The world as we know it has changed dramatically with the COVID-19 pandemic. With more than 600 million cases worldwide (and still growing) and 6 million deaths (and still rising), this pandemic will be with us for some time still.

Consequently, also the Minor Global Health 2020 & 2021 had to be adapted to 10 weeks of hybrid (in class and online) education in Rotterdam:

• with Richard Skolnik's 'Essentials of Global Health' course on Coursera as the foundation (earning student a free certificate!).

• with many renowned national and international experts and lecturers.

• moving from Masvingo Zimbabwe to New York USA, from Bogota Colombia to Jakarta Indonesia and back to rural Macha Zambia in just the blink of an eye! 

• So yes, there were new challenges but certainly also new opportunities!!

With the advent of the omikron variant, the natural evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic is comparable to that of the Spanish flu in 1918-1920, namely into a less severe but endemic disease like influenza. Due to this and due to the massive vaccination and booster campaigns globally, international travel and exchanges have been be possible again since March 2022. Therefore, the Minor Global Health 2022 program could be organized as we originally developed it as of August 2022.

Also for the Minor Global Health 2023 we expect that international travel and exchanges will be possible in September & October 2023.

For those students who are interested in Global Health, but who for whatever reason cannot travel abroad in September/October 2023, we will offer an extensive virtual mobility program. With virtual mobility you will have weekly meetings with your peer students, coordinators and lecturers of the sites & countries you are interested in. And it will give you the opportunity to 'travel' to more than 1 country only; if you want you can go to all 17 countries involved! So, also from Rotterdam you can have an awesome global program!

Global Health

Global health is the health of populations in the global context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problems that transcend national borders or have a global political and economic impact are often emphasized. Thus, global health is about worldwide health improvement (including mental health), reduction of disparities, and protection against global threats that disregard national borders. 

Global health integrates expertise and perspectives from the fields of public health, medicine, epidemiology, health economics, behavioural science, environmental sciences and anthropology, among others. It provides a new platform for research, education and information on health challenges faced by the world population. 

Humans of Global Health

Global Health is ' hot'. Even in a world where wars, terrorism, fundamentalism and racism so often seem to dictate the world news and social media, if you stick to the data the world really is a better place than 25 years ago. A world with less poverty, better health, better education, better everything really. Despite the current ongoing pandemic.

As Mark Twain wrote already a very long time ago: " Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." So it is clear that people should travel more!

Read Factfulness by the the late Hans Rosling and understand the world how it really is. Go to the Gapminder website, check out the ' Best stats you' ve ever seen', visit Anna Rosling Rönnlund's Dollar Street  and see the world differently . 

Read Johan Norberg's book 'Progress', or 'World's Best News' by Dutch 'Curious Cosmopolitan' Ralf Bodelier. 

Your Perspective

The map above shows you the institutes/countries you can choose to go to with the Minor Global Health, organized by Global Health Education Erasmus (GHEE). So take a look around and travel with us, to see the world indeed is a better world now, not perfect, but better. Meet new people, experience new cultures, new health care problems and solutions, get inspired and, like Erasmus himself, become a real 'human of global health'!