Box for Health Update: Fall 2020

Experiential Learning

By Julie Lattouf

What better way to learn about a field than having first hand experience?! Box for Health offers an experiential learning program that allows our interns to integrate the knowledge they've received in the classroom into real world applications.

Our internship program is uniquely designed for each and every individual that way they receive the most out of the program and it can help them achieve their future goals. Not only are our interns learning through hands on experience, but they are also networking with brilliant minds in order to further grow and develop their skills in the career paths. Interns are exposed to health education, public health and how a nonprofit management. At Box for Health, we aim to create a positive, encouraging, fulfilling and energetic working environment.

I'd like to share with you a little about one of our top performing interns. Paris, our internship supervisor joined our Fall 2020 Box for Health cohort. She oversees and manages our internship program. Paris has over 20 years of leadership and management experience in public health. She has many goals, including completing her Masters in Public Health, furthering her career in healthcare and expanding to nonprofits.

Paris has created our internship handbook that is given to all of our interns during their first week at Box for Health. She has weekly meetings with all of our interns to go over assignments, deadlines and projects that our interns will be working on. She is a phenomenal individual who contributes a lot to Box for Health.

 

Beirut Relief Efforts

By Alia Osseiran 

On August 4, 2020, thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate stored at the port in Beirut caused the massive explosion that devastated the city on Tuesday; killing nearly 200 people, injuring over 6,000, and displacing 300,000 from their homes.

The United States Geological Survey measured the explosion as a 3.3 magnitude earthquake and the Jordan Seismological Observatory reported that it was equivalent to a 4.5 magnitude earthquake. The University of Sheffield and other sources estimated the explosion was the biggest non-nuclear explosions in history - equivalent to about 1,155 tonnes of TNT. Many reported this as the largest non-nuclear explosion ever. 

Since the Box for Health initiative takes place in Lebanon, the board of Box for Health feels an ethical responsibility to deliver emergency relief to the country of Lebanon. Such an effort assists in our overall mission, since basic needs must be met prior to our toothbrushing and handwashing initiative. Thus we created "Box for Beirut," an emergency initiative to deliver essential supplies to Lebanon through local and global partners.

To date, our team helped collect enough nonperishable food items to fill a 20 foot container, which arrived safely. Via global networking, we coordinated two full truckloads of medical supplies and infant care from Jordan. The trucks were delivered to a local NGO with locations throughout Lebanon. Over 100 backpacks and boxes of school supplies were also donated and shipped to low-income communities near our Box for Health school.

I am proud of how quickly our team was able to respond and pivot to serve our greater community. We are so grateful for the overwhelming amount of support we received that made "Box for Beirut" a success.

 

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