Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

An interdisciplinary panel discussion and Q&A exploring how healthcare can be effective and equitable in a time of ecological breakdown

This webinar examines how healthcare can aim to be effective and equitable in a time of climate breakdown and biodiversity loss.  

Central to this discussion is an exploration of the relationships between health, culture and ecosystem, and what the possibilities are when these relationships are treated as central to healthcare systems.  

Speaking to practitioners and researchers from different healthcare localities, we'll learn about the unique approaches making a difference to the health of the communities they work with and discuss how healthcare systems can centre community needs, autonomy and culture whilst providing effective and equitable healthcare in a time of climate change.

Link to Registration Page

Speakers:
Ingrid Lewis is a Public Health Professional. She lived with Congolese Mbendjele hunter-gatherers between 1994 and 1997 and has been visiting them ever since. Her work includes; Conducting treatment campaigns against yaws, leprosy, endemic & epidemic diseases; Research within existing public health and education infrastructures; She coordinated & assisted a team of Congolese doctors and nurses to provide primary health care measures to remote forest communities in the 1990s. Her research highlights the fact that discrimination against hunter-gatherers has an important impact on their access to health care and on their health-seeking behaviour. Together with Mbendjele healers, Ingrid set up the first mobile clinic in 1996 combining traditional remedies with generic medicines. Using pictograms, drama and role-play, she trained the traditional healers in primary health care. Ingrid is the founder and co-director of Project Bwanga which supports 13 mobile clinics run by hunter-gatherers who provide access to health care to hunter-gatherers and other remote living forest dwellers in the Northern Republic of Congo.

Dr Sunil Kaul is the founder and managing trustee of The Action Northeast Trust (ANT) based in Assam, northeast India. As a public health doctor he’s consulted on malaria, T.B , Maternal and Child Health and other public health issues with national & international agencies. He has over ten-years’ experience in the army as a medical doctor and associated with development sector for over 25 years. In its 20th year, ANT continues to work for the development of villages in Northeast India, reaching out to 900 village hamlets through our current work on education, child protection, women's empowerment, peace building and mental health. At another level, the ant's initiative called IDeA (the Institute of Development Action) works with other NGOs all over the Northeast to help them do what they do even better.

Runa Khan, an Ashoka fellow and Schwab Foundation social entrepreneur, is the Founder and Executive Director of Friendship. Friendship was founded drawing upon Runa Khan’s wide range of practical experiences of teaching, setting up small businesses, tourism, and communication among others. She is a published author with eight books, six on pedagogy and two on children’s stories. She is the Board Member of Global Dignity and Country Chair of Global Dignity Bangladesh and the Founder of Friendship International that is working in four European countries, fundraising and building relationships for Friendship in Bangladesh. Her work is based on simple logic, empathy, respect, deep sense of justice and innovation. She received several international awards and recognition, including Green Award by Positive Planet (2016), Schwab Foundation’s Social Entrepreneur Award (2012), IDB Award for contribution toward Women in development (2008), Rolex Awards for Entrepreneurship (2006), and Ashoka Fellowship (1994).

Host:
Amali Lokugamage MBChB, BSc, MSc (Epidemiology), MD, FRCOG, SFHEA is a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist and involved in medical education in London, UK. She has over 30 years of experience in the speciality. Her main clinical interests lie in medical gynaecology and general obstetrics with expertise in normalising birth. She has authored a popular book called The Heart in the Womb: An Exploration of the Roots of Human Love and Social Cohesion.

This event is part three of a four-part series entitled: Physical, Mental, & Planetary Health: exploring the links between the environment and health.

Jointly organised by Flourishing Diversity, the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health at the University of Exeter, and the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities at the University of Oxford, this webinar series brings together voices from all over the world to explore humanity’s interconnection with lands, waters, forests, and fellow species, highlighting the crucial role that biocultural diversity plays in the health of people and populations.

Link to Registration Page