BY MATT BLEIMAN

In print | October 25, 2007

Global Health Forum, a newly formed student group, has begun working towards its goal of large-scale awareness of infectious diseases and is raising funds for fighting those diseases in developing nations. This semester the group will focus on raising awareness about the malaria epidemic, sponsoring an anti-malaria campaign that is set to begin on Thursday, Oct. 25 and will last through Thursday, Nov. 8.

Global Health Forum board member Erin Ronhovde ’10 described the Global Health Forum as an organization that “educates the public on issues of global health, specifically hepatitis, malaria and HIV/AIDS.”

“It gives the community an inside look at how these diseases affect individuals and communities,” Ronhovde said.

One of the goals of the Global Health Forum is raising money through various fundraisers in both the Swarthmore Borough and on campus. Throughout the campaign, which is coordinated by Maryanne Tomazic ’10, Global Health Forum hopes that every Swarthmore student will contribute to the fundraising effort to buy insecticide-treated bed nets to protect children in Uganda from malaria-carrying mosquitoes. The group plans to display a bed net in Sharples Dining Hall.

“We’re hoping to get Swarthmore students and the community to send as many nets as there are people,” Global Health Forum board member Mark Dlugash ’08 said. All of the proceeds will go towards buying the $10 bed nets for people living in the Acholi Quarter of Kamapala, Uganda. According to the organization Nothing but Nets, anti-malaria bed nets can reduce the transmission of the disease by up to 90 percent in high-coverage areas.

The Global Health Forum will begin its anti-malaria campaign this week by raising awareness of the disease with a series of events. The opening event is a photography exhibit depicting victims of the malaria epidemic in Uganda. This exhibit will be up from Oct. 25 through Oct. 31 in Parrish’s Shane Student Lounge. Dlugash took the photographs over the summer when he went to Uganda with fellow board member Katie Camillus ’08, who was there establishing a micro-loan enterprise through her Lang Opportunity Grant.

In Uganda, Dlugash arranged interviews with local children with malaria and with their mothers. The effects of the disease were evident in many children who lacked the energy even to speak with Dlugash. After the 10-minute interviews, Mark photographed the mothers with their children. These photographs will be displayed in the upcoming exhibit. On the last day of the exhibit, Dlugash and Camillus will speak about their experiences in Uganda.

In addition to the photo exhibit, the Global Health Forum will be hosting three speakers. Rhodes Scholar Tafadzwa Muguwe ’05 and former World Health Organization employee Eugene Palatulan ’05 will be speaking on the science behind malaria, vaccines and case studies on Nov. 4. On Nov. 8, Terrie Taylor ’77, a research physician in tropical medicine at Michigan State University, will speak about the work she does in Malawi. Every year, Taylor spends six months researching the effects of cerebral malaria on children. On Tuesday, Nov. 6, the Global Health Forum will show the documentary Malaria: Fever Wars. The PBS special documents the lives of several different individuals with malaria as they struggle to live with the disease.

The Global Health Forum has involved the community outside the college as well. “We are trying to spread awareness outside the campus,” Lois Park ‘10 said. On Nov. 10, the mayor of Swarthmore will read an Africa-related story for children at the Swarthmore Library, and the Global Health Forum will be sponsoring a workshop there for kids. Local businesses will also be handing out information on malaria in conjunction with the Global Health Forum’s anti-malaria campaign.

After the anti-malaria campaign, the Global Health Forum plans to begin working on its ideas for next semester. They will likely be shifting the focus from malaria to HIV/AIDS for the next cycle of events.

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