In fragile states and zones of conflict, humanitarian response inevitably requires close collaboration between local and international responders.  International responders cannot work effectively without deep understanding and awareness of local cultures and contexts, while local responders typically lack the resources necessary to manage large-scale humanitarian interventions.  The crisis in Syria provides an especially powerful case in point.  In close collaboration, local and international responders have alleviated unprecedented human suffering, providing medical care, water, food, shelter, and protection to refugees throughout the region.

Yet in spite of these successes, collaborative efforts between local and international responders are not always without problems.  Differing interpretations of international standards, misaligned structures in professional organization, and broader divergence in historical, economic, and cultural perception can contribute to misinterpretation, misunderstanding, and ill will between local and international responders, weakening humanitarian response, intensifying misunderstanding and mistrust among experts and leaders in each society, and contributing to deterioration in public opinion all around.

Response:  Virtual Educational Exchange

Building on Stanford University’s unique implementation of the OpenEdX online learning platform, Global Collaboration in Humanitarian Response will link public health courses in Europe, the U.S., and Lebanon to build capacity and relationships through virtual educational exchange.  The program utilizes advanced yet affordable collaboration technologies, including web videoconferencing, virtual whiteboards, shared text annotating, discussion boards, chat rooms, and virtual reality around a challenging problem-based learning curriculum developed in close cooperation with Stanford University (USA) and MUBS (Lebanon).  Guest speakers will share with the students, across continents, their experiences in global emergency response, with the crisis in Syria serving as a close case study.

Audience:                                     

Undergraduate and graduate students of public health and medicine in the U.S. and Lebanon

Course Description

PCH 402 "Discussions in Global Health: A Virtual Student Exchange between Stanford and Lebanon" is a joint course between MUBS and Stanford Medicine, timely topics in global health will be presented in a unique virtual student exchange with the joint participation of Stanford University in California, USA. 

The goal of this interactive series will be to encourage students to think about a broad range of topics in global health including coordinated responses to crises, ethical approaches to research and implementation work in low-income countries, and focused sessions on refugee health which will connect classrooms in Beirut and in Palo Alto, California.

Complex humanitarian emergencies require cross-cultural collaboration, and this class will be structured to encourage working with counterparts on the pressing Syrian refugee crisis. By integrating lectures, guest speakers, and a cross-cultural collaborative capstone project, students will gain an in-depth understanding of the global-health landscape and methods of addressing complex issues with partners abroad.

At the end of the course, two students attending the class at MUBS will be chosen, based on their contribution to the class as a whole and the capstone project, to travel to Stanford University's campus in Palo Alto, and visit with other Silicon Valley  enterprises like Google, Facebook, and Apple, among others to gain insight into projects in educational technology, virtual reality, and their contribution to other challenges facing the under-served and rural communities around the world.

Location: MUBS Aley Campus

Duration: October 17, 2018 – December 5, 2018

Time: Every Wednesday, 7:15 pm- 8:45 pm