{"id":5203,"date":"2015-03-27T01:31:35","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T17:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/answering-call\/"},"modified":"2024-08-30T15:55:46","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T07:55:46","slug":"answering-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/answering-call\/","title":{"rendered":"Answering the call"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report that made universities everywhere sit up.<\/p>\n

Our globalised world was facing a shortage of health workers, it said, and educators were tasked with equipping the next generation of health professionals to work in dynamic, culturally diverse and cross-disciplinary teams. Curtin had already anticipated this new approach to health education with Go Global.<\/p>\n

Go Global<\/a> is a pioneering program that gives undergraduate health students the chance to work together with communities in developing countries to tackle crippling public health issues.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Go Global has proven more than simply an opportunity for interprofessional learning. As a group of India-bound participants recently found out, the program is life changing for its beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

Liquid for life<\/h2>\n

\"Clean<\/a><\/p>\n

For most Australian children, the drink fountain is as much a fixture of school life as the playground. But in some parts of the world, clean water at school doesn\u2019t come on tap.<\/p>\n

At the Shanthi School for underprivileged children in southern India, staff and students only had access to contaminated groundwater.<\/p>\n

Recent cuts to the school\u2019s funding meant its 1,800 students were left to drink water containing roughly twice the level of dissolved solids normally considered safe for drinking.\u00a0In the hot, muggy climate of the Tamil Nadu region, the consequences were disastrous.<\/p>\n

Many students fainted from dehydration and sustained concussions, while others contracted illnesses like typhoid and dysentery from the dirty water. Fatalities were not uncommon. The playground was often silent.<\/p>\n

Those who could afford to bring clean water to school were only slightly better off than those who couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few school pupils and teachers were bringing water from their homes \u2013 around one litre of water in the morning,\u201d said Dr K. Govindaraju, the director of the Society for Education, Village Action and Improvement (SEVAI), the organisation that runs the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents need at least two litres of water during their stay at school.\u201d<\/p>\n

In partnership with SEVAI, a group of Go Global students on placement in India investigated the problem and came up with a creative solution.<\/p>\n

Occupational therapy student and program participant, Alana Walsh, describes their light bulb moment:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put our heads together and came up with the idea to send a video viral on the Internet to raise funds for a water filtration system that many hospitals and schools were using in southern India.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin a week we had raised the funds. It was the most amazing feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n