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Public Dialogue

Improving Global Health

Dialogue Purpose

This dialogue is part of an ongoing public engagement series that examines the unique role of the diaspora resident in Vancouver who are committed financially and personally to development activities in the global south. Diaspora-driven development efforts have a powerful impact in the global south that reverberates here in Metro Vancouver. While often informal or grassroots, these initiatives demonstrate the benefits and unique strengths of the diaspora – cultural awareness of communities of origin and residence, fluency working in dual cultures, awareness of local issues and concerns (trans-local), and long-term personal commitment to projects and communities.

This dialogue foregrounds the many ways diaspora leaders and partners are transcending borders to improve health through innovations in research, clinical services, and population-based preventive health practices.

Blog Series

• Global health through the diaspora lens [Read more]
• A Vancouver doctor brings a cure for clubfoot to children in Uganda [Read more]
• Panos Network provides a new lens for international development [Read more]
• Climate refugees: diaspora response to a human health crisis [Read more]

Questions to be examined include:

How are diaspora creating bridging opportunities between North and South?

How are these initiatives transforming health practices and systems in the Global South?

What are the current and potential impacts of diaspora driven initiatives on people, health systems, and institutions in both Canada and globally?

This dialogue will be anchored in compelling stories of change in public health services, health policy and research in which diaspora figure prominently. All diaspora initiatives are based in Vancouver and have a global reach.

Presentations & Audio Recordings

Welcome, First Nations Welcome to the Territory	Moderator: Shaheen Nanji, Project Co-Director and Director SFU International Development
Welcome	Joanna Ashworth, Project Co-Director and Dialogue Co-Moderator
Welcome	Ajay Puri, Coordinator, Ethno-Cultural Research Network and Dialogue Co-Moderator
Session 1: Global Health Defined	Jerry Spiegel, Liu Institute for Global Issues and the School of Population and Public Health at UBC.
*Dialogue:* What does health mean to you? What are the unique qualities that you bring to your understanding of health and how to improve global health?
Session 2: Global Health: Diaspora Stories	Shafique Pirani, MD, Royal Columbian Hospital Steven Pi, President, Hands Across the World Marj Ratel, Vancouver-based neuroscience nurse who founded Korle-Bu Neuroscience Foundation (KBNF) in 2000 Derek Agyapong-Poku, KBNF 's Vice President; President of Excellence in Africa Neuroscience and Health and the Canada-Ghana Liaison Mohammad Zaman, Executive Director, Society for Bangladesh Climate Justice
*Dialogue:* *What excites, inspires, or surprises you about what you have heard? What questions do you have?* *In what ways are these global health initiatives leveraging the trans-local potential of the diaspora communities in Vancouver?*
Session 3: Transcending North and South: The Potential of the Trans-Local	Lyren Chiu, Founder and President of the Canadian Research Institute of Spirituality and Healing
*Dialogue:* *How are diaspora transcending boundaries and serving as a bridge between the Global North and South?* *What impact do these "trans-local" interactions have in transforming health practices, systems, and understanding in Canada?*
*Dialogue: Final Reflections on the Dialogue*
Session 4: Weaving: Parting Reflections and Implications for Practice and Research	Ashok Mathur, Director, Centre for Innovation in Culture and the Arts in Canada, Thompson Rivers University
Closing Remarks
Adjourn

Speakers:

• Shafique Pirani, MD, principle organizer and driving force of the Uganda Sustainable Clubfoot Care Project (USCCP)

• Mohammad Zaman, PhD, Social Safeguard/Resettlement Specialist and Executive Director of the Society for Bangladesh Climate Justice

• Marj Ratel, RN, Vancouver-based neuroscience nurse founded Korle-Bu Neuroscience Foundation (KBNF) in 2000 with a particular focus on Ghana and the West Africa region.

• Derek Agyapong-Poku, KBNF 's Vice President; President of Excellence in Africa Neuroscience and Health and the Canada-Ghana Liaison

• Steven Pi, President of Hands Across the World, a non-profit organization that has mobilized the Chinese diaspora in Vancouver and other supporters to take on a number of projects in China.

• Lyren Chiu is Founder and President of the Canadian Research Institute of Spirituality and Healing and has 25 years experience and training in both mental health care and spirituality.

• Jerry Spiegel, PhD Manitoba, is a professor at the Liu Institute for Global Issues and the School of Population and Public Health at UBC. He is presently leading several ecosystem health projects in Cuba and Central Europe and is part of the team undertaking a study of the effects of globalization on the Canadian Health Care system for the Romanow Commission. He is a co-chair of the Coalition for Global Health Research (Canada).

• Ashok Mathur, PhD, is the Director of the Centre for Innovation in Culture and the Arts in Canada at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia.

Public Dialogue

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