Forget health care in the U.S. for a minute. Forget that even under the old system (regardless of whether you think it’s flawed or not), most people got at least some health care. Think for a minute of the people who have no health care. This coming Saturday, the 3rd Annual Penn State Global Health Conference will be a day of doing exactly that.

The conference is run by Penn State’s chapter of  GlobeMed and consists of a series of workshops led chiefly by Penn State professors. To give you an idea, some of the titles are “Issues in Health Communications,” “Environmental Health,” and “The Impact of Race and Stigma on People with HIV/AIDS in South Africa.” The conference is intended to raise awareness of disparities in health care throughout the world, and to foster a sense of responsibility toward those negatively affected. The organization and conference also concretely make a difference through GlobeMed at Penn State’s partner in Mexico, EAPSEC.

GlobeMed is a group of student-led grassroots organizations, driven by their self-described mission of “ensuring the right to a quality life for all humans.” They work to provide health care to poor communities around the world that do not or cannot afford to receive it. Penn State’s chapter has been working on a project since November 2008 through EAPSEC to help improve the health of citizens of Chiapas, Mexico, a largely rural area which has been hit hard by poverty and both political and natural turmoil. The chapter has been campaigning to raise $5,000 to direct toward training volunteers in Chiapas.

The conference takes place on March 27 from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Visit their website to find out more about GlobeMed at Penn State or to register to attend the conference.

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