The Global Micro-Clinic Project: Community Ownership and Awareness

The Global Micro-Clinic Project is an organization which seeks to empower people to prevent and manage diseases in economically depressed and conflict-ridden areas of our world. The project centers around a community-driven philosophy, forming partnerships between health care professionals, academia, government, and citizens, recognizing that civic involvement is the life-blood of functioning communities and the foundation of healthy cities.

Toward these ends, the project seeks to more broadly link health education opportunities in the form of lectures and seminars with practical experience through workshops and hands-on learning, ultimately resulting in the creation of intimate support groups or "micro-clinics," whereby affected populations can share the prohibitive costs of maintaining medical monitoring equipment and supplies, or collectively utilize vital treatment options for diseases and health conditions. The micro-clinic model relies on the volunteer efforts of local health care professionals and concerned citizens, so that together they might improve the health of their communities. Thus, the micro-clinics are designed to create an infrastructure, which is not owned by a governmental organization or even an NGO, but importantly, the micro-clinics are the people.

The micro-clinic model offers the potential of a culturally and economically sustainable system with a potential for scalability, making a stride in creating a healthier, more just and sustainable world.

The micro-clinic model thus has the following key features:

• Building peace by strengthening social infrastructure: the micro-clinics provide an opportunity for youth to be engaged in community development.

• Strategic use of professional knowledge as a catalyst in the start-up phase. This is achieved through partnerships with local professional and non-profit organizations.

• Transition to community-managed and community-owned healthcare; the creation of a public domain of social capital.

• Reflexive action such that there is ongoing evaluation of what succeeds and fails at the local level.

• Use of simple, inexpensive, and appropriate technology, such as the use of glucose monitoring devices or tuberculosis (TB) medication, which are purchased locally to ensure sustainable use.

• The model can be implemented to address other diseases and health issues such as, maternal and child health, smoking, obesity, asthma, TB and substance abuse, or to address a combination of multi-factoral diseases like hypertension and diabetes in many different geo-political contexts.

• The model is efficient and sustainable.