COUNTRY- & COMMUNITY LED RESPONSES

Creating Sustainable Solutions to a Global Pandemic

Pandemics are by definition global, yet the U.S. and much of the world's response thus far has been overtly nationalistic. In our upcoming Right to Health Web-In: “Country- & Community-Led Responses: Creating Sustainable Solutions to a Global Pandemic,” we will be exploring an alternative vision: one in which countries stand in solidarity with one another, particularly those who have borne the burden of colonialism and structural racism for generations.

Our panelists will unpack what it means for a public health response to be country-owned and community-led. They will discuss how such programs have been successfully developed and implemented in the past, then explore how that history can inform our efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic.

The panel discussion will be followed by small groups discussions. During this time, we will learn from facilitators who can share international perspectives surrounding pandemic response and strategize immediate actions to end this pandemic and curb the pandemics of the future.

“Take a step back and listen. Do not come to the table with

your preconceived solutions.”
- Dr. Tinashe Goronga
(Panelist, COVID-19, Climate, and Community)

Our distinguished speakers are:

Agnes Binagwaho, MD, M(Ped), PhD
- Dr. Agnes Binagwaho is a global health leader who has used implementation science throughout her career. She is now using it to ensure that people can build and repair health sectors better prepared for threats like COVID-19.
Kumba Tekuyama
- Community based program manager for Partners In Heath -SL . Started my community work with PIH -SL in 2015 during the Ebola pandemic till date . Very passionate about community work and a strong advocate for the poor and less privilege who believes health is a human right for all .
Chris Collins
- Chris is President and CEO at Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and a long time advocate on domestic and global HIV and for civil society engagement in health.
Mohamed Bailor Barrie, MD, MSc
- Mohamed Bailor Barrie, MD, MSc, is a Sierra Leonean physician and co-founder of the medical humanitarian organization Wellbody Alliance. Bailor earned his medical degree in 2004 from the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences at the University of Sierra Leone in Freetown. He was awarded a Fulbright grant in 2013 to pursue a Master of Medical Sciences in Global Health Delivery degree at Harvard Medical School, but a few months into his studies, the West African Ebola epidemic began. Upon realizing its severity in his native country, he chose to return home to serve those in most need. In September 2014, Wellbody Alliance collaborated with Partners In Health (PIH) to launch a response to the Ebola epidemic as the disease spread across Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. Bailor later returned to Harvard to complete his master’s degree in 2016. His research on HIV and Ebola in Sierra Leone investigates the treatment of infectious disease, models of care delivery, and implications for health policy. He is currently the PIH policy adviser to the national HIV and TB programs in Sierra Leone. His research interest is using rigorous ethnographic and epidemiological data to evaluate and strengthen health systems in low-resource settings.