Thai elections have the inglorious distinction of being very interesting. This year is no different. Conflicts between the monarchy, military, politicians, and the populace conflate with questions of Thai identity and the country’s once undisputed position as a democratic leader in Southeast Asia. It’s bedlam.
Here’s a roundup of articles on the July 3rd election:
Back at GlobeMed HQ in Evanston, Evan R and I are hard at work evaluating the Partnership Proposals we received from 27 local health organizations we found through our Partner Search Fellowship.
We have also had the opportunity to talk with GlobeMed’s current class of Chapter Founders. As the main GlobeMed blog has highlighted, they are an incredible group of leaders.
Many of the founders have asked us what criteria we use to evaluate potential partners. Over the last several years, the national office has been able to compile a list of attributes that has made for successful long term partnerships.
Here are some of the criteria we use to evaluate potential partners:
Communication
For partnerships based in pragmatic solidarity, communication is absolutely crucial. While we realize that there are many organizations doing incredible work that are unable to communicate in English (or in some cases Spanish) and have readily available access to phones or internet, for all practical purposes, we have found these necessary for a successful GlobeMed Partnership.
Community-Based
Working with local communities to address their problems is at the core of what GlobeMed does. A community-based organization is better able to understand the needs of the poor and leverage the resources and knowledge within a community to affect real change. At the same time, an organization that is community-based is able to provide a unique window into global health and social justice that will allow our members to learn and grow.
Infrastructure
In essence, we are after the goldilocks effect. GlobeMed partnerships have been most successful with organizations that are small enough that our students’ funds and support can make a significant impact with the partner and community. At the same time, partners must be established and have other sources of support since our students cannot be the sole or major source of funding for an organization.
Potential for GROW
While a GlobeMed partnership is much more than the one or two months of an on-site internship, GROW has served to strengthen partnerships while providing a formative experience for our students. For this reason, we have sought out partners with the interest and ability to host a small number of our students for on-site work.
Measurable Impact
At the end of the day, GlobeMed is about making a tangible impact in the health of communities and people around the world. We are looking for organizations that are dedicated to making a demonstrable improvement in health and well-being of people within their communities.
While this list is by no means exhaustive, hopefully this can shine a bit of light on the calculus of the partner selection process. Our next blog post will detail the process of matching our newly selected partners with our new chapters. Stay tuned!
Link: Thaksin lawyer suspects fraud in Thai election
A Thai general election is upcoming on July 3rd, and concerns over past elections and political unrest continue to color the debate. A former prime minister is accusing the current prime minister of civilian massacre, and there are concerns about ballot irregularities for this election. We’re hoping the voting can go off without a hitch and Thailand can continue its incredible progress, but we’ll have to keep watching this.
This isn’t the most important news coming out of Burma, but it is the most related to pop culture. Michelle Yeoh, who will play Aung San Suu Kyi in an upcoming movie, was deported from Burma last week. You can read the full story here.
Yeoh met with Aung San Suu Kyi earlier this year, suggesting the movie has the full support of its subject. Hopefully it will raise awareness about Burma’s military junta and the Burmese people’s ongoing struggle for human rights and freedom.
Mae Tao
I’m going to give a shout out to a ridiculous blog in the hopes that they’ll repost this. It aggregates other blogs’ apologies about not posting for a long time in one convenient place. Here it is: http://sorry.coryarcangel.com/ So anyway - we’re sorry.
These pictures are from Mae Sot, Thailand, on the Thai-Burma border. There are dozens of incredible organizations working here, mostly concerned with helping Burmese people - both refugees and those still in the country.
After quick stops at home to see friends and family, we’re back at the GlobeMed National Office to wrap up the Partner Search. It was an amazing four months of meetings, site visits, and almost constant travel, but it’s great to be back in the United States with the rest of the GlobeMed staff.
In the coming weeks, we will go through all the partnership proposals and select the fifteen organizations that match up best with GlobeMed’s model and the new university chapters. From hundreds of existing Southeast Asian health organizations and related resources, we e-mailed roughly one hundred to set up fifty in country meetings. The past months have helped focus our criteria for new partners, and we’re confident that the final corps of organizations will be strong, passionate, and uniquely suited to improve the health of their communities and train the next generation of global health leaders.
Between rib fests, reconnecting with other staff members, days at Lake Michigan, and meeting the new interns, we’re completing our final communications with the potential partners and chapter founders. We’ll keep you updated on the process in the next couple weeks, and can’t wait to announce next years batch of new partnerships.
An interesting exploration of government-NGO relations and the efficacy of large scale aid programs in Cambodia.
Not-so-wildlife
Many of the organizations we’ve met with use livestock programs for both nutrition and income-generation. Mostly we’ve heard about pigs and cows, and there was even one for rabbits. This was the first time we got to help. A few members of the community - kids, a couple on a walk through town, some elderly women - met at the river to learn a little more about responsible fishing and watch us release some small fries. After a short prayer by a local pastor - most Lahu are Christian and this was a Lahu village - we got to step into the muddy banks and open bags swimming with hundreds of fish. The flags on the bridge in the picture mark the beginning of a no-fishing zone. Local community leaders enforce a strict but unofficial fine for reaching into these havens.
