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C O M M U N I T Y S E R V I C E S › G L O B A L M E D I C A L R E L I E F P R O G R A M
 EYE-OPENING EXPERIENCE ›
A three-week cultural exchange program brought John P. Broach II of Centennial, Colorado, to Ghana in summer 1999. Interested in studying malaria, the then-premed Northwestern student worked in a
health clinic in the town of Ho. During Broach’s brief stay he made many friends, among them a clinic co-worker. “He was a nice old guy in the lab,” recalls Broach, now a third-year medical student. “One day he suddenly became ill and went into the hospital. They couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. He didn’t have a chronic disease and wasn’t under medication. All of a sudden he was gone. He died the day before I left to come home to the United States.”
DETERMINED TO HELP ›
Broach had visited his friend in the local hospital. Dirty, overcrowded, and lacking adequate medical supplies and diagnostic equipment, the facility opened
Broach’s eyes to the state of health care in underdeveloped countries. “Anyone walking onto that hospital ward,” he remarks, “would have realized that the situation was bad.” Determined to improve the health care conditions in Ghana, Broach returned to his sophomore year at Northwestern with a mission. He and a small group of college friends would collect medical supplies and send them to the Ho District Hospital--the place where he last saw his friend. Broach returned to Ghana the following summer. “I brought medical equipment,” says Broach, “and a duffle bag of medical supplies.”
ALL OVER THE WORLD ›
This hand-delivered donation would be the first of many shipments made possible by Medical Supplies Mission, a Northwestern student organization Broach founded in 2002. Now known as the Global Medical Relief Program (GlobeMed), the organization focuses on making quality health care available to people around the world. Today the group sends regular shipments of medical supplies, raises funds to promote health education and support infrastructure, and sponsors disaster relief drives to countries beyond Ghana. People in Afghanistan, India, Thailand, and Zambia, to name a few, have benefited from GlobeMed’s efforts. “At first our project selection was based on a personal connection or a visit to an area,” says Broach. “We are now receiving unsolicited requests for assistance from all parts
of the globe.”
EXCITING AND FULFILLING ›
Growth and expansion have enabled GlobeMed to enlist the help of volunteers nationwide. In two short years the student-governed organization has gone from a handful of students to more than 100 members. The group enjoys the support of seven affiliates at other universities and schools including the Feinberg School of Medicine, whose GlobeMed chapter has 30 members. Broach serves as chair of GlobeMed’s board, which includes medical school faculty members and alumni such as David W. Cromer, MD '61, associate professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecology. “Seeing a problem and helping to solve it has been one of the most exciting and fulfilling rewards of the work we have accomplished,” says Broach. “With interest and dedication to a humanitarian cause, students do have the power to change the world.”
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FIG. 1
A trip to Ghana opened medical student John Broach's eyes to the ill-equipped health care systems of underdeveloped countries. He and fellow student volunteers now
cover the globe to help those in need. |
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FIG. 2
Apartments and dorm rooms still occasionally
serve as warehouses for GlobeMed, although the student organization has storage facilities on Northwestern's Evanston campus and in Chicago. |
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FIG. 3
Since its establishment in 1999, GlobeMed has gone from shipping donated medical and hygiene supplies to raising $15,000 to build a health center in Ho, Ghana, now under construction. |
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