OHIO’s Global Health Case Competition: Sharing solutions abroad and in Athens

The start of the new academic year means the start of a new Global Health Case Competition for Ohio University’s Global Health Initiative. In its fourth year, the Global Health Case Competition offers OHIO students the opportunity to work in teams and develop solutions to real-world global health challenges. The team judged to have the best proposal wins a trip to the case location to research the feasibility of their proposed solution. 

In 2016, the case focused on the negative impact of climate change on resource-scarce neighborhoods of the Bañdos communities in Paraguay. The use of low-quality housing materials and lack of resilient city infrastructure along with increased rains and flooding in Paraguay have resulted in the displacement of 100,000 people, contamination of clean water, and increased risk for vector-borne diseases. 

The 2016 competition winners, Fithi Embaye (social work), Ellen Haile (political science), Brenna Innocenzi (exercise physiology) and Abyssinia Young (communication studies) of Team Tranquilo, proposed to reduce health risks by improving environmental and living conditions through repurposing trash as “bottle bricks.” “Bottle bricks” are made by filling plastic bottles with non-biodegradable trash until they are full and results in sturdy bricks used in construction. These “bottle bricks” could then be used to build housing in the Bañdos neighborhoods. 

Meredith Gartin, faculty director of the Global Health Case Competition, chose to align Team Tranquilo’s research trip with the summer global health program in Paraguay led by Faculty Director and Social Work Instructor Kerri Shaw. Shaw has deep ties in Paraguay, living there as Peace Corps volunteer from 1999-2002 and now returning each year through her service-learning program,  Explore, Connect, Serve. Through this collaboration, Team Tranquilo met with a number of organizations, including TECHO, an organization dedicated to building temporary housing for people deemed to be living in an emergency state, to pitch the “bottle brick” solution.

Ohio University student Ellen Haile works to build a house with TECHO and the service-learning program in Paraguay.

Through meeting with these organizations, Team Tranquilo found that recycling is a deeply valued norm and practiced behavior in the Paraguayan culture, and the “bottle brick” idea was well received by the different communities. Team Tranquilo also concluded that there would be difficulties and obstacles in implementation of their solution as the residents do not own the land where they live. This means that any sustainable initiative to improve housing must be done in collaboration and with the support of the government.

Coincidentally, Serena Verweire (child and family studies), who participated as a student on the service-learning program, reached out to Team Tranquilo after returning home to Athens. Having witnessed the team’s presentation during the program, Verweire asked if she could use some of the team’s materials to pitch the “bottle brick” project to the coordinator of Camp Oty’Okwa. Verweire has worked at Camp Oty’Okwa, a camp owned and operated by Big Brothers Big Sisters in the nearby Hocking Hills, for seven years and felt the “bottle bricks” would be an ideal project to teach sustainability and recycling to kids at the camp. Team Tranquilo was thrilled to share its materials with Verweire. As a result, Camp Oty’Okwa may pursue a grant to implement this as a project. 

The 2016 Global Health Case Competition and the research of Team Tranquilo show that gaining a global perspective can also help identify ways to make changes on a local level as well. Experiencing challenges in other places can help design solution there and here in Ohio. 

For more information about this year’s country, case details and how proposals are judged, attend the Global Health Case Competition kick-off event at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 13, in Grover Center E238X, or read more at  https://www.ohio.edu/globalhealth/GHcasecompetition.cfm. 

You can also contact the Global Health Initiative directly by visiting Grover Center E118, emailing  globalhealth@ohio.edu  or calling 740-594-2359. 

This article was provided by Ohio University’s Global Health Initiative.