How to Talk about Global Health Without Boring People

Published June 26, 2009 @ 01:58AM PT

Improving global health is going to require the concerted efforts of a lot of people. More people, in fact, than currently care. I believe that those of us that do care have a moral obligation to recruit other people. We need a critical mass to really change things, and we're not there.

But how, exactly, do you get other people to care? It's not easy. Here's what I have learned about talking to other people during my decade-long (and counting) obsession with global health.

1. Use stories and empathy. We respond to narrative far more than we respond to statistics. People get interested when they hear something they can identify with. We want people to broaden their monkeysphere. There is a line here; just telling stories is insulting to everyone involved.

2. Use issues people are familiar with as a bridge to more difficult issues. Just about everyone knows about HIV. You can use it as an example to talk about other infectious diseases like MDR TB. You can also take illnesses everyone is familiar with, like diarrhea, and talk about how much more dangerous they are in the developing world.

3. Know your call to action. I don't believe in awareness. I don't think it matters, and I don't think it leads to anything. I talk to people about global health because I want them to donate to global health causes and advocate for the US to take a bigger role in global health. I think the most important thing is to make people realize they can have an impact on global health. It's not just a big mass of hopelessness they should avoid thinking about.

4. Know how they can learn more. I actually send people to this very blog, since I try to keep it accessible for beginners. I also suggest the excellent Global Health Ideas blog. If they want a book, I suggest Millions Saved. If they seem the video type, then Global Health TV.

Share this Post

Add a Comment

For your comment to be published, you will need to confirm your email address after submitting your comment.

If you already have an account, click here to log in.

First Name:

Last Name:

Email:

Create Password:

Comment

Check Spelling

Email me when there are new posts to this thread
Comment Policy

Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.

Author

Alanna Shaikh has spent the last ten years immersed in global health; she has worked for NGOs, companies, universities, and the US government on projects that ranged from preventing antibacterial resistance to improving maternal and child health.