Humanitarian Crises of 2008

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has just released a list of the 

Top Ten Humanitarian Crises of 2008

Please take a few minutes to click on the link and learn about the biggest crises going on in the world today.

Maternal Mortality Film Screening

Please join us for the first event in our next module, dealing with maternal mortality!

Maternal Mortality Module: Film Screening

Wednesday, February 18th

6:30 - 8 PM

Hammer Rm. 303

Dinner will be served

Join us over dinner to watch a BBC documentary, "Dead Mums Don't Cry," on maternal mortality in Chad, followed by a short discussion and activity.

"Becoming a mother in Africa can be among the most frightening and dangerous jobs in the world. This program investigates why more than half a million women die every year in pregnancy and childbirth.

DEAD MUMS DON'T CRY documents one woman's remarkable struggle to stop mothers in her country from dying. She's Grace Kodindo - an obstetrician in the poverty-stricken central African country of Chad. Women in Chad have a 1 in 11 chance of dying during pregnancy or in childbirth. The risk for women in the UK is 1 in 5100.

Cutting maternal mortality by 75% by 2015 was one of the eight Millennium Development Goals set by 189 countries in 2000. Five years on, progress is far behind schedule - and this film reveals it's slowest on the goals that affect women and children.

But DEAD MUMS DON'T CRY shows there is reason for hope. A few poor countries have succeeded in saving mothers' lives. BBC reporter Steve Bradshaw and Grace Kodindo travel to Honduras, which has cut maternal mortality far faster than some wealthier neighbors. A key reason is that influential men and women cared enough to make the issue a priority."

Please RSVP to fwc2109@columbia.edu

Human Trafficking Events

Physicians for Human Rights presents two events on Human Trafficking:

1.  Film Screening: 

Carissa (20 min) 

Tuesday, February 17th, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. 

Hammer Rm. 310 

Dinner will be served 

 

Carissa is a short documentary about a young girl who was a victim of sex trafficking in Fresno, California. She was able to turn her life around and is now a national spokesperson on the issue of youth homelessness and sex trafficking. Come hear her story. Director David Sauvage. http://carissaproject.com

Free dinner and screening, followed by a short discussion activity. 

 

2. Speaker: 

Florrie Burke*, M.Ed., MA, LMFT 

Wednesday, February 18th, Noon – 1 p.m. 

Hammer Rm. 324 

Lunch will be served 

 

Florrie Burke will be discussing trafficking and modern day slavery, using a human rights approach, and illustrating with cases from NY. She will also address the importance of medical professionals as intermediaries and as responders to trafficked victims' health needs.

**Please RSVP for each event to fwc2109@columbia.edu so there is enough food for everyone.**

*Bio: Florrie Burke, M.Ed., MA, LMFT, is a consultant on Modern Day Slavery to both governmental and non governmental agencies. She was most recently the Senior Director of International Programs at Safe Horizon in New York City where she oversaw both the Anti-Trafficking Program and Solace Program for Survivors of Torture and Refugee Trauma.  She is a founding member and currently the Coordinator of the Freedom Network Training Institute and trains social service providers, law enforcement and government entities across the country.  She has done extensive training and consultation on Human Trafficking issues, trauma and torture both nationally and internationally.  Ms. Burke is a current Co-Chair of the Freedom Network USA, a nationwide group of social and legal service providers working with survivors of human trafficking.  Ms. Burke has served as an Expert Witness on several high profile cases of Human Trafficking.  She is a member of the Expert Initiative on Human Trafficking at the UNODC in Vienna and is part of three working groups developing materials for first responders and others who may encounter Human Trafficking.  Ms. Burke has been working with trafficked persons since 1997 when she designed and implemented specialized social services to sixty deaf Mexicans who were held in slavery in a peddling ring in NYC.  Ms. Burke also designed and implemented a model for Community Trauma Response following the attacks on September 11th.  In 2007 Ms. Burke received the National Crime Victims Recognition Service Award from the Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime and was honored by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor and was awarded the Annual Paul and Sheila Wellstone Award by the Freedom Network USA

Global Migration and Development Conference

See below for information on a free conference down at the law school.  It is being run by CUPID, the Columbia University Partnership for International Development.

CUPID'S ANNUAL CONFERENCE: Development without Borders: Is Migration Good for Development?

Date: Friday, February 13th

Time: 12:30 pm- 7:30 pm

Location: Law School, Jerome Greene Hall, RM 106

Each spring, the Columbia University Partnership for International Development (CUPID) holds a major conference at Columbia University on an international development issue. The conference gathers a multidisciplinary panel of scholars and practitioners from the University and beyond to present and discuss their perspectives. The day-long conference is free and open to all.

This year's conference seeks to evaluate the consequences of global migration on diverse fields such as health, business, education and the environment while also considering what steps should be taken around migration that best supports international development.

Click on the link for more information and to register!

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cupid/Conference.html

CUPID is a student-led effort across Columbia  University to facilitate multidisciplinary dialogue, awareness, and action on

international development. Encouraging a collaborative spirit among students, professors, and alumni with diverse specialties, CUPID aims to explore and demonstrate how a multidisciplinary approach to international development can produce innovative, holistic solutions for disadvantaged populations.

Spend your summer in Egypt!

Marhaba: Volunteers in the Middle East is announcing its 2009 volunteer opportunities. Marhaba offers service-learning programs for college students and recent graduates who want to go beyond a study-abroad experience and truly engage with a foreign culture.

Volunteers in Program 1 will work with St. Andrew's Church to serve the refugee population in Cairo. St. Andrew's provides educational and vocational training for refugees from primarily African countries who had fled their homes due to war or other disaster or who have a well-founded fear of returning due to persecution or loss of rights. St. Andrew's refugee programs are entirely secular and the population served is both Christian and Muslim. Volunteers will assist with programs for children and teens. They will tutor students in preparation for end-of-year exams, serve as teaching assistants, lead some classes in pairs, and/or design a short summer program including trips and fun activities.

Volunteers in Program 2 will teach conversational English classes at Resala, a large development organization led by Egyptian youth. Resala offers a range of programs, including Arabic literacy classes, food and clothing distribution, courses for the blind, and orphanages for street children. Marhaba volunteers will teach young Egyptian adults who volunteer at the centers. Volunteers will work in pairs at different branches of the organization throughout Cairo.

In addition to volunteering, there are several other components of the Marhaba program. Volunteers from both programs will live together and jointly participate in orientation, Arabic classes, seminars, cultural activities, group trips, and a final retreat. Each program will also meet individually for weekly group dinners.

For more information and application details, please see our website at www.gomarhaba.org or email info@gomarhaba.org. Applications due March 1st.

Program dates are June 20 - July 30. Scholarships are available.

Global Health Conference at Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai Global Health Center
presents

International Development and Aid
Controversies and Successes

Saturday March 7, 2009  9:30am

 

http://mssm-ghc.org/conference2009

 

George Ayittey, Economist, Free Africa Foundation 

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/george_ayittey_on_cheetahs_vs_hippos.html

 

Alexander Preker, World Bank West Africa

 

Ronald Waldman, USAID advisor, Mailman School of Public Health

 

Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Icahn Institute 
Goldwurm Auditorium
1425 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10029

Registration for the 7th Annual Global Health Conference is FREE, and lunch will be provided.

To REGISTER, please email : global.health@mssm.edu

Doctors Without Borders Lecture

A physician with MSF (Doctors without Borders) will be speaking at Weill Cornell on Tuesday, February 10th at 4pm.  All Columbia students welcome.

Dr. Buddhima Lokuge is a medical practitioner with MSF/Doctors Without Borders in New York. As US manager of the organization's Access to Essential Medicines Campaign, he coordinates nutrition-related policy and advocacy for MSF in the US.  Dr. Lokuge has field experience with MSF in India and Afghanistan, where he ran MSF's malnutrition programs in hte district of Ghazni.

He will speak about MSF's work in areas devastated by malnutrition.  This ongoing crisis contributes to 3.5 to 5 million deaths in children under five each year, and leads to long term disability for many, and poor health and educational outcomes for many more.

February 10th, 4pm

Weill Auditorium

Weill Cornell Medical College

1300 York Ave, NY NY