Atlanta philanthropist and AIDS activist Joseph W. Blount (pictured above) has pledged $2 million to support the work of Sandra Thurman, new director of the Interfaith Health Program in Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH). Blount’s gift will establish the Joseph W. Blount Global Health and Society Program.
"The gift was not tied to my joining the Interfaith Health Program, but it was a nice fit," says Thurman, who also directs the International AIDS Trust at the RSPH. "It gives me the opportunity to pursue the connection between faith and health, as well as look at global justice and social issues pertaining to women's health and HIV and AIDS. Joe and I both have a keen interest in all of these issues."
With Blount's support and Thurman's direction, the Global Health and Society Program will focus on challenges faced by the world's most underserved populations. Its work will encompass faith and health, HIV/AIDS, women's health, health advocacy, and the empowerment of women and girls. The goal is to understand the social drivers of disease and disparities and help communities address issues in their own backyards.
In many poor places in the world, that means working through the church or other faith-based institutions, which together provide 40 to 60 percent of all health care and social services.
"When I started my work in HIV/AIDS as a hospice volunteer, I learned that it's impossible to separate people's health from their spiritual life," says Thurman. "What sustains people in times of challenge, particularly around end-of-life issues and chronic illness, is their faith. So much of Joe's generosity is grounded in the tenants of his faith. We resonate in that way."
The Interfaith Health Program (IHP), a cornerstone of the Global Health and Society Program, works with faith-based institutions, nongovernmental organizations, governments, and religious and political leaders to assess public health needs and resources in communities. Collaborating with those communities, IHP then helps develop health, education, and support services that fit the people they serve.
Thurman, who joined the Hubert Department of Global Health in 2006, has taken philanthropists to Africa to see the disproportionate impact of the AIDS epidemic on women and girls. After introducing her visitors to first ladies, ministers of health, and other leaders, Thurman leads her guests to microenterprise programs that bring women out of poverty or homes for children affected by AIDS to demonstrate how philanthropy can make a difference.
Just recently, the IHP began working with the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief on prevention programs in Kenya. IHP also joined forces with the CDC to create the first National Center for Public Health and Faith Collaborations, which works with more than 13,000 partners worldwide.
"Our goal is to teach—and share—the basics of public health, the basics of development, and the basics of engaging with people in resource-constrained settings," says Thurman. "Our curriculum builds on community wisdom from Africa and other global settings and is designed, in part, to train people in U.S. congregations to be more effective when they go overseas and spend time on the ground in the developing world."
Though the fight against AIDS has seen some victories, with a reduction in new infections in Africa, Thurman is the first to admit that there is a long way to go. "What Joe and I have begun, we will not see the end of," says Thurman. "But we are both committed to building a foundation that will foster the necessary research and conversations so the kind of interventions that really make a difference can be built. I'm talking about interventions based on science and reality, not ideology."
May 2009
