Cambridge Global Health Year
The Humanitarian Centre is hosting a year of events and activities on current Global Health issues. This includes conferences, networking opportunities, training, seminars and workshops, and an online database to increase collaboration and impact in Global Health. Our blog captures the thoughts of ‘Global Health’ students, researchers, practitioners and others. Please contact Anne Radl to contribute.
Reflections on the Annual Lecture: Saving Lives, Building Resilience and the UK
Words by Rose Beale, Photos by Elizabeth Wagemann
Chris Austin MP -Head of Conflict, Humanitarian and Security Department – began by emphasising the deep roots of the UK’s approach to humanitarian relief: built on our ‘collective humanity’. In response to the Portuguese earthquake and tsunami of 1755 parliament voted £100,000 and despatched ships ‘forthwith’. As Vattel – the author of the Law of Nations (more...)
The Cambridge Science Festival has a unique offering this year for anyone interested in exploring the relationship between science and entrepreneurship. The Global Health Hack Day is an “open innovation” event being run by the Humanitarian Centre, in partnerhsip with the Cambridge University Technology and Entreprise Club (CUTEC).
The Global Health Hack Day is based on a pioneering open innovation event run by CUTEC and Cambridge-based company Medimmune in 2011. This year, the Humanitarian (more...)
The 2011 UN Summit on NCDs highlighted the pressing need to address NCDs globally, particularly in developing countries which are the hardest hit but have the least resources.
The Cambridge Post-UN Summit Conference on 20th January 2012 explored next steps for the UK by gathering experts from academia and civil society with representatives from the private sector, the media, and government departments.
On the 31/01/2012 The Humanitarian Centre held a Parliamentary reception which aimed to (more...)
Part 3. Debates and Reflections
By Alexa Zeitz
The conference threw up many questions, as is to be expected at this early phase in the NCD movement. Among these was the role of the private sector and conflicts of interest. While the tobacco industry has been roundly rejected from debates about NCDs because of its vested interest in perpetuating one of the behavioural causes of NCDs, the alcohol, food and drug industries still have conflicted positions. Many corporations from these sectors (more...)
Part 2. Mental Health and Partnerships
By Alexa Zeitz
The topic of mental health had been largely off the agenda at the UN Summit, the Humanitarian Centre conference recognized the importance of addressing this most neglected chronic disease. Carol Brayne, Director of the Cambridge Institute of Public Health, explained that mental health goes unaddressed because of a big lack of data, low numbers of health workers and, most importantly, stigma and discrimination. Brayne argued forcefully that (more...)
Part 1. The UN NCD summit: Frustrations and Optimism.
By Alexa Zeitz
“Shocking”. This is what Richard Howitt, MEP for East of England, called the global incidence of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Howitt, who gave the welcome address that opened the Humanitarian Centre’s Post-UN Summit Conference on NCDs and Mental Health in Developing Countries on January 20th, said he saw the U.N. Summit in September 2011 as a “trigger” for global action. He attributed the lack of mainstream (more...)
As unwieldy as they are, the words “noncommunicable diseases” are on the tip of everyone’s tongues—at least, everyone in health care—and rightly so. The “four main” noncommunicable diseases (cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic lung diseases and diabetes) kill three in five people worldwide, and cause serious socioeconomic harm within all countries, particularly developing nations.
This past September, the biggest names in health gathered in New York for the UN Summit on (more...)
by Bryant Okoroji
Pictures By Helen Atwood (c) CrativeElla at Encourage Photography
Video courtesy of Cambridge Union Society
In a post-apocalyptic world, who would you trust with your health? Who would you protect? Who is most important? At the 2011 Global Health Life Raft Debate, experts from a variety of disciplines debated why their particular expertise would be most useful in this whimsical scenario. The debate put the experts in the hot seat, as they competed for the one (more...)
On Friday 25 November at 7:30pm the Humanitarian Centre presents, the first ever Global Health Life Raft Debate. Who will survive??
We imagine there has been an apocalyptic disaster, and that the sole survivors, the audience, have built a life raft to take them to a new land, where they will have the opportunity to build a new society.
Experts from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds in Global Health will vie for the one remaining space on the life raft, each presenting an argument for (more...)
Cambridge Film and Video: The Series: HIV 30 Years On “Cambridge Film and Video is proud to present in collaboration with Cambridge Hub, The Series. A number of short films capturing moments from live talks and interviews by people directly involved in helping others.
Taryn Treger organised a talk on the History of HIV for Cambridge Hub. This group is working very hard in bringing to the University an awareness for organisations that help those less fortunate than ourselves. For more (more...)