Soccer in the Streets Registration & Soccer Clinics

Soccer in the Streets’ goal is to promote nutrition and fitness in the community of Huntington Park which has a disproportionate rate of obesity compared to the rest of Los Angeles. At the health fair 16 organizations provided services and education to about 600 kids who also participated in the soccer games, not including adults. Every successful event depends on the behind-the-scenes work of the event coordinators and volunteers. Over 100 signed up to volunteer from USC, UCLA and by word of mouth. Shifts were 2-4 hours in a variety of stations. The registration station was the more complicated and demanding of the volunteer positions. Spanish is primarily spoken amongst this community, so volunteers at the registration tables needed to be bilingual. The child would sign-up and receive instructions on events of the day. Soccer clinics were divided up by age group at certain times on the soccer field and run by LAFC. Expert soccer playing volunteers were also given the chance to help out the clinics and soccer games. Along with a program with general information and a ticket for a free nutritious meal, kids below age 16 received a “Passport to Health” which listed all the organizations in the health fair. The mission for each one of them was to visit 7 different booths in the health fair to get a brochure or actually get screened. Then there was a place to receive a sticker for playing soccer either informally with the volunteers or at LAFC’s clinics. Kids also received a LAFC shirt to serve as their jersey and if completed their mission, would get a free soccer ball. The incentives successfully motivated the kids to visit the health fair and play soccer therefore it’s fair to say, we accomplished our two goals of promoting nutrition and fitness. By 4pm, all 500 balls had been awarded to the younger kids and LAFC wrote down the remaining older kids’ names promising them a soccer ball in the future. I was present most of the day at registration, and kids were so receptive to hearing about the day’s activities and eager to participate in every way possible. Repsonses were positive and they even asked if the event was to be every Sunday. This convinces us that this year’s Soccer in the Streets is indeed the first *annual* and hopefully will be a part of Global Health Awareness Week and the World Health Organization’s World Health Day campaign every year.

Photo taken by Kim Tu

Soccer in the Streets Health Fair

The community health fair for Soccer in the Streets was a great success, drawing hundreds of people from Huntington Park. “Vendors” at the health fair were volunteers from local clinics and health-oriented organizations that braved a few hours under the hot sun to give out educational materials about nutrition and related chronic diseases. Our own volunteers hosted a booth as well with a barrage of bilingual health education pamphlets for kids and adults with topics that ranged from diabetes to nutrition to cancer. With the incentive of a free soccer ball, courtesy of the Los Angeles Fútbol Club, kids and their families approached the booths in the health fair to learn more about healthy meals, obesity, diabetes, and prevention of drug and alcohol abuse. Among the several services provided to the community were free oral hygiene lessons from USC dental students, BMI testing, blood glucose testing, and blood pressure testing from Western University pharmacy students, HIV rapid testing, and eye screenings from Bruins in Focus. As families moved through the health fair booth-by-booth to collect stickers for a free soccer ball, many stopped to ask questions, pick up pamphlets, or get a free screening from one of the several services available.

It was fun to see the looks of enlightenment on kids’ faces as they learned about the merits of eating healthier (who knew hot Cheetos contains an ingredient that can also be found in deodorant?). Parents approached the local clinics’ booths with as much zeal as the children. By day’s end, most of the local booths had run out of educational material and all of the booths providing services ran out of testing supplies. Everyone who attended the health fair left with new knowledge of how to live a healthier lifestyle and received a free screening from at least one of the many services available.

Soccer in the Streets Entertainment

Catering to the Latino majority in Huntington Park, the entertainment at Soccer in the Streets was a varied array of the performing arts. From the swirling dresses of USC Ballet Folklórico to colorful traditional Bolivian dancers, Soccer in the Streets entertainment sampled a variety of Latin American culture. Huntington Park’s own Joe Nuñez sang a lulling ballad in Spanish, as well as popular American songs such as “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz. Johnny Polanco and his band kept the crowd dancing with saucy salsa and the UCLA LASA’s Meregue Troupe showed off their moves for the audience. Families sat on the grass and enjoyed the festivities with their free healthy lunch or danced to the live music on the dance floor in the middle of the park.

Photos by Andrew O'Neal

Presenting a Poster at the GHEC Conference

The USC Institute for Global Health provided me with funding to attend the 19^th Annual Global Health Education Consortium (GHEC) in Cuernavaca, Mexico. The conference was held at the Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica from April 9th though 11th. The conference started with a lecture by Dr. David Bloom from Harvard School of Public Health. He discussed the importance of collaboration across several different fields such as public health, law, business, and medicine. He emphasized that this type of collaboration will result in more effective ways of implementing public health findings to create program interventions. After hearing lectures by several other speakers, I had the opportunity to present my poster at the conference. This was the most enjoyable part of this experience because I was able to speak with and get helpful feedback from professors, residents, and students. I was excited when one of the professors told me that he looked forward to reading about my study in a journal publication. I had residents ask me about how leprosy was treated and how HIV/AIDS patients face a similar stigma. There were students from another U.S. medical school who will be working in a leprosy camp in Brazil this summer and I brainstormed with them on potential research projects. I also met medical students from Mexico and they gave me some more information about the stigma that leprosy patients face in Mexico because of the community’s fear of the disease. By attending this conference, I am certain that I will be able to improve my research study based on the constructive feedback I received. I also enjoyed being able to read the posters of other medical students and residents. One study that I found particularly interesting was “The Social Impact of Albino Killings on Albino School Children in Tanzania.” During the rest of the conference, I attended panels on ethics of global health, social determinants of health, clinical practice and global health, and current issues in HIV/AIDS.

Perceived Stigma of Leprosy Patients in Rural Tanzania

Doing medical work in Africa has always been one my life-long goals. The health disparities that exist between Tanzania and the United States have been particularly appalling for me. I have always had a desire to do international medical work to try to narrow the great “epidemiological divide” that exists between countries. Living in a rural village in Tanzania for one month was the most life-changing experience I have ever had, and I know that I will never forget the lessons I learned of compassion and strength. The people of Tanzania are the kindest, most hospitable people I have ever met and I felt privileged to be able to work with them.

I spent most of my time in Tanzania working at a leprosy camp with patients who had been stigmatized throughout the entire course of their illness and were now left with severe disabilities. I recruited 28 leprosy patients to participate in a face-to-face interview, which was based on a 40-item questionnaire. A native speaker of Luo assisted in translation each question. The questionnaire was divided into six areas: (1) Demographics, (2) Family Relationships, (3) Vocational Condition, (4) Social Interaction, (5) Self-Esteem, (6) Treatment & Health Care. This survey allowed me to measure the perceived stigma of leprosy patients and how it impacts different aspects of their life. For example, a 26-year-old leprosy patient shared his struggle with getting leprosy in the second grade and being taken out of school. Because he was late in receiving treatment, he has lost both of his hands. He told me that he has often thought there is no use in living and even tried to hang himself once since he will not be able to make a living or find a wife. Another patient was thrown out of his home when he first showed signs of leprosy. His family forced him to live outside about 30 feet away from their home. They would not touch him and would not allow him to eat out of the same pot of food. He looked into my eyes and told me that if it were not for this hospital, he would be “lying dead in the bushes.” He now lives in the leprosy camp and no one from his family has visited him for the past 40 years. One young female patient described her experience with leprosy. She said that she saw the patches on her skin at a very young age. When her parents saw them, they traveled to the hospital to drop her off. They told her to tell the doctors that she has “no mother and no father” and demanded that she never return home. She has been living in the camp for 15 years and is worried about how she will survive when she is old since no one will marry her and she will not be able to have children to take care of her in the future. She looked at me with tears in her eyes saying that she will probably resort to begging to survive.

The leprosy patients had suffered a great deal throughout their illness. Most were stigmatized because of the visible patches that appeared on their body. Some were kicked out of their homes, lost their friends, and discarded by society. Despite all of this, they showed a degree of strength and kindness that I had never experienced. They were so happy when I would shake their hands without fear. I will never forget their warm embrace and tears at seeing the pictures I took of them. Or their excitement at receiving sunglasses and making sure to show me that they were wearing them every time I visited the camp.

Instead of coming to the hospital, many of the leprosy patients initially turned to “witch doctors” or traditional healers for treatment of their condition. They were told that they were bewitched due to another person’s jealousy. The treatments they received consisted mostly of herbs and powders, which did not improve the symptoms. Unfortunately, by first seeking treatment from the witch doctors, these patients delayed getting treatment from the hospital. This delay resulted in severe nerve damage, which led to the amputation of their limbs. This situation is common and is extremely frustrating for the physicians since leprosy is a curable disease. Had these patients come to the hospital earlier, they would not have to live with disabilities for the rest of their lives. It is difficult to practice humanistic medicine in this setting because there is a constant battle between modern medicine and traditional medicine, which often results in the suffering of the patient. Learning about these situations allowed me to understand the cultural context of medicine and the barriers that I will face as a physician.

Fortunately, the WHO has passed a resolution to eradicate leprosy. Therefore, the leprosy patients are all treated for free, which allows the physicians to provide the best treatment and care, and truly practice humanistic medicine. In addition, if the patients have nowhere to go, the hospital has provided the patients a permanent housing location (known as the leprosy camp). Many of the patients told me that if the leprosy camp did not exist, they would have starved to death on the street alone. In the camp, the patients are able to talk about their feelings with people that understand them.

In the village of Shirati, the average income is $1/day. Almost everyone is either a fisherman or a farmer. These two occupations are almost the only way to make a living. Nearly all of the leprosy patients have at least an amputated limb or fingers. Therefore, they have lost their jobs and have no way to make money and be self-sufficient. The patients become depressed and feel useless, which makes it very difficult to practice humanistic medicine since the physicians have a hard time treating the body and the soul. However, the hospital has come up with an interesting solution to this issue. They have provided the leprosy patients with tools to make mats and other crafts in order to make some money. This allows the patients to be self-sufficient and gives them confidence, which improves their overall well-being.

The PR Experience

Working to publicize Global Health Awareness Week was quite an experience, that was full of both successes as well as missteps. First off, all of the flyers came out looking brilliantly. This was a direct result of all of our hard-working designers (listed below) and our printer Sal (of Sal Aguilar Printing: http://tinyurl.com/y58m7dn). Our programs (designed by Mana Pirnia) were also amazing, and I'd like to thank her for her efforts during the past few months, despite being in medical school. Secondly, thank you to everyone on the PR staff and especially the coordinators Kelly and Minh, without whom everything would have fallen apart. As for missteps...On second though I won't talk about them here, because no one wants to know that there is actually an old man behind the magnificent wizard (wizard of oz reference, just to clarify).

Now that the accolades are out of the way...The experience was quite educational. I learned how to use photoshop for the first time (although not very well, and I still don't know how to play with the text). I learned that guerilla marketing is the funnest (i know funnest is not a real word Kelly Leech) thing ever, and although I'm not sure, I think the enormous turnout at our events was due to our bathroom advertising where the greatest amount of undivided attention can be attained. I also learned that organizing things is pretty difficult and complex. Behind every seamless and beautiful conference, convention, symposium, or Global Health Awareness Week that we attend, there are thousands of man hours required to plan, manage, and actualize every little thing.

To finish this posting, I would like to give a shout out to Soccer in the Streets this weekend (Sunday, 1-5pm at Huntington Park), and I'd like to thank everyone again whom I worked with. In the end, the experience was pretty awesome, and hopefully our GHAW influenced people to devote their efforts in some way to help solve the bigger problems of our world :).

Designers to thank:

Joey Leech

Christian Rojaas

Lunchtime Events

As the committee point-person for lunchtime events, it was incredible to see everything we planned as a committee come into fruition. I truly am thankful for everyone's hard work and all the effort they put into making this week a success.

On Monday, April 5th, Globe Med invited Dr. Marc Strassburg to share about his experiences eradicating smallpox and to also discuss bioterrorism. Being that it was our first lunchtime event, we had a great turn out, with 52 attendees.

On Tuesday, April 6th, Dr. Nafisa Abdullah spoke about her experiences in Emergency Medicine in Afghanistan. She spoke with such charisma and passion and it was clear that those in the audience were moved to follow her example and use what they learn in the classroom to bring hope and restoration to places in need. This event also had a great turn out, with over 60 attendees.

On Wednesday, April 7th, Dr. Edward Newton came to speak about his experiences as part of the Haiti medical aid team. Dr. Newton moved the audience with the video clip and images he showed us from his time in Haiti. It was truly inspirational to see images of the USC/LAC team working wholeheartedly to also bring hope and restoration to Haiti. We had over 3o attendees at this event.

On Friday, April 9th, the volunteer coordinator, Taja McKinney-Zisler, for the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) came to lead a discussion on a film entitled "Kavi" and discuss modern day slavery and trafficking. Taja spoke with such power and passion and informed the audience about how serious and prevalent of an issue this is.

I have friends who are in the Keck School of Medicine and who came to these events. They mentioned to me that these events were very informative and eye-opening and that they enjoyed learning more about what is occurring globally in the realm of health.

Global Health Awareness Week Financial Report

It is towards the tail end of Global Health Awareness Week and the events have been successful! As head of the finance, I have been working to fund the week's events and attain sponsors. We have been using donated funds and grants to host luncheon events, generate publicity, acknowledge speakers, promote art, and of course, raise awareness about global health issues in urban settings. Our main fundraising event was held at Kress nightclub on April 1st. Students from USC and UCLA attended and proceeds from ticket sales were donated to the GHAW committee. Throughout the week we have used the Health Action Grant provided by the Institute for Global Health to hold various events on all three USC campuses.

My favorite lunchtime event was on Friday April 9th. A short video of Kavi was shown which was filmed by USC students, nominated for Oscars, and portrayed modern day slavery in India. Following Kavi, the volunteer coordinator from the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST) gave a phenomenal presentation on modern day human trafficking in the United States. I feel that most members of the audience like myself were shocked to even find several cases of human trafficking within Los Angeles. Taja, the CAST representative, informed us that health professionals should be observant for signs of "enslaved" individuals. We discussed the issue fervently and learned of volunteer and interpreter positions needed by CAST. For more information on this issue, visit www.CASTLA.org

I would like to give special thanks to the following contributors to USC GHAW events:
USC Institute for Global Health
USC Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS)
Funai Corporation
Kress Hollywood nightclub
Trader Joe's
USC World Med
Qdoba
Subway

-Stephanie-

GET DOWN for GLOBAL HEALTH!

Tonight was our first annual Global Get Down as GlobeMed at USC! We were able to bring together many different student groups to put on a diverse show of passion for global health. It was a great opportunity for us students to get a break from work, have some fun, and, at the same time, become more aware of and dedicated to the movement for global health equity.

The theme of this year's Global Health Awareness Week is Urbanization and Health. Although we live in the city ourselves, it's still often easy for us to dissociate ourselves from the problems that we see around us, both locally and globally. It's all too easy for us to just live our lives and not pay attention to the suffering and injustice in the world. However, we have to realize that we have a part in the world, that other human beings don't deserve less than we do.

This stance of social justice and equity is what motivates me and what motivates us as GlobeMed. Our mission is to improve the health of the impoverished by partnering with grassroots organizations around the world. We want to go beyond the short-term work of medical trips and travel, and focus on working directly with grassroots organizations in long-term partnerships of solidarity and mutual understanding. Each GlobeMed chapter (of which there are currently 19 nationwide) is partnered with a grassroots organization and works with them throughout the years to raise funds for projects that they are motivated to develop for their community. Our USC chapter began working with Care Net Ghana (which was actually founded by Ghanaian university students back in 1993) last fall, and we're fundraising this year to support the establishment of a medical laboratory in their community of Hohoe. The overall goal of this project is to improve maternal and child health in the area by making it possible for health workers to provide timely and accurate diagnoses of any complications that may arise during pregnancy or the birthing process. This summer, I and a few others will go to Hohoe to meet the people of Care Net for the first time. During this trip, we hope to connect with and better understand the community there, to see what our work this past school year has done, and to bring back that connection to further our work for them here at USC in the next school year.

The funding of a simple medical laboratory in Ghana means so much to their community, which currently has no pediatric care and a doctor to patient ratio of 1/200,000. Let's not be blinded by privilege, but open our eyes to the opportunity to make a lasting impact in the lives of others. It can be as easy as attending and donating at a fun event like our Global Get Down!

Presenting at the Society for Applied Anthropology Conference

The day finally came. On March 26, 2010, I presented my poster at the Society for Applied Anthropology conference in Merida, Mexico on behalf of myself and co-authors. How did it go? Well, there were some anxiety and problems encountered, but it went well overall. Let me recount my little journey.

Before the conference, I have to ensure that I arrive with the most important thing—the poster! If I lose it, there goes my entire presentation!! That caused a lot of anxiety because before the conference I immersed myself in a variety of cultural experiences (via traveling) that required a lot of moving around. That meant wherever I went, I also need to lug my poster. By the time I checked into the conference, I boarded 8 flight segments, rode on 2 long-distance bus routes, traveled to 2 countries and 4 regions, and left my poster in the restroom at least twice (but luckily backtracked in time). Can you imagine the pressure I felt for ensuring the poster arrived safely and soundly?

With lots of luck, the poster made it to the conference in one piece. Then, the next thing I have deal with is presenting it to the academic community. Amazingly, I did not have much anxiety with the presentation. However, the problem I encountered was not being placed in a very favorable position. The room of the poster session was small, poster easels were crammed in as many places as possible, and there was dim lighting. To make my situation worse, I was placed next to the wall. Why is this bad? Well, the easel was high enough to give me enough light that was equivalent to a candlelight dinner. Sounds romantic enough, but not really the feel I am going for. This location also made me (and my immediate neighbors) invisible to most of the visitors to the session. I would not blame them, I mean how do you know that there are posters to the side of the room especially since it is dark in that area and is difficult to get to?

Regardless of my location, I still had great visitors, responses, and feedback. Since I was presenting on Uyghurs, it was not surprising that some people have not heard of them. Whether they had heard of them or not, everyone was interested about this group. Many did not know the health disparities Uyghurs experience due to political and structural barriers. There were also many who were curious on how the group was contacted considering their very small population in Los Angeles County. I also had several encouragements to continue following the Los Angeles Uyghurs and track health changes in their population.

Despite anxiety and problems encountered, I had a great poster session. I had a very interested and attentive audience that outweighed any cons I experienced. I was able to get the Uyghur story out to the academic community. I also brought attention the presence of Uyghurs that could possibly spark more future research or projects that can positively help this community. I think I did the Los Angeles Uyghur community and my co-authors proud.