PHR Student Program South Regional Hub

Speaking from the perspective of a health care professional (in training), defending and promoting human rights can be exhausting.

It does not have to—and should not—be that way.

A large part of the struggle is appreciating what has happened in the past and understanding what lies ahead: How does one define human rights? What advances have been made in the past? How are human rights impacted in my community vs. around the world? What efforts can we lead in our communities to support human rights? Why should human rights matter to health professionals? How do we approach human rights violations that are intricately intertwined with political arguments?

The answers to these questions—and many more like them—are what we strive to provide in our regional and national conferences.

Participating in regional and national conferences is essential to understanding the workings of any organization, and there are many opportunities to attend PHR Regional Advocacy Institutes (happening now) and National Student Conferences (held around February of each year). When we come together for these workshops, we see that we are not alone in protecting human rights. We all face problems as local organizations, we all have different goals, and we all want to learn more.

Beyond understanding the basic questions surrounding work in human rights, attending these nationally sponsored events promotes the exchange of ideas and promotes interactions between chapters. National conferences facilitate learning new facts and techniques for promoting human rights and expose you (and your chapter) to regionally and nationally acclaimed speakers. These events introduce you to a network of other like-minded students to whom you can reach out, and they also provide endless opportunities to make new friends.

More than anything, attending nationally sponsored events reenergizes you to head back home and fight the good fight. While defending human rights is an ongoing struggle, when we come together, we are able to take a step back—away from our smaller realms of influence—and understand that there’s a much larger effort being formed in our national community.

We hope to see you in soon at a Regional Advocacy Institute or at the 2011 National Student Conference. In the meantime, please check out the newly launched PHR Toolkits website, PHRtoolkits.org. The Toolkits are fantastic resources from the people at the PHR National Student Program to help chapters across the nation easily move forward in promoting human rights efforts.

Even after months of preparation, I wasn’t ready for the incredible energy at Saturday’s 2010 PHR National Conference, Health & Human Rights Education in 2010!

Each of us, over 120 students and faculty from 43 US and International PHR Chapters, brought our own reasons for pursuing health and human rights education, and we all returned to different situations at our schools. We came together for one day to inspire others with our successes, share solutions to our challenges, and generate the energy that will sustain our work to advance Health and Human Rights Education (HHRE).

The day was designed to provide inspiration, resources, and skill-building. It began with PHR Board Chair Dr. Robert Lawrence’s compelling opening keynote, which offered participants an historical context, challenged them to approach obstacles from more than one angle, and inspired them with a sense of what might be possible. Panels and strategy sessions with HHRE pioneers and student-led workshops followed. Students inspired one another in the Education in Action Expo. The closing session, a Town Hall meeting with Rep. Jim McGovern, co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, sustained the day’s momentum with his straightforward take on promoting and protecting human rights.

I hope that you all left the Conference with concrete plans for introducing or improving HHRE at your schools. I was so impressed by the plans you shared at the end of the day.

How can PHR support your plans? Take a look at the HHRE Toolkit – either online or in the CD in your Conference Packet. Your Chapter will be contacted twice in the next couple of months by the Student Advisory Board to help you can take advantage of PHR’s network of support as you advance HHRE at your school.

We’ll also work with you to create tools for your Chapter (like the Regional Hubs) to gather useful information and share it with other Chapters. And we will soon share resources for April’s Global Health Week of Action to help engage people in your Chapter’s vision of HHRE!

We’re very much looking forward to meeting you at the National Conference this Saturday, February 20! We want to remind you about the two additional opportunities you’ll have to meet and mingle with fellow PHR chapter members from around the country.

• Friday Night Meet-Ups: Come to Boston the night before the National Conference to meet up with other PHR members from your region! Join your Regional Mentors and members at The Beehive at 8 pm on Friday night to connect with other passionate advocates and enjoy some of Boston’s best live jazz.
• Saturday Night Social: The fun continues after the conference on Saturday night! Join fellow conference attendees and PHR staff members at 33 Restaurant & Lounge, a South End hotspot. Please email Hannah at hlauber[at]phrusa[dot]org if you’re planning to attend the Saturday Night Social.

We hope to see you on both Friday and Saturday nights!

We’re looking forward to meeting you in person at PHR’s National Conference at Boston University Medical School on February 20, 2010!

To have the best possible Conference experience:

• Read the Health and Human Rights literature we have posted on the Conference website. These articles represent some of the foundational literature published by pioneering thinkers in the field, as well as more recent publications that highlight current developments and consider the future of health and human rights.
• Respond to the articles by commenting online. Share your thoughts and see what other participants are saying.
• Present at the Expo! Does your school offer Health and Human Rights Education (HHRE)? Inspire other Chapters by sharing your school’s approach to HHRE. This can be a course for credit, reading or film discussion group, or extracurricular activity, and it doesn’t need to be something that you or even your PHR chapter has started.
• Bring answers to the following questions to the Conference:
  • What kind of HHRE initiative would work best at my school? What do I envision as the ideal HHR curriculum at my school in two or three years?
  • What faculty members are our allies in this process?
  • How does curriculum get changed at my school? Who has influence on those decisions, and who has the final authority? Which offices and individuals should we consult?
  • What resources do we have and what do we need?

Please contact me at hlauber[at]phrusa[dot]org if you have any questions or need help brainstorming!

Make sure to arrive early on Friday night to attend the Regional Socials. Your Regional Mentor will be in touch with you soon with details. Also, check out the map of Boston University School of Medicine’s campus to familiarize yourself with the area!

We look forward to meeting you soon!

Are Health and Human Rights linked at your school? Showcase your school’s education initiatives at the National Conference’s Education in Action Expo!

Initiatives could include:

• Offering a new elective
• Persuading professors to devote a class session to human rights
• Helping professors integrate human rights into discussions of other topics
• Dedicating a journal club meeting to human rights literature
• Inviting a human rights advocate to speak at your school
• Demonstrating a commitment to the right to health through direct service

Don’t be bashful – your idea could be an inspiration for other schools!

Presenters will display their projects on posters during breakfast and lunch on the day of the conference. To be considered for the Expo, please email 300 words (or less) about your school’s human rights education to expo[at]phrusa[dot]org.

Don’t forget to ask your school if support is available for students who present at conferences.

Questions? Just contact me.

Everyone at PHR is getting excited about next month’s National Conference, Health and Human Rights Education in 2010. The Conference will take place on Saturday, February 20^th, at Boston University Medical School. The Conference is a chance for representatives from your Chapter to plan how to improve human rights education at your school and nationwide.

Have you been accepted? When you’re accepted, you will be sent a confirmation email with a link to the official registration page. Please be sure to click on that link and complete the registration process.

If you’ve already registered, thank you! Make your arrangements for travel and lodging soon to get the best deals. If you’re interested in meeting other students from your region, join your regional social the Friday evening before the conference. More information will be announced soon.

Are you bringing a faculty member? Need ideas about who to invite, or how? We’ve put together a guide to inviting faculty who might be interested in the Conference’s Educator track.

If you have any questions, contact me and let me know how I can help.

We are thrilled to announce that Representative James McGovern (D-MA) will lead the closing National Conference Town-Hall Meeting on February 20^th, 2010.

Representative McGovern is the co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in Congress, as well as the Vice Chairman of the House Rules Committee and co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus.

Drawing on extensive policy experience defending human rights, Representative McGovern will bring his unique insight to the Conference. In Congress, Representative McGovern has championed education initiatives, fought to provide adequate health care for Americans, and has led congressional investigations into human rights abuses.

This conversation will be an opportunity for Conference participants to discuss how to advance a health and human rights agenda through legislative action. We anticipate that this will be an informative and inspiring conclusion to the day.

Don’t miss the opportunity to meet Representative McGovern and other leaders in the health and human rights field. Coordinate with other students at your school to submit an application to attend the National Conference today! The final deadline to apply is January 20^th, but with rolling admissions, there are limited spaces left!

Welcome back! We’re excited to confirm several world-renowned speakers who will be presenting at the National Conference on February 20, 2010.

• Helen Potts, PhD, Chief Program Officer of Health Programs, Physicians for Human Rights. Dr. Potts will speak about the Right to Health on a panel entitled “Human Rights and Health Education: Dueling Frameworks or Essential Integration?”
• Chris Beyrer, MD, MPH, Professor of Epidemiology, International Health and Health, Behavior and Society; Director of Johns Hopkins Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program. Dr. Beyrer will co-facilitate a Strategy Session entitled “Human Rights in Graduate Education.”
• Vincent Iacopino, MD, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School; Senior Medical Advisor to Physicians for Human Rights. Dr. Iacopino will co-lead the panel entitled “Human Rights and Health Education: Dueling Frameworks or Essential Integration?” and will speak about the urgency of incorporating a human rights approach in professional medical training.

The deadline to apply to the Conference is January 20, 2010, so start building a team from your chapter, and be sure to reach out to faculty members you would like to invite! Consult our Faculty Guide if you have any questions. We look forward to reading your application!

We encourage all students to invite faculty members from their schools to the Conference, as there will be time specifically allotted for students and faculty to meet and plan initiatives to bring back to campus.

We have put together a guide on the conference website with some tips for reaching out to faculty members to invite them to attend the conference and ask them to support students’ HHRE initiatives.

Check out the guide here!

Have you spearheaded a project, such as an accredited elective course, to educate your classmates about human rights? Have you organized a reading, writing or film group that works to further human rights advocacy? Does your medical or public health school have an innovative curriculum you’d like to share?

Attend PHR’s 2010 National Conference and present your project at the Education Innovations Expo!

The Education Innovations Expo provides an excellent opportunity for students to showcase their initiatives and to serve as examples for others in how to further human rights awareness in the health community. Presenters will display their projects on posters during breakfast and lunch on the day of the conference, and will receive a Presenter’s Invitation to the conference from PHR!

To apply for the expo, first apply to attend the conference. Then email 300 words or less about your educational innovations to expo[at]phrusa[dot]org. We’ll get back to you about two weeks after you apply. Apply early, as you can use your status as an expo presenter to secure funding from your school. The last day to apply is January 20th.

We hope to see many of you there, presenting your great work!