This year, Global Health hosted its fifth Pan-African Health Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. Partners from 20 countries were invited to present their best practices and successful models that have been implemented within their local communities. Attending guests included health coordinators, United Methodist Committee on Relief field office staff, as well as General Board of Global Ministries' missionaries. The summit brought together organizations from Africa and Asia to evaluate the work, as well as to promote ongoing training.
Your donations to Global Health (Advance 3021770) make it possible to fund international projects. Please consider giving today.
The summit featured health projects on raising awareness and promoting malaria education, mother and child health, HIV and AIDS education, food security and agriculture programs, as well as water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH, Advance #3020600). Partners collaborated over ways to improve in the year ahead, discussing matters of fiscal management, best practices on the field, maximizing community engagement and support, and how to better document how projects impact beneficiaries around the world.
 |
| Dr. Olusimbo Ige presents to Pan-Africa Health Summit attendees. PHOTO: CYNTHIA MACK. |
Joyce Madanga, a health coordinator from United Methodist Church of Nigeria said, "As partners, we may be working in different countries, but we have the same goals and the same projects. We can all share different strategies to achieve the same goals."
A common issue that partners shared about was local community involvement. One participant noted, "Communities have to be involved, and they have to be committed, so that at the end of the day, the program is theirs. Otherwise, implemented programs become a welfare program that the community will not take ownership of. If the community is involved, and they own the implemented projects, they will keep it, and will sustain it.
"This Pan-African summit has been an incredible experience for us. It's really helped us gain a better understanding of how high the standards are that Global Health maintains so that whenever donors give money, we are truly accountable for it, and that it really goes to serve God's purposes in everywhere possible. It's really been a blessing to connect with so many healthcare workers, missionaries, and those who work in agriculture to see what's successful, what works for them, how God's working in them, and through them." Elizabeth McCormick – Global Ministries' missionary in Mozambique (Advance 3022180).
Global Health is proud to partner with so many organizations around the world. "These are the real people doing the work on the ground," said Dr. Olusimbo Ige, executive director of Global Health. "We want to give them proper recognition that is due to them. They are out on the field, being the hands and feet of these projects." Your donations to the Global Health unit make it possible to fund these international projects.
Bella DiFilippo, Program Area Liaison from Communications, for Global Ministries
The Advance is the accountable, designated-giving arm of The United Methodist Church. The Advance invites contributors to designate support for projects related to the General Board of Global Ministries. Individuals, local churches, organizations, districts and annual conferences may donate to The Advance. One hundred percent of every gift to The Advance goes to the project selected by the giver.
