Support Us
Dr. Li Lin's project team works within the Refugee Health Big Ideas team
Systematic differences in health outcomes, or health inequities, are widespread and dismaying: every day 16,000 children under five die from preventable disease, maternal mortality is highest among the poor, and nearly 1 billion people around the world live in slums. The complex factors that contribute to health inequities require transdisciplinary teams – researchers, communicators, leaders, policy makers, and educators – to work together to enact change.
The Community for Global Health Equity elevates transdisciplinary research. We support work that is co-produced, articulating problems and designing solutions alongside community partners. We invest in long-term, impact-oriented partnerships, translating research into practical and policy actions that can be applied at national, state, and local levels.
To do this work we need your help. With your support, we can increase opportunities that improve health equity for communities in Buffalo and around the world.
How will your support help?
1. Bring our partners to UB
We are fortunate to work with extraordinarily talented community partners from countries around the world. A donation of $3,000 will support one 4-6 week stay in Buffalo for one international partner.
In 2016, we invited Ashabrick Nantege Bamutaze as a Global Innovation Challenge Fellow. Since, we have collaborated with her and her colleagues at the Uganda Ministry of Water and Sanitation’s Appropriate Technology Centre piloting a WaSH tool and analyzing WaSH communications. Now UB students can intern with the ATC.
In 2018 Midhat Fayaz was awarded a 6-week residency at UB. She collaborated with the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab and also participated in the 2018 Global Innovation Challenge to advance food equity among smallholder farmers in the Global South.
Ashabrick Nantege Bamutaze, Global Innovation Challenge Fellow 2016, helps team of students.
Midhat Fayaz at the 2018 Global Innovation Challenge.
2. Serve the wellbeing of refugees in WNY
Western New York resettles the majority of New York State’s New Americans. Since 2013, UB has collaborated with refugee leaders, resettlement agencies, local government, and university faculty and students to host the annual WNY Refugee Health Summit. A donation of $500 will support programs like these that unite the University and the community to work together toward health equity.
Steven Sanyu, Theo Herman, and Abdi Farah (from left to right) from the Buffalo refugee community speak on the topic of housing at the 6th Annual Refugee Health Summit while Dr. Samina Raja (on the right) facilitates.
3. Support transdisciplinary research collaborations with community partners
Our research is action oriented. We envision bold change that can improve health equity for all. A donation of $1500 will support the work of our students, researchers and community partners.
With seed funding the Antimicrobial Resistance team was able to partner with a leading expert in infectious diseases, icddr,b (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh). The team collected water samples in Bangladesh and analyzed the data to understand and characterize antimicrobial resistance in the environment.
In 2018, we invited Dr. K. Vasuki as a Global Innovation Challenge Fellow. Since then, Dr. Vasuki has been a leading advisor for Plan REFUGE, a 3-country project supported in part by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Antimicrobial Resistance Big Ideas team collecting water samples in Bangladesh.
Dr. Vasuki speaking at the Global Innovation Challenge 2018.
4. Send UB students into the field
Our students collaborate with and learn from our international partners. A donation of $1500 will provide airfare, lodging, and food for one UB student to spend 4 weeks with international collaborators and gain real-world skills and experience.
Students hold workshop on sanitation and hygiene with a womens group in Odisha, India.
5. Promote the Global Innovation Challenge
We have established and expanded dynamic learning opportunities like our Global Innovation Challenge (GIC), a week-long problem-solving competition focused on developing solutions to some of the major, unsolved global health challenges around the world. A donation of $1000 will provide scholarships for 10 students to participate.
Students Seth Frndak and Nadia Koyratty present on behalf of their team at the 2020 Global Innovation Challenge.