2015 - 2016 END7 STUDENT YEARBOOK CELEBRATING A YEAR OF PROGRESS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES (NTDs) his year, on more than 50 campuses from Sierra the Philippines at Potluck for Progress dinners and campus Leone to Scotland, END7 student supporters worked presentations. As END7’s ambassadors on the ground, Tto raise awareness of NTDs and motivate their peers students played a crucial role in amplifying the conversation and community members to get involved. Students gave about NTDs in communities around the world. presentations in classes and at conferences, planned creative outreach events and led hands-on public health Many students found supporting END7 to be a learning education efforts in communities at risk of NTDs. experience in and of itself. As Karmen Rivera, founder of END7 at Princeton University, put it, “Being involved Students worked to share “the scope and the hope” with END7 has refined my academic focus. I went from of NTDs, delivering a message that conveys both the being a pre-med biology major interested in only hard magnitude of the challenges facing the NTD control and science to being a Global Health & Health Policy student elimination effort and the incredible progress that has acquainted with a world beyond cells – a world of sociology, already been made to date. In October, students shared anthropology, global health, human rights and inequalities, NTD Success Stories from Haiti, Sierra Leone, India and all determinants of NTDs and the keys to their defeat.” MY END7 EXPERIENCE HAS GREATLY IMPACTED MY FUTURE. AS AN INTERNATIONAL STUDIES MAJOR I AM HOPING TO LEARN MORE ABOUT PUBLIC POLICY “AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS RELATED TO HEALTHCARE AND FOREIGN AID…END7 HAS REALLY OPENED MY EYES TO THE IMPORTANCE OF ENGAGING IN ISSUES THAT AFFECT THE WORLD’S POOR. —ANA VILLAGRAN, BAYLOR” DUKE UNIVERSITY NTD HOUSE COURSE END7 PRAGUE SCOUTING OUTREACH END7 Student Advisory Board representative John Lu Student leaders at Charles University in Prague, Czech taught a “house course” – a student-taught for-credit Republic, educated the next generation of END7 students course – on NTDs at Duke University. John also launched by leading a presentation and activities for a local Duke’s first undergraduate global health journal to spotlight elementary school scout troop - and even fundraised by student research on issues like NTDs. collecting pocket change from the children! NTD SUCCESS STORIES AT SAINT MARY’S UNIVERSITY END7 AT THE PRAGUE GLOBAL HEALTH FORUM The Saint Mary’s University Voice for NTDs Society held In May, END7 student leaders presented at the Prague their first events in October as part of END7’s NTD Success Global Health Forum - a major opportunity to raise Stories month. They staffed information tables on campus awareness of NTDs and lead future medical professionals and held a Potluck for Progress to celebrate the work being through interactive case studies to learn about diagnosis in done to fight NTDs around the world. tropical medicine. SPOTLIGHT: BAKER INSTITUTE NTD WORKSHOP “CHARTING A PATH IN THE NTD WORLD” STUDENT WORKSHOP SEPTEMBER 29 / RICE UNIVERSITY BAKER INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY / HOUSTON, TEXAS n September, scientists and policy experts came together at Rice DR. MITCHELL WOLFE, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY University in Houston, Texas for a very special conference, “The United FOR GLOBAL HEALTH AT THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF IIStates and Mexico: Addressing a Shared Legacy of Neglected Tropical HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES, ON THE CAREER PANEL Diseases and Poverty.” The high-profile event featured presentations by Dr. Mercedes Juan López, Mexico’s Minister of Health, Dr. Carina Perotti Fux, Medical Coordinator of Doctors Without Border in Mexico, and Andrew Natsios, former Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, among other noted speakers. Before the main program, END7 co-hosted a special workshop for students to learn about the world of neglected tropical diseases: career opportunities, essential skills and opportunities to get involved while still in school. A panel of expert guests, representing fields from research to resource mobilization, provided students with advice on pursuing a career in global health. Student leaders, including winners of an international competition to develop NTD educational resources, shared their personal experiences in NTD research, advocacy, education, and fundraising in “TED Talks.” Special guest Dr. Greg Martin from the popular podcast and web series This Week in Global Health led a training session on using new media to drive progress in global health, followed by an interactive small group competition that challenged student participants to think of creative ways to observe NTD Awareness Week on campus. Workshop participants ended the day at the opening reception for the conference, networking with global health leaders. STUDENT “TED TALKS” NTD RESEARCH Nathan Lo, Stanford Medical School NTD ADVOCACY Anjali Bhatla, Rice University NTD EDUCATION Jennifer Nguyen and Emmy Sun, Western University NTD FUNDRAISING Tahseen Karim, UT Medical School FOR PRESENTATION VIDEOS AND MORE INFORMATION, VISIT www.bakerinstitute.org/events/1733/ SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR GUEST EXPERTS: Neal F. Lane, Ph.D. Senior Fellow in Science and Technology Policy, Baker Institute Sarah Marchal Murray Chief Operating Officer, END Fund Kirstin Matthews, Ph.D. Fellow in Science and Technology Policy, Baker Institute Carina Perotti Fux, M.D. Medical Coordinator, Doctors Without Borders, Mexico Mitchell I. Wolfe, M.D., MPH Deputy Assistant Secretary, Global Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Greg Martin, M.D., MPH, MBA Host, This Week in Global Health SPOTLIGHT: NTD AWARENESS WEEK From January 24-30 – the anniversary of the London to make a difference. Students reached an even bigger Declaration on NTDs – END7 student supporters on audience on social media, using the hashtag #NTDWeek to campuses in the United States, Canada, Scotland, Nigeria share updates and facts – with partners like NPR and the and Sierra Leone celebrated the first-ever NTD Awareness United States Centers for Disease Control getting in on the Week. Through creative fundraisers, information sessions, action sharing their own #NTDWeek posts by week’s end! social activities and advocacy events, students raised NTD Awareness Week was the perfect kick-off to 2016 – awareness of NTDs and got their peers involved in efforts with plans to expand to even more campuses in 2017! SAINT MARY’S UNIVERSITY NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS - AUSTIN RICE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF SIERRA LEONE SPOTLIGHT: MOBILIZING IN SIERRA LEONE n October of 2015, pharmacy student Ishmael Tamba Jalloh launched the first END7 chapter in Africa at the IiUniversity of Sierra Leone College of Medicine and Health Sciences. He recruited more and more students to the cause, launching three more chapters at additional USL colleges in quick succession. Throughout the year, these student leaders collaborated directly with the Ministry of Health and leading health NGOs in Sierra Leone to raise awareness of NTDs and increase community participation in mass drug administration (MDA) campaigns. Ishmael volunteered with community education activities during the first MDA in Sierra Leone after the Ebola epidemic interrupted regular public health efforts, held in October 2015. “During the MDA campaign,” he wrote, “I found out that people are only aware of one of the seven neglected tropical diseases — elephantiasis, which is called ‘Big Foot’ in our local language. Now, I am thinking that more work needs to be done to raise awareness of all of the NTDs in Sierra Leone.” He got right to work, launching a broad-reaching education campaign during NTD Awareness Week in January. He and his peers gave presentations to their peers on campus, visited elementary schools to teach young children to wash their hands and use proper sanitation to prevent NTDs and even appeared on TV and radio stations to encourage everyone to participate in MDA campaigns. In May, the USL students played a major role in the promotion and administration of Sierra Leone’s LF MDA campaign. Reflecting on the social mobilization campaign in May, Ishmael shared, “One of our greatest challenges was advocating to community health workers to take drugs to the colleges so university students could participate in the MDA. Eighty percent of the colleges we visited were treated during the MDA, but this still leaves many students without access to treatment.” USL students are committed to ensuring that all of their peers have access to NTD treatment. “We will continue our activities to raise awareness of these important public health campaigns, encourage our peers and fellow community members to participate, and advocate to make sure everyone has the chance to be part of MDA campaigns so Sierra Leone can end NTDs for good,” Ishmael shared in a guest post on our blog. We cannot wait to see where USL students take the END7 campaign in Sierra Leone - and beyond - next year! tudents continued to be a driving force behind END7 reaching out to the White House and Congress to protect advocacy activities this year - educating their peers and increase U.S. funding for NTD treatment. Sabout key advocacy opportunities, collecting signatures on END7 petitions targeting influential policymakers and Strategies included collecting signatures on END7 traveling to Washington, D.C. for the second annual END7 advocacy actions, writing op-eds and