Stanford University

Health and Medicine

FSI’s researchers assess health and medicine through the lenses of economics, nutrition and politics. They’re studying and influencing public health policies of local and national governments and the roles that corporations and nongovernmental organizations play in providing health care around the world. Scholars look at how governance affects citizens’ health, how children’s health care access affects the aging process and how to improve children’s health in Guatemala and rural China. They want to know what it will take for people to cook more safely and breathe more easily in developing countries.

FSI professors investigate how lifestyles affect health. What good does gardening do for older Americans? What are the benefits of eating organic food or growing genetically modified rice in China? They study cost-effectiveness by examining programs like those aimed at preventing the spread of tuberculosis in Russian prisons. Policies that impact obesity and undernutrition are examined; as are the public health implications of limiting salt in processed foods and the role of smoking among men who work in Chinese factories. FSI health research looks at sweeping domestic policies like the Affordable Care Act and the role of foreign aid in affecting the price of HIV drugs in Africa.

Participatory Development in East Africa's Largest Slum: The Carolina For Kibera Story

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Carolina for Kibera (CFK) inspires and nurtures youth leaders in the slum of Kibera, Kenya through a unique model of participatory development.  CFK recognizes the youth of Kibera as resilient, wise, innovative, and eager to lift their community above the poverty and violence that plagues it.  CFK's long-term initiatives provide youth opportunities to learn and serve while addressing a wide range of community needs including healthcare, education, waste recycling and reduction, HIV/AIDS testing and counseling, and girls' empowerment.  CFK's model of participatory to fight abject poverty, and prevent ethnic, gender and religious violence has been internationally recognized, earning awards as a Time Magazine and Gates Foundation "Hero of Global Health" and the 2008 Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation's Reflections of Hope Award.  CFK is a major affiliated entity of UNC based at the Center for Global Initiatives.


Salim Mohamed Salim Mohamed co-founded and served as the Executive Director of Carolina for Kibera for eight years. At the age of 16, he was involved in the development of MYSA - the largest youth sports program in Africa based in the Mathare slum of Nairobi.  Salim has helped launch community based sports and development programs in Ghana, Gambia, and Nigeria and presented at the International AIDS Conference. He serves as a director for Shoe 4 Africa, an advisor to Global Education Fund and a YES! facilitator.  A TED Africa Fellow, he is currently pursuing a master's degree at the University of Manchester.

Rye Barcott  While an undergraduate on an NROTC scholarship at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2001, Barcott founded CFK with the late nurse Tabitha Atieno Festo and community organizer Salim Mohamed. Barcott served five years in the Marine Corps before earning a combined MBA and MPA at Harvard as a Reynolds Social Entrepreneurship Fellow and a member of the Harvard Endowment's Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility.  In 2006, he was named an ABC World News Person of the Year.  A TED Fellow and member of the UNC Chancellor's Innovation Circle, Barcott is writing a book that juxtaposes community organizing and counter-insurgency (under contract, Bloomsbury Publishing).

Oksenberg Conference Room

Rye Barcott Founder (l) Speaker Carolina for Kibera (CFK)
Salim Mohamed Co-Founder (r) Speaker Carolina for Kibera (CFK)
Conferences

Google.org's Megan Smith: 'liberation through interconnection'

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Megan Smith, Vice President, New Business Development and General Manager, Google.org., argued that greater interconnectedness achieved by information technology is a major liberating force in the world. Whether it is aiding the coordination of protests or increasing transparency of governments, the exchange of information has huge benefits. This is not a new phenomenon. In places where people have been able to exchange information easily, social progress has followed. Megan cited the example of Seneca Falls, New York where the canal system allowed for extensive communication; it became significant in both the women's rights and abolition movements.

While a large proportion of the world is benefiting from greater interconnectedness, Africa still lacks the infrastructure to take full advantage. Submarine fiber optic cables are necessary for quick and cheap internet cables and many African countries, particularly in the east, are not connected to these, relying instead on satellites. This is likely to change over the next few years, bringing great potential for further development.

The mission of Google.org is to use technology to drive solutions to global challenges such as climate change, pandemic disease and poverty. The organization was set up as part of a commitment to devote approximately one percent of Google's equity plus one percent of annual profits to philanthropy, along with employee time.  Google.org now places its strategic focus on those projects that can leverage the resources of Google staff, particularly its engineers.

Current projects that harness the power of information include:

  • Google Flu Trends: This uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity up to two weeks earlier than traditional methods. This system has almost 90% accuracy in real time flu prediction and is therefore an extremely useful tool for health delivery agencies. It is now being used in 30 countries. Google is also starting to work in Cambodia to collect data around SARS.
  • Google Power Meter provides a system for consumers to understand their in-home energy use and to take steps to reducing this. The Meter receives information from utility smart meters and in-home energy management devices and visualizes this information on iGoogle (a personalized Google homepage).The premise underlying this project is that greater information is going to be crucial to tackling climate change and consumers ought to be able to be empowered to make informed decisions about their energy use.
  • Disaster relief: In response to the Haitian earthquake, a team of engineers worked with the U.S. Department of State to create an online People Finder gadget so that people can submit information about missing persons and to search the database. Google Earth satellite images have also been used to document the extent of damage.
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Thinking About Foreign Aid: Development Assistance in Failed and Recovering States

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Join the Stanford Association for International Development in exploring issues of development and post-conflict health on February 20th in Annenberg Auditorium with Andrew Natsios, the Director of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2001-2005, and four expert panels of academics, NGO organizers, and government officials. Panels include:
 

  1. Humanitarian Intervention: The Question of Sovereignty
  2. The Spread of Infectious Disease in the Wake of Conflict
  3. The Psychological Scars of War
  4. Refuges and Refugees: Children in Conflict Zones

We are excited to have thirteen expert speakers, a large and talented staff, and all of you as our guests. We hope to see you there!

 

Made possible by our sponsors: Office of Global Health; Center for Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law; Stanford Association for International Development; Bingham Grant; VPUE; Humanities & Sciences; Stanford in Government; ASSU Undergraduate Senate; ASSU Speaker's Bureau

Annenberg Auditorium
Lou Henry Hoover Building

Andrew Natsios Director of the US Agency for International Development Keynote Speaker USAID
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The Politics of Life in a time of AIDS: A view from South Africa

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Steven Robins is an anthropologist from Stellenbosch University in South Africa whose research covers issues of governance, citizenship, and social mobilization in post-conflict societies. Robins will give lectures and seminars based on his forthcoming book, From Revolution to Rights in South Africa: Social Movement, NGOs and Popular Politics.

Co-sponsored with African Studies

Encina Ground Floor Conference Room

Steve Robins Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology Speaker University of Stellenbosch, South Africa; FSI-Humanities Center International Visitor, 2009-2010
Seminars

When the Shooting Stops : Stanford Association for International Development Conference [SAID Event]

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Join SAID in exploring issues of development and post-conflict health with Andrew Natsios, the Director of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2001-2005, and four expert panels of academics, NGO organizers, and government officials. Panels include:
  1. Humanitarian Intervention: The Question of Sovereignty
  2. The Spread of Infectious Disease in the Wake of Conflict
  3. The Psychological Scars of War
  4. Refuges and Refugees: Children in Conflict Zones
We are excited to have eleven expert speakers, a large and talented staff, and all of you as our guests. We hope to see you there! Visit http://saidcon2010.eventbrite.com/ to register!

Made possible by our sponsors: Center for Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law; Stanford Association for International Development; Bingham Grant; VPUE; Humanities & Sciences; Stanford in Government; ASSU Undergraduate Senate; ASSU Speaker's Bureau.

Annenberg Auditorium

Conferences
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