Past News & Updates from
Global Health Action

July 29, 2011: GHA Executive Director Robin Davis talks about GHA and its work in Haiti in the July/August issue of Response Magazine:

"In Haiti, Global Health Action’s mission comes alive through the people in our community-based health and development programs and activities, not just after a disaster but everyday."

To read the rest of her article, click here to download the PDF.

June, 2011:GHA President Emerita Frances Candler Shumway, who passed away this spring, was featured in the 2010 Georgia United Methodist Foundation Annual Report.

"As a member of a prominent family in Georgia, Frances Candler Shumway could have chosen to live a comfortable, carefree life at home. Instead she traveled the world, sharing her God-given gifts and resources with people in need.

Ms. Shumway was passionate about Global Health Action (GHA), an approved Decatur-based mission project of The United Methodist Church. GHA’s mission is to improve the health of people and communities around the globe through education, training, and practical programs in leadership, management, and health promotion. She served as president of GHA for 29 years, and then served as president emerita until her death in March 2011."

To download the entire article as a PDF file, click here.

May 24, 2011: GHA Program Manager Girija Sankar authors a guest post for The Hunger and Undernutrition Blog

1,000,000 Community-Health Workers? Community-based approaches to improved nutrition

"A million community health workers (CHWs): that is the stated target of the WHO. The US Global Health Initiative’s target is 250,000. Whatever the specific target may be, CHWs are a critical resource in addressing global health issues. With the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) deadline fast approaching, much attention has been focused on community-based health systems as a proven strategy for addressing global public health problems such as maternal and infant mortality. Community-based health workers are also increasingly seen as crucial to service delivery in areas with little or no institutional/facility-based health care."

Read the entire article here.

March 12, 2011: Frances Candler Shumway, GHA's President Emerita, passed away at the age of 90. Mrs. Shumway, who served as the President of the GHA Board of Directors for nearly 29 years, lived a long and full life.

February 2, 2011: Girija Sankar, GHA Program Manager, has a guest post up on The Hunger and Undernutrition Blog, entitled, "Snapshots from the field…and lessons learnt from Haiti":

"What is the magic solution going to be for Haiti? It’s all about education some say. Build schools, provide children with the best learning tools and supplies, and pay qualified teachers regularly. Some argue that it's population control. . . . I hope that I've given you a snap shot of the mechanics of integrated development and how it could work and more importantly, why it should work."

Read everything between the ellipses here.

January 19, 2011:

"There is no magic solution [for Haiti]," said Ms. Lee Wilder, a member of the Steering Committee of the La Gonave Haiti Partnership and one of four panelists for today's brown bag lunch panel discussion at GHA. It was a sentiment echoed directly and indirectly by the other panelists and heard by the more than 50 members of the in-person and conference-call audience.

One year after the earthquake, Haitians need many things, but, perhaps more than anything, they need a commitment from us - NGOs, funders, church groups, and all the groups and individuals who want to help make things better - to be true partners and not just problem solvers.

We must ask and listen to what the people of Haiti say they need. We must honor our commitments. We must teach Haitians how to help themselves and their fellows. We must invest in long-term, slow, almost invisible progress.

John Talbird - Paul Farmer's 5 Lessons From Haiti.doc
Lee Wilder's PowerPoint presentation.pdf
Robin Davis' PowerPoint presentation.pdf

November 11, 2010: A shout-out to 13 year-old Sarah Guillo of Moro, Illinios, who recently wrote:

Dear International Service Association for Health,
I was recently reading a book that told me how people can adopt a goat. The person pays a certain amount of money and INSA gives a Haitian family a pregnant goat. I think this is a very good idea you have had. Please send me more information on this program. I am considering adopting a goat. I am 13 years old and I know how unhappy I would be if I had no food. I have been looking for a way to help others and I think I have found it.

As we wrote to Sarah, INSA has become GHA, but we still work in Haiti and help poor rural families through the Haitian Goat Program. THANK YOU, Sarah, for your kind and generous spirit!

November 8, 2010: Here is a wonderful first-person account from Ms. Uzoamaka Uja, a Nigerian nurse who participated in GHA’s 2007 Design Management & Evaluation course in Ghana and is glad to share her story, including the benefits of GHA’s training. Ms. Uja is the founder and director of Isaiah 58 House, and this is about her work and motivation. GHA plays only a small role, but it is important to know who benefits from GHA’s programs and how training and supporting them helps improve health, relieve suffering, offer compassion, and provide hope to many more.

Thank you, Amaka, for speaking from the heart and for your compassion and caring for others.

October 14, 2010: Day 4 of the NPFPC course - Small group work.

October 11, 2010: Robin Davis accepts a gift from Mr. Zou Guorong, leader of the 21-person NPFPC (National Population and Family Planning Commission of China) training class. Today is the first day of their week-long Strategic Management for Reproductive Health Programs course at GHA.

August 30-31, 2010: Girija Sanakar, GHA Program Manager, presented a poster session on our Haiti Child Survival Project at the first annual Global Maternal Health Conference held in New Delhi, India. Read Girija's reflections on the conference.

August 11, 2010: Travis Mitchell's last day as Program Coordinator at GHA, He's moving to . . . Sweden?!

So, Travis, why do you want to move to Sweden?
  - I got accepted to Lund University and was offered free tuition to do my masters in Global Studies with a focus on Migration. I'm certainly gonna miss GHA!

For more of Travis' farewell interview, please visit GHA on Facebook.

July 2010: Some six months after the earthquake that rocked Haiti and changed so many lives, it’s an opportunity for us at Global Health Action to take stock, to count our blessings and to give thanks.

Thanks to those who donated their time, talents, and treasure to help. Like the congregation of Northside United Methodist Church which put together 1400 personal hygiene kits and multiplied that effort through the generosity of their financial gifts. Or, the Cathedral of St. Philip which generously matched contributions from its parishioners. Or, Trinity Presbyterian of Atlanta, GA and Trinity Episcopal of Columbus, GA which made mission outreach grants. Or, old friends with a personal connection to GHA’s work in Haiti together with new donors who trusted GHA to make a difference. Or, the many groups and individuals who collected medicines and supplies. Or, David Lee, who offered to fly down supplies himself and who enlisted his father’s company to help palletize and transport the donations. Or, Jeannie Chaya, who asked her friends for Haiti donations rather than birthday presents. And, so many more.

We’re not going to try to name every donor, but we hope you all know how truly grateful and appreciative we are!

Thanks to our staff on the ground in Haiti – themselves shaken and traumatized – who rallied to help others, lead their communities, and play a part in responding to the immediate and future challenges.

Thanks to our on-the-ground partners – both Haitian and international – who share our resolve and commitment to rebuilding lives and communities, in both the short- and the long-term.

Thanks to all of you who held – and continue to hold – the people of Haiti and the work of Global Health Action in your thoughts and prayers.

And last but not least, thanks to the people of Haiti for their indomitable spirit, their resilience, and their faith in a better future, even when facing years of challenges ahead. As Mother Teresa once said, "I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much."

June 2010:
Announcing . . .

Upcoming courses at GHA's world headquarters in Decatur, GA:

October 11-15 (new date): A group of up to 25 officials from China's National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC) will be at GHA for a course on Strategic Management for Reproductive Health Programs.

November 15-19 (new date): Another NPFPC group will be at GHA for a course on Advocacy for Population and Reproductive Health Programs.

Jeannie (in blue) with her husband Janjai and long-time friend (and GHA co-founder) Virginia Proctor.

April 2010: On the night of April 17, 2009, Jeannie Chayavadhanangkur celebrated her 70th birthday, with more than 120 family members and friends joining her for a night of dining, dancing, Karaoke singing, and congratulations. In lieu of gifts, Jeannie had asked her guests to make donations to GHA to support our relief and rebuilding efforts in Haiti, and the night raised more than $3,200 to help the people of Haiti. Thank you, Jeannie!

April 2010: A meeting of the minds in Darbonne, Haiti. From left to right: Robin Davis, GHA Executive Director; Rachelle Etienne, GHA Haiti Field Office Coordinator; Pere Samuel Saint Louis, Episcopal priest for the Parish of Darbonne; and Franck Toussaint, Senior Coordinator, GHA Haitian Goat Program. To read about Robin's trip, please click here (the May 2010 letter) and to see GHA's post-earthquake, long-term rebuilding strategies in Haiti, you can download Long-Term Rebuilding Strategies in Haiti.pdf.

March 2010: After presenting GHA's International Training Workshop on Effective Management and Evaluation of HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health Programs in Nanjing, China, GHA Executive Director Robin Davis and long-time facilitator Bruce Wood met up with former visiting scholars Ma Aili and Lu Xiaoli in Beijing. Aili and Xiaoli were each at GHA in 2009 for about three months. It was great to catch up with them on this trip. Read a short summary of the course from the Information Platform of Population and Development in South-South Cooperation.