The Geneva Learning Foundation

🌟 Exciting Opportunity Alert for Local Community Health Leaders! 🌟

📢 Calling all community organizations & local government agencies! You’re warmly invited to the Teach to Reach 10 Partner Briefing! 🎉

🤝 Become a part of a movement where community leaders transform health through the power of peer learning. For the FIRST time, local organizations can join as partners. 🌍✨

🔗 Why join? Last October, over 17,000 health pros from across the globe joined Teach to Reach 9, with global partners like Gavi & UNICEF supporting. Want to make an impact? Links in the comments to dive deeper into becoming a Partner ➡

📆 As a Teach to Reach 10 partner, get featured on our homepage, connect with a global network of 50,000 + health workers, and more! 🚀

💡 Host your workshop, showcase your work, and engage with international partners. Plus, enjoy the spotlight across our social media & events! 🌐

👉 Don’t miss this chance to shine & share! #TeachToReach #GlobalHealth #CommunityLeadership 🌟

Follow this link to join the next #TeachToReach Partner briefing https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1217090497666/WN_m1lZ4owIQ_yQ4xIDRj5yjw

Become a Teach to Reach 10 Partner: Help amplify frontline voices at the world’s largest health peer learning event https://redasadki.me/2024/02/27/become-a-teach-to-reach-10-partner-help-amplify-frontline-voices-at-the-worlds-largest-health-peer-learning-event/

Today, the Geneva Learning Foundation’s Charlotte Mbuh delivered a presentation at the Online Expert Seminar on Climate Change and Health: Perspectives from Developing Countries. #ClimateCrisis #GlobalHealth

The event was organized by the International Expert Centre of Climate Change and Health (IECCCH) at the Research and Transfer Centre Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, in collaboration with the European School of Sustainability Science and Research (ESSSR), the UK Consortium on Sustainability Research (UK-CSR), and the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP).

Mbuh shared insights from a report based on observations from frontline health workers on the impact of climate change on health in their communities.

The Geneva Learning Foundation, a Swiss non-profit, facilitated two digital events in July 2023, engaging 4,700 health practitioners from 68 countries who submitted 1,260 observations.

Watch the special event “From community to planet: Health professionals on the frontlines of climate change” https://www.learning.foundation/climate

Get the insights from 1200+ health workers on the frontline of climate and health https://www.learning.foundation/cop28

“93% of respondents believed that there was a link between climate change and health, and they reported a direct local experience of a wide range of climatic and environmental impacts,” Mbuh stated.

The most commonly reported impacts were on farming and farmland, the distribution of disease-carrying insects, and urban areas becoming hotter.

Health impacts linked to these climatic and environmental changes included increased malnutrition and/or undernutrition, increased waterborne diseases, and changes to the incidence and distribution of vector-borne diseases.

Mbuh emphasized that these impacts were particularly prevalent in smaller communities or mid-sized towns.

Mbuh highlighted the unique role of frontline health workers as trusted advisors to their communities: “Frontline health workers are trusted advisors of the communities that they serve, and they have unique insights to local realities and are strategically positioned to bring about change,” she said.

The Geneva Learning Foundation aims to leverage its digitally-enabled peer learning network of health workers to drive change across different levels of the health system and geographical boundaries.

Mbuh concluded : “These experiences demonstrate the importance of community engagement, sustainable practices, and support from relevant stakeholders in addressing the climate health nexus and building resilience in the face of a changing climate.”

The presentation underscored the urgent need to invest in frontline health workers at the local level to build resilience against the impacts of climate change on health, particularly in vulnerable communities in developing countries.

The Geneva Learning Foundation’s first Fellow of Photography, Chris de Bode, will lead a visual storytelling workshop with health care workers from 44 countries on 18 March 2024.

80% of participants are sub-national staff working in fragile contexts.

Chris deBode spent decades on assignments, traveling around the globe for various NGOs, magazines, and newspapers.

Now, he has partnered with the Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) to share his experience with practitioners who are there every day.

Read Chris’s commentary about 1,000 photos shared by health workers to show that people make #vaccineswork https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/reflections-chris-de-bode-takes-people-make

The workshop is reserved for Contributors to the 2022 and 2023 Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) Movement’s International Photo Exhibitions.

In 2022 and 2023, over 2,000 photos were shared by immunization staff from all over the world.

Learn more about World Immunization Week https://www.learning.foundation/world-immunization-week

Download Book I (2022) It takes people to make #VaccinesWork

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7010196

Watch the inauguration of the First International Photography Exhibition for Immunization Agenda 2030

https://youtube.com/live/MM36F0A-kfw

Watch the Special Event: World Immunization Week 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBveZXzMm3c

Watch the Special Event: World Immunization Week 2022

https://youtube.com/live/3UTHUhJhE_Q

“Technical knowledge is not decisive in making your picture”, says Chris. “The person behind the camera makes the difference. You are the source of your image.”

Read Chris deBode’s commentary about what it means for immunization staff to be visually documenting their daily work https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/reflections-chris-de-bode-takes-people-make/

Health professions from the following countries will be participating: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United States, Zambia.

Photo by Chris deBode: Eleven-year-old Wilberforce runs along an unpaved road near his home in Gulu, Northen Uganda where he lives with his parents and 6 siblings. He says: “I want to be the fastest. I want my parents, my school and country to be proud of me. Every day I run. I dream of coming home with the biggest trophy.”

Become a Teach to Reach 10 Partner: Help amplify frontline voices at the world’s largest health peer learning event

The Geneva Learning Foundation is pleased to announce the tenth edition of Teach to Reach, to be held 20-21 June 2024.

Teach to Reach is a massive, open peer learning event where health professionals network, and learn with colleagues from all over the world.

Request your invitation https://www.learning.foundation/teachtoreach

Teach to Reach 10 continues a tradition of groundbreaking peer learning started in 2020, when over 3,000 health workers from 80 countries came together to improve immunization training.

17,662 health professionals – over 80% from districts and facilities, half working for government – participated in Teach to Reach 9 in October 2023.

Participants shared 940 experiences ahead of the event.

See what we learned at Teach to Reach 9 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10062521

View Insights Live with Dr Orin Levine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-mloZjjQ5o.

Teach to Reach is a platform, community, and network to amplify voices from lower-resource settings bearing the greatest burden of disease.

Teach to Reach 10 will focus on the impacts of climate change on health

Climate change is a threat to the health of the communities we serve: health workers speak out at COP28

https://redasadki.me/2023/12/11/climate-and-health-health-workers-trust/

Investing in the health workforce is vital to tackle climate change: A new report shares insights from over 1,200 on the frontline

https://redasadki.me/2023/12/01/investing-in-the-health-workforce-is-vital-to-face-climate-change-a-new-report-shares-insights-from-over-1200-on-the-frontline/

In the video below, learn from the experiences of 4,700 participants in our Special Event: From community to planet: Health professionals on the frontlines of climate change https://www.learning.foundation/climate.

From community to planet: Health professionals on the frontlines of climate change

https://youtu.be/ModBatuNefg

Poor connectivity? You will find the videos on this page in the low-bandwidth, audio-only Teach to Reach podcast on Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/teach-to-reach/id1645687856, Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/61omcfKuAOzizo0IvrVj4u, Google https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9saXN0ZW5ib3guYXBwL2YvVGc2SGVQeGRGODlW, or Amazon https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/76bc2997-8e6b-49a2-a346-945f3a7500fd/teach-to-reach Podcasts.

Alongside this theme, other critical health challenges selected by participants for this tenth edition include immunization, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), and neglected needs of women’s health.

In this video of a Teach to Reach session, learn about local action led by community-based health workers to tackle Female Genital Schistosomiasis (FGS), a neglected tropical disease that affects an estimated 56 million women and girls.

https://youtu.be/zEl2wZ4n9B4

In the run-up to Teach to Reach 10, participants will share their real-world experience.

Every success, lessons learned, and challenge will be shared back with the community and brought to the attention of partners.

The Manifesto for investment in health workers https://learningsi.notion.site/009-2-An-open-source-Manifesto-for-investment-in-health-workers-2-0-178a31e595ef4c4fb87a43dfa76419ba, a visionary statement elaborated by over 1,300 health workers, will be launched at Teach to Reach 10.

A diverse range of over 50 global organizations have partnered with Teach to Reach since 2020, including Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, the Wellcome Trust, and UNICEF.

The next video is a session with UNICEF on reaching zero-dose children in urban settings.

https://youtu.be/wJuwKBw0-hk

Alongside global partners and ministries of health, local community-based organizations will also be invited to become Teach to Reach partners.

Partners are invited to join the first Partner Briefing, bringing together global health organizations with a commitment to listening and learning from health workers and the communities they serve.

Request your invitation to join Teach to Reach

https://www.learning.foundation/teach...

Plenary with UNICEF: Sharing experiences to identify and reach “zero-dose” children and under-vaccinated communities in urban areas.

We are delighted to announce that UNICEF and The Geneva Learning Foundation are once again joining forces to support Teach to Reach 9.

This Teach to Reach 9 session in partnership with UNICEF focused on having participants share specific experiences confronting and responding to the challenge of reaching zero-dose children in urban areas. As the facilitator explained, "We're interested in having you tell us about a specific situation and what you did in response to it."

Some compelling stories shared included:

- Felicity from Nigeria who held community awareness campaigns to address parental misconceptions: "We had to have a kind of community awareness and with that it has really helped us go a long way. I will have more children being immunized."

- Udoji from Nigeria who used geospatial analysis to identify areas with many zero-dose children: "We develop an ODK using the geospatial analysis where the supervisor each team that have they go out for vaccination the supervisor will record the children immunize we then we have the choice position of that team where they have work and when they start and when they end their work."

- Vishesh from India who deployed nursing students to conduct house-to-house registration of zero-dose children: "More than thousand nursing students were deployed in that city they went house to house and they registered all zero to five year children electronically and then they were followed up and vaccinated."

UNICEF Guides on the side emphasized holistic planning, understanding the heterogeneity of urban populations, targeted communication strategies, and leveraging technology and partnerships to identify and reach zero-dose children. They provided guidance and suggestions in response to the real-world experiences shared.

Real-world stories from the frontlines reveal how practitioners in Bangladesh, Mali, Nigeria, and Uganda are developing tailored local solutions to bring equity to immunization. During this webinar, attendees will learn how practitioners are overcoming barriers to reach zero-dose children through unique approaches to identification, microplanning, community engagement, and integrated services. In addition, learning and immunization specialists will highlight opportunities to turn these real-world stories from lessons learned into actionable, replicable strategies that can be applied at the community and sub-national levels. Attendees will leave the webinar with a new understanding of how local activities can inform global efforts to leave no child behind.

Speakers:

- Heidi Reynolds, Senior Specialist, Evaluation and Learning, Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance

- Jenny Sequeira, Immunization and Strategic Technical Advisor, TGLF, ZDLH

- Reda Sadki, Learning Science Specialist, CEO, TGLF, ZDLH

- Frontline health workers from Bangladesh, Mali, Nigeria, and Uganda

This webinar was recorded on January 24, 2024.

You are cordially invited to join Teach to Reach 9 Insights Live with Dr Orin Levine.

In this dialogue, we will explore what we learned from Teach to Reach 9 on 13 October 2023.

Poor connectivity? Subscribe to the audio-only podcast

https://www.learning.foundation/podcast

17,662 health professionals – over 80% from districts and facilities, half working for government – participated in this massive, online peer learning event.

Teach to Reach 9 Contributors shared 940 experiences ahead of the event.

Dr. Orin Levine, Non Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development, will join us, together with Teach to Reach 9 Contributors.

Discussion topics that we will explore together, grounded in real-world experiences shared by Teach to Reach 9 participants, include:

• Best practices and challenges faced by mobile vaccination teams

• Effective management of parental concerns over vaccine side effects

• Use of data systems and technology to identify and target zero-dose children

• Productive partnerships with community structures to advance immunization

• Strategies for coping with stockouts and bringing back hesitant parents

• Equipment and transportation barriers faced by healthcare workers

• Leveraging mobile phones, social media to bolster vaccine coverage

• Drivers of vaccine wastage and potential solutions

• Applying learnings from disease outbreaks to fill immunization gaps

• Fostering accountability among health workers and parents

Get the Teach to Reach 9 Experiences

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10062521

Request your invitation now for Teach to Reach 10

https://www.learning.foundation/teachtoreach

The Geneva Learning Foundation’s research has shown that the lack of continuous learning opportunities hinders immunization performance at all levels of the health system.

Insights Live is one of a set of interventions aimed at strengthening continuous learning.

Learn more about motivation, learning culture, and programme performance

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7004304

Learn more about climate change and health: https://www.learning.foundation/cop28

Read the press release: https://redasadki.me/2023/12/01/investing-in-the-health-workforce-is-vital-to-face-climate-change-a-new-report-shares-insights-from-over-1200-on-the-frontline/

“Good afternoon. I am Charlotte Mbuh. I have worked for the health of children and families in Cameroon for over 15 years.

I am one of more than 5,500 health workers from 68 countries who have connected to share our observations of how climate is affecting the health of those we serve. 

“Going back home to the community where I grew up as a child, I was shocked to see that most of the rivers we used to swim and fish in have all dried up, and those that are still there have become very shallow so that you can easily walk through a river you required a boat to cross in years past.”

These are the words of Samuel Chukwuemeka Obasi, a health worker from Nigeria.

Dr Kumbha Gopi from India said: “The use of motor vehicles has led to an increase in air pollution and we see respiratory problems and skin diseases”.

Climate change is hurting the health of those we serve. And it is getting worse.

Few here would deny that health workers are an essential voice to listen to in order to understand climate impacts on health.

Yet, a man named Jacob on social media snapped: “Since when are health workers the authority on air pollution?”

Bie Lilian Mbando, a health worker from my country: “Where I live in Buea, the flood from Mount Cameroon took away all belongings of people in my neighborhood and killed a secondary school student who was playing football with his friends.”

Climate change is killing our community.

Cecilia Nabwirwa, a nurse in Nairobi, Kenya: “I remember my grand-son getting sick after eating vegetables grown along areas flooded by sewage. Since then I resolved to growing my own vegetables to ensure healthy eating.”

And yet, another man on social media, Robert, found this “ridiculous. As if my friend who sells fish at his fish stall comes as an expert on water quality.”

I wondered: why such brutal responses?

Well, unlike scientists or global agencies, we cannot be dismissed as “experts from on-high”.

What we know, we know because we are here every day.

We are part of the community.

And we know that climate change is a threat to the health of the communities we serve.

We are already having to manage the impacts of climate change on health.

We are doing the best that we can.

But we need your support.

The global community is investing in building a new scientific field around climate and health.

Massive investments are also being made in policy.

Are we making a commensurate investment in people and communities?

That should mean investing in health workers.

What will happen if this investment is neglected?

What if big global donors say: “it’s important, but it’s not part of our strategy?”

Well, in 5, 10, or 15 years, we will certainly have much improved science and, hopefully, policy.

Yet, some communities might reject better science and policy.

Will the global community then wonder: “Why don’t they know what’s good for them?” 

I am an immunization worker. For over 15 years, I have worked for my country’s ministry of health.

Like my colleagues from all over the world, I know more than a little about what it takes to establish and maintain trust.

Trust in vaccination, trust in public health.

Trust that by standing together in the face of critical threats to our societies, we all stand to do better.

Local communities in the poorest countries are already bearing the brunt of climate change effects on health.

Local solutions are needed.

Health workers are trusted advisors to the communities we serve.

With every challenge, there is an opportunity.

On 28 July 2023, 4,700 health workers began learning from each other through the Geneva Learning Foundation’s platform, community, and network.

Thousands more are connecting with each other, because they choose to.

And because they want to take action.

It is our duty to support them.

In March 2024, we will hold the tenth Teach to Reach conference.

The last edition reached over 17,000 health workers from more than 80 countries.

This time, our focus will be on climate and health.

We invite global partners to join, to listen and to learn.

We invite you to consider how you, your organization, your government might support action by health workers on the frontline.

Because we will rise.

As health workers, with or without your support, we will continue to stand up with courage, compassion and commitment, working to lift up our communities.

Our perseverance calls us all to press forward towards climate justice and health equity.

I wish to challenge us, as a global community, to rise together, so that  the voices of those on the frontline of climate change will be at the next Conference of Parties.

By standing together, we all stand to do better.

Thank you.

“Do you consider climate change a threat to the health of those you serve?” That was the key question posed to over 4,700 attending health professionals at The Geneva Learning Foundation’s 9th Teach to Reach event.

Learn more: https://www.learning.foundation/cop28

As Kingsley Nniere, a community health worker from Ghana, explained, “Climate change is actually a threat…with severe downpour of rains…most of the rivers are flooded and most of the ghatas are flooded. And…it brings a lot of mosquitoes and these mosquitoes bite the community members and…gives them malaria.”

Other health workers echoed Kingsley’s sentiments. Dr. Tuusime Ramadan, a retired doctor in Uganda, highlighted how “climate change has caused problems to very many people we serve,” including floods destroying “homes, destroy crops, destroy houses,” drought killing livestock, and storms damaging health facilities. Participants explored connections between environmental changes - from drinking water access to extreme heat - and specific health impacts in their communities.

The virtual session featured climate and health perspectives shared directly from the frontlines in Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, and beyond. Health staff described their struggles to treat and protect patients amidst these mounting climate challenges.

The discussion then shifted to exploring potential solutions, with speakers weighing in on “What can you do as a health professional?” and “What do you want your country and global partners to do?”

If you’re interested to hear these urgent firsthand testimonies on dealing with climate change impacts from dedicated health workers worldwide, then be sure to watch the full climate and health session video from Teach to Reach 9.

There is a lot more to learn from health workers about the impact of climate on health.

Join the #COP28 event “From community to planet: Health professionals on the frontlines of climate change https://www.learning.foundation/climate

Join this new edition of Insights Live to discover what we learned at Teach to Reach 9, the world’s largest networking event held on 13 October 2023, with 17,662 participating.

Request your invitation to the next edition of Teach to Reach: Connect

https://www.learning.foundation/teachtoreach

See all Teach to Reach lessons

https://zenodo.org/communities/teachtoreach

Topics explored at Teach to Reach 9 include:

* Zero-dose children in urban settings

* Measles outbreak response

* HPV vaccination

* Manifesto for global health

* Neglected needs of women’s health

* Climate change and health

Poor connectivity? Get the podcast

https://www.learning.foundation/podcast

Teach to Reach 9 aims to contribute to the Movement for Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) and to the Manifesto for Global Health.

Subscribe to the Geneva Learning Foundation’s global health insights newsletter

https://www.learning.foundation/loop