Child Family Health International

1. Offer transformational global health experiences for students and trainees rooted in ethical best practices and embedded within sustainable, longstanding Fair-Trade partnerships. We organize appropriately scoped and supervised learning opportunities in health settings for undergraduate and graduate students, helping them learn from local leaders within health care systems around the world. In doing so, we aim to transform the perspective of our participants so they comprehend the determinants of health and complexity of health systems and are moved to contribute to effective and culturally appropriate solutions at home and abroad.
2. CFHI's aims to support local health care workers through professional development, supporting them as experts in global health, and fostering their passion for their work. The goal is to keep health care workers working in their own communities, and fight against forces of 'brain drain' by providing them opportunities for growth, esteem, and recognition. As a part of this effort, CFHI supports professional development opportunities and community health projects in the communities where we work.

Our strategies to provide transformative Global Health Education Programs include making sure students are safe and well supported while abroad, fully educated in the ethics of global health engagement for students and trainees, adequately prepared for the experience, and reflective about its impacts. We strategically create and maintain partnerships that allow students unique access to health systems, while ensuring appropriate ethical boundaries and not reinforcing North-South power imbalances. With regard to professional development, our strategy is to nurture the professional aspirations of our partners. The strategy behind our community health projects is to support projects which represent asset-based community development, build on existing strengths (the passion and dedication of our local partners being one key strength), as well as create projects which will be sustainable in their own right down the road so we are not breeding dependence.

Our capabilities include having over 15 virtual and place-based programs in 10+countries. We are one of the largest provider of Global Health Education Programs in the US. We have a 30 year track record of Fair-trade practices with our global partners, sustainability, ethical best practices, program quality and safety. CFHI brings capabilities in both the best practices of international education as well as knowledge in the field of global health and development. This unique spectrum of capabilities uniquely poises CFHI to achieve its goals and make great impacts.

CFHI is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the ECOSOC of the United Nations, a role shared by only approximately 3,000 NGOs in the entire world. We are proud of this accomplishment and continually strive to meet and exceed this reputation through two main goals.

CFHI is meeting the demand for global health educational experiences and shaping the future healthcare workforce through programs that inspire students to better understand poverty, healthcare, and their role as professionals and global citizens. Through multiple virtual and place-based programs in 10+ countries, we provide an average of nearly 1,000 students each year an opportunity to learn from healthcare experts in underserved communities abroad.

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, CFHI pivoted to offer a robust portfolio of virtual global health education programs, comprised of internships, practicums, electives, and custom programs for our university partners. These have furnished global health learning for nearly 500 students each year subsequently, and have dramatically increased access to CFHI's programs for students globally. For example, participants from 15 countries joined, from Bhutan to Lebanon.

CFHI continues to expand our reach to meet increasing student demand for health experiences in different areas of the world. We continue to innovate and fundraise in order to increase investment and support for community health projects in the areas where we work. Our track record of 30 years running student programs and funding health projects is a testament to our accomplishments and sustainable approach to engaging with global communities. In the future we will continue to lead the global health education field with expanded program themes highlighting the myriad of determinants of health. We would also like to leverage technology in global health engagement as a way to present global health through our partners eyes.