After years of experience, relationship-building, and familiarity with international processes they expanded and became Health Goes Global (formerly Gloves Go Global), a registered 501(c)(3) tax exempt identity of which Hannah is the director and co-founder. “Health Goes Global is now this overarching umbrella of preventative health care, which initially were gloves preventing the health care worker and the patient from this cross contamination. Now we have successfully done water purification product projects, and dental health.” The expansion attracted a diverse board of directors, all with their own expertise to help grow the company and help more communities across the globe. “This brought a little legitimacy to what we were doing,” she says. “Gaining more board members meant more diversity in people's experiences. I am the first one to say I don't know, I need help here, and not try to tackle something that I'm not an expert on. So we reached out to people who are experts in their own field and now have this robust board and these people who are really able to help.”
For their recent water project in Guyana, they partnered with Mountain Safety Research (MSR), an outdoor retailer and the leading producers of water technology. “As a partnership, they donated a bunch of these devices to our organization, and so we found a region that needed it and partnered with Adventist World Aviation, who were the experts on the ground in Guyana for 12 years. They knew where the remote school houses were having the most trouble, where water is contaminated by mines.” Eventually, the Guyana government became involved and now assists with the water project. “It’s these partnerships that make what we do so strong,” she says.
This year, Hannah has started her first year of medical school at UNE COM. “I have all these ideas, and then I have the reality of being a medical student,” she says. “And that's where these opportunities to share with other people who are maybe establishing their career, or maybe they're taking a year off after med school, before residency, or any number of these combinations, and they have this drive and want to do something with it.” She is excited for other students and alumni to get involved in any way they can. “I think this is a wonderful opportunity, and just getting the word out and sharing with people that we're here for your ideas.”
She tells the story of how a project was started in Panama. On a trip there, one of their board members observed that the cost of soda was only 25 cents, while bottled water was a whole dollar. “So no one's drinking water, because they don't want to buy it and the water in these communities is contaminated. So they're all drinking soda leading to these dental problems for children, they have these three year olds with no teeth, and then the elderly population with no teeth… and these issues that could have been prevented day one with clean water.” Using their connections, they were able to reach out to other organizations and be a financial resource to bring necessary intervention to the community.
Hannah and the Health Goes Global team are incredibly proud of what they have accomplished, but know that there is still work to do, and people to help. She hopes there are medical students and alumni out there who want to devote time, ideas, and resources to aid other communities across the world: “Maybe there are students out there on rotation, or alumni who currently work with or have worked with populations in need of this preventative health intervention; they have the idea but don’t have the resources or funding source. My hope is that Health Goes Global can be that resource and provide our expertise and get your idea into action, just like I did, with my idea, just like our board member did.” It was the NASA astronaut, Ron Garan, who stated, “We are limited only by our imagination and our will to act.” In that sense, nothing is out of reach as long as ideas keep flowing and volunteers are there to put those dreams into action. Whether it is teaching diabetes or nutrition awareness, installing self-composting toilets, or implementing new technologies, Health Goes Global wants to inspire and be the change in the world. As Hannah states, “There's so many ways that you can prevent illnesses from the beginning, instead of treating the disease or the infection once it started. I think it's so in line with osteopathic medicine. I think there's alumni out there who have these ideas, and you just need a little support because sometimes starting something on your own is quite overwhelming.”