About Us

What We Do.

The Global Medical Initiative is a student-run non-profit organization that seeks to address pressing issues in health care delivery around the world. Unlike other international health care organizations, the focus of GMI is not limited in scope to any one specific cause. We are not driven to eradicate any one form disease or illness alone. Instead, we understand that the dynamics of health care delivery are vast and overarching above all forms of illness. We recognize that to develop an international standard of health care equity, we cannot limit our efforts nor restrict our actions. We must aim to shake the foundations of global health. Thus, we strive to raise awareness about the state of health care delivery worldwide and move students, the catalysts of social change, FROM AWARENESS TO ACTION.

Who We Are.

We are students. We are, among others, biologists, anthropologists, engineers and business majors. We are, above all, activists.

-Hersh Varma, Weatherhead ’11

GMI is made up of an Executive Board and a General Body. The Executive Board is made up of individuals who in their time as General Body members displayed outstanding leadership and a creative vision to better the organization and further its purpose. These students come from varied academic backgrounds and bring to the Board unique talents that help them better serve the group. The role of each member of the Board is to steer various initiative-based committees consisting of General Body members that are in charge of events, fund-raising, logistics, and other critical functions of the organization.

Why We’re Here.

Among countless reasons, most importantly, because:

    • One billion people lack access to health care systems.
    • Around 11 million children under the age of 5 die from malnutrition and mostly preventable diseases, each year.
    • In 2002, almost 11 million people died of infectious diseases alone, far more than the number killed in the natural or man-made catastrophes that make headlines. (These are the latest figures presented by the World Health Organization.)
    • AIDS/HIV has spread rapidly. UNAIDS estimates for 2007 that there are roughly:
      • 32.8 million living with HIV
      • 2.5 million new infections of HIV
      • 2 million deaths from AIDS
    • There are 8.8 million new cases of Tuberculosis (TB) and 1.75 million deaths from TB, each year.
    • 1.6 million people still die from pneumococcal diseases every year, making it the number one vaccine-preventable cause of death worldwide. More than half of the victims are children. (The pneumococcus is a bacterium that causes serious infections like meningitis, pneumonia and sepsis. In developing countries, even half of those children who receive medical treatment will die. Every second surviving child will have some kind of disability.)
    • Malaria causes more than 300 million acute illnesses and at least 1 million deaths, annually.
    • More than half a million people, mostly children, died from measles in 2003 even though effective immunization costs just 0.30 US dollars per person, and has been available for over 40 years.

These and other diseases kill more people each year than conflict alone.