Dear friends and colleagues with an interest in primary health care and community health:
As I said in my last communication with you 6 months ago, as we all know too well, the entire field of global health has continued to be upended by our US government, with unconscionable effects on millions of people around the world, on advancements in global health research and its ethical foundations, and on the careers of thousands and thousands of people working around the world in the field of global health. As I said before and I repeat now, it will take decades to build back what has been destroyed and to regain respect from the rest of the world for the United States and the values that most of us hold dear.
Here, the esteemed Atul Gawande, Director of USAID's Bureau of Global Health during the Biden administration, shares his firsthand view of the effects of USAID's demise on community-based services for mothers and children.
[*1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7PuuBA7OSI ]
My colleague and Harvard physician Joel Sawady joined with two other writers to produce a new vision for global health philanthropy in the Post-Aid era in the Stanford Social Innovation Review <https://ssir.org/articles/entry/global-health-philanthropy-post-aid-era?.... They call on unleashing philanthropic capital in the US ($1.6 trillion in foundations and $250 billion in donor-advised funds) to support worthy grassroots organizations and frontline grassroots leaders working in community health. One important way to do this, they suggest, is by supporting existing networks of these organizations, such as the CORE Group <https://coregroup.org/> and CHIC <https://joinchic.org/> (Community Health Impact Coalition). (They don't mention it in their article, but IGHA <https://impactglobalhealthalliance.org/> -- Impact Global Health Alliance -- is another such organization that is beginning to emerge.)
Here <https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/health/community-health-care-workers.... is an inspiring recent story from the New York Times of the important contribution that community health workers are making in rural Oregon. Enjoy! It gives a glimpse of the enormous contribution that a strong national CHW program might make in the United States.
On Tuesday May 12 at 11:00 Eastern the Community-Based Primary Health Care Working Group of the International Health Section of the American Public Health Association will sponsor a webinar featuring a discussion with two outstanding community health workers who are engaged in advocacy along with their daily work as CHWs. They will share their work and careers with us. Scan the QR code below to register [*2].
Feel free to share this email and these resources with anyone else or with any relevant listserve you may have access to.
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Warm regards,
Henry
Henry B. Perry, MD, PhD, MPH
Senior Associate, Health Systems Program
Department of International Health
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Baltimore, MD, USA 21205
Hperry2@jhu.edu ; 443-797-5202
HIFA profile: Henry Perry is a Senior Scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA. Professional interests: Community health and primary health care. hperry2 AT jhu.edu
[*Notes from HIFA moderator (NPW): Many thanks Henry, it's always good to hear from you. *1. This is a short version of the origininal URL. *2. HIFA does not carry graphics.]