster risks in the Bay of Bengal region.

The ultimate goal of the initiative was to streamline data flows and implement computational disaster risk modeling software, equipping UNICEF with the tools needed to protect and promote the health and safety of Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar.