GlobeMed’s Northwestern chapter recently hosted its first fundraising event in support of its new partnership organization, Adonai Child Development Center.
For the last seven years, GlobeMed at NU has partnered with the HOPE Center in Ghana. When that partnership ended, external president Kalindi Shah said the executive board began looking for an organization that the NU chapter’s particular strengths would most benefit.
“We wanted to work with an organization small enough that we could make a really, really big impact in the partnership,” Shah said. “We didn’t want to just partner with a big organization where our money would just enter a black hole.”
The organization decided to pair with Adonai, which works to improve the health of children orphaned by AIDS and civil unrest in Namugoga, Uganda. Although the organization started out as an orphanage, it now also offers educational programs and medical care.
“We really wanted to work with an organization that works beyond the realm of just clinical work,” Shah said.
Shah said GlobeMed hopes to benefit from this partnership by playing to the strengths of its diverse member group, which includes students in a variety of academic disciplines ranging from journalism to medicine.
“We wanted an organization that would be open to new innovative ideas like creating documentaries, creating different media projects where we could really get the word out of what they were doing,” Shah said.
Weinberg sophomore Karina Kedo, who joined GlobeMed this year, said the focus on making a real impact in a community is what drew her to the group.
“Each partnership is very unique and GlobeMed at Northwestern is working toward a very specific goal,” Kedo said. “We can really see the difference that we are making in our work throughout the school year.”
The group began raising money for Adonai last week with its Pumpkin Pie for Adonai bake sale. Future plans include hosting a series of speeches about health and Uganda later this year and partnering with FACE AIDS for World AIDS Day.
At the end of Fall Quarter each year, GlobeMed also hosts an individual giving campaign. Members will be split into groups that will compete to raise the most money for Adonai, with the winning group receiving a free dinner as its prize. Last year GlobeMed raised over $19,000 for HOPE Center, and Shah said she hopes this year will be just as successful.
“You really get a hands-on opportunity to really, really make a difference and work directly with a partner community,” Shah said.
Shah said she hopes that through its new partnership with Adonai, GlobeMed will can create “sustainable, impactful change that you can see.”
“I really believe in Adonai because they’re so interested in really helping this community that has very limited access to health care, very limited access to sanitation, very limited access to running water, that with the money that we raise they can really transform the community and change the lives of a thousand people,” Shah said. “I really believe in it.”
