The world as we know it has changed dramatically with the SARS-COV2 pandemic. With more than 130 million cases worldwide (and growing) and more than 2.5 million deaths (and increasing), this pandemic will be with us for the coming years.

Consequently, also the Minor Global Health 2020 had to be adapted to 10 weeks of online education in Rotterdam:

• with Richard Skolnik's 'Essentials of Global Health' course on Coursera as the foundation (earning student a free certificate!)

• with many renowned national and international experts and lecturers

• moving from Masvingo Zimbabwe to New York USA, from Bogota Colombia to Jakarta Indonesia and back to rural Macha Zambia in just the blink of an eye!

• and with an elective abroad now scheduled for August 2021

• So there were new challenges but certainly also new opportunities!!

Friday 2 April 2021, we had to decide that for the whole of 2021, electives abroad and international exchanges will not be possible. That also means that the electives abroad as part of the Minor Global Health 2021 scheduled for September-October have to be postponed. The reasons for this decision are:

• increasing numbers of infections and deaths due to COVID-19 globally

• emergence of new SARS-COV-2 variants

• greatly overwhelmed health care systems especially in Latin and South America

• slow vaccination progress

• travel restrictions and entry bans (e.g. need for special visa)

• quarantine measures

• uncertainties about flight availability and chances that flights will be cancelled

• insurance issues (no cancellation insurance possibility, travel insurance offers very limited coverage s)

• hosting institutes not being capable of hosting and guiding students as they would want to do due to COVID-19
  

So travel will not be possible in September & October 2021 because the pandemic is not yet under control. Therefore the Minor Global Health 2021 will start on Monday 30 August and run for 10 weeks in Rotterdam. The electives abroad will be postponed to August 2022.
We will use virtual mobility for all students where you will have weekly meetings with your peer students, coordinators and lecturers of the site-country you will be going to.

So you will have an awesome program anyway!

Global Health

Global health is the health of populations in the global context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problems that transcend national borders or have a global political and economic impact are often emphasized. Thus, global health is about worldwide health improvement (including mental health), reduction of disparities, and protection against global threats that disregard national borders.

Global health integrates expertise and perspectives from the fields of public health, medicine, epidemiology, health economics, behavioural science, environmental sciences and anthropology, among others. It provides a new platform for research, education and information on health challenges faced by the world population.

Humans of Global Health

Global Health is ' hot'. Even in a world where wars, terrorism, fundamentalism and racism so often seem to dictate the world news and social media, if you stick to the data the world really is a better place than 25 years ago. A world with less poverty, better health, better education, better everything really. Despite the current ongoing pandemic.

As Mark Twain wrote already a very long time ago: " Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." So it is clear that people should travel more!

Read Factfulness by the the late Hans Rosling and understand the world how it really is. Go to the Gapminder website, check out the ' Best stats you' ve ever seen', visit Anna Rosling Rönnlund's Dollar Street and see the world differently .

Read Johan Norberg's book 'Progress', or 'World's Best News' by Dutch 'Curious Cosmopolitan' Ralf Bodelier.

Your Perspective

The map above shows you the institutes/countries you can choose to go to with the Minor Global Health, organized by Global Health Education Erasmus (GHEE). So take a look around and travel with us, to see the world indeed is a better world now, not perfect, but better. Meet new people, experience new cultures, new health care problems and solutions, get inspired and, like Erasmus himself, become a real 'human of global health'!