Our Story
In 2006, a group of Northwestern undergraduates were brought together by their common determination to answer one question: How can we, as students, engage in global health in a way that makes a lasting impact?
Frustrated by the short-term options offered to them—donating money to humanitarian organizations, participating in medical mission trips, studying abroad—they set out to design a new solution.
They committed to centering community leaders as the experts. Local leaders have the knowledge, relationships, and vision needed to create lasting change. However, neo-colonial global health structures often leave these community experts and their initiatives without necessary resources —funding, technology, research, global recognition—to effectively work towards health equity.
GlobeMed’s partnership model recognized that university students have access to the resources that have been inaccessible to grassroots organizations. Through long-term, one-to-one partnerships, students learned through hands-on experiences the leadership practices that community leaders identified as crucial for the global health equity movement. The partner organizations were able access resources they need to effect greater change in their communities.
In 2022, after more than 15 years of operations, the Board of Directors made the decision to close the organization at the end of the 2022-2023 academic year. The difficult decision was was prompted by the organization’s financial realities. Securing funding for long-term, systems change work has always been a challenge and GlobeMed was no exception.
However, GlobeMed was always much more than a nonprofit organization. It’s a network, a community, and a student movement for global health equity. With more than 6,000 alumni from nearly 70 universities, we are confident that our community has the passion and resilience to sustain the heart of this work: to learn and act together to advance global health equity. We’re extremely proud of the impact we’ve made during our 15 years of operation, and just as a pebble thrown into a pond causes far-reaching ripples and waves we can only imagine the ways that our work will continue to reverberate through the movement for global health equity.
About GlobeMed
Mission
GlobeMed aims to mobilize a community of students and grassroots leaders to work together to improve the health of people around the world.
Vision
We envision a world in which health—the ability to not only survive but thrive—is possible for all people.
Values and Principles
Whether at home or abroad, marginalized groups are often excluded from decision-making that impacts their health. This must change if we are to achieve GlobeMed’s vision of a world in which health—the ability to not only survive, but thrive—is possible for all people. In order to counteract the longstanding effects of colonization and neocolonialism in global health and be more anti-oppressive in our actions and partnerships, we must seek to understand the root causes of health inequities and interrogate how the current systems we operate within continue to perpetuate those inequities.
GlobeMed commits to actively undoing systems of oppression and domination, which means shifting power to those members of our network who face structural barriers to accessing power in daily life. We believe all of our students, partners, and neighbors deserve to feel powerful in their journeys to living healthy lives. In fact, more than deserve, we believe everyone must be able to feel and be powerful if we are to reach liberation. Because systems are made up of and enforced by individuals, when each of us is able to access our full power potential we are able to collectively change the world. And there lies the pathway to health equity.
GlobeMed’s Principles
We recognize our place in the global health equity movement, and do our part with excellence. We seek out community experts who are already working to solve health and equity problems to work alongside and in partnership when invited.
We know that the health equity movement is strengthened when everyone feels they have a place to bring their unique and beautiful insights and contributions. This means that we must actively break down the systems of oppression and domination that prevent everyone’s participation.
We understand that connection and solidarity are integral to our collective liberation. No one person or organization can do it all and we aren’t free until everyone is free.
We expect to make mistakes and we will work to repair the harm caused by those mistakes. We are open about our learning processes and moments with our community.
We approach unfamiliar situations with questions and curiosity, centering the experiences of those who are most impacted. We know that when we make assumptions, those are informed by white supremacy culture, and we work to overcome them.
We care for ourselves and our community, pacing ourselves and resting so that we may commit for the long-term. We listen to our bodies to guide us in our care.
We do the next right thing, even—especially—when it is difficult. We ask for help to figure out what the next right thing is when we don’t know.
We celebrate the wholeness of each individual and seek to use each person’s talents to build the world we want to live in.