SENCER is a proud supporter of the WISER organization, which developed out of an early SENCER facilitated project to build international teams of scholars from the US and Africa to teach about the capacious challenge of HIV, particularly in girls. WISER’s mission is to empower girls through education and health as well as provide stellar STEM education to girls in rural Kenya. We often speak of how proud we are at WISER to support girls’ overall wellness, including mental and emotional health, sexual and reproductive health, and academic success. These are and will always be critical priorities for us. But central to this overall wellness is something we don’t talk about in quite as much detail – disease prevention. With disease prevention top of mind in 2020, we are highlighting how WISER is playing our part in global efforts to continue to fight deadly and preventable diseases like Typhoid, Malaria, Tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS while we continue to work to contain COVID-19.
We urge you to give to WISER’s year-end campaign “Health at the Heart of It.” With an ambitious goal of $60,000, the campaign will center around Giving Tuesday on December 1, which coincides this year with World AIDS Day. On that day, WISER will have the opportunity to leverage your gifts for a piece of a $1M incentive prize through GlobalGiving – the largest in its history. All gifts from unique donors up to $2,500 will help us claim a portion of that prize, and will be a sound investment in our proven programming to improve health for the hardest to reach girls.
How to give:
- Mark your calendar for December 1
- Bookmark the following link: https://www.globalgiving.org/donate/27498/wiser-international/
- Donate on December 1 to help WISER continue to put Health at the Heart of It!
How your gift helps
$2,500 Can help prevent Typhoid Fever with a year of clean water for all WISER students
$1,000 Can help improve nutrition with 2,000 fresh, balanced meals for WISER students
$500 Can help prevent COVID-19 with cloth face masks for a class of WISER students
$250 Can help address HIV through WISER student led SRH Training for 300 Youth
$100 Can help address TB through a community health education and testing event
$50 Can help prevent vector-borne disease by spraying a dorm of six WISER students
$25 Can help address airborne disease by maintaining sufficient dorm space for distancing
$10 Can help prevent Malaria with a treated mosquito net for a WISER student
Shorter blurb:
On Dec 1, #WorldAIDSDay and #GivingTuesday,, and we’re keeping “health at the heart of it” by spotlighting WISER’s holistic health interventions. In the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic, HIV intervention is more important than ever. Those with HIV infections that are not controlled by antiretroviral medications are at an increased risk of disease in general, COVID-19 being one of many potentially deadly infections that could harm someone with untreated HIV/AIDS. But thankfully, the reverse is true as well: people with HIV infections that are under control through antiretroviral medications are not at an increased risk of COVID-19 complications. WISER students who are HIV+ receive cost-free HIV treatment, keeping them healthy and able to thrive–and also, now, protected from increased risk of COVID-19 complications.
COVID-19 draws into sharp focus the need for holistic health interventions, like the ones WISER offers. It costs just $25 to provide health coverage for a WISER girl for a year. Save this link and give from your heart tomorrow, #GivingTuesday, knowing your gift makes a difference in the health–and lives–of WISER girls!
https://www.globalgiving.org/donate/27498/wiser-international/
Sherryl Broverman, PhD
Professor of the Practice
Biology Department and
The Duke Global Health Institute
Duke University
Founder and Chair, WISER Intl