We Live in One World. It’s time to talk about One Health.
This week Kyeema joins the international global health and science community in celebrating One Health Day (3rd November annually). Put simply, One Health is the connection between the health of humans, the health of animals and the health of the environment. Governments as well as health and environmental research institutions worldwide are seeing the benefit of tackling our global health problems, particularly the problem of increasing infectious disease pandemics, using the One Health approach.
Indeed, Kyeema’s new strategic plan 2021-2026 involves a strengthened commitment to improve the health and prosperity of the marginalised communities using this approach – which we refer to as ‘One Welfare’.
As such, we seek to work with new partners and programs that improve One Health education and research. A specific offering is to support the delivery of context specific One Health curriculum to young minds with One Heath Lessons – an organisation that inspires children and adults around the world to value the interconnection between the health of people, animals and the environment with a vision to change societies to create a more sustainable planet.
This involves training volunteer university students from different medical, animal health and environmental science disciplines as certified Lessons Leaders.
In October, our Technical Manager and MEL Lead, Dr Eliza Smith (a veterinarian by training), piloted our first COVID-19 themed One Health Lesson called ‘Outbreak: One World, One Health’ at East Brisbane State School. She was joined by our veterinary student interns from the University of Queensland, Althea Wang and Eunseo Oh to lead students from Grade 2 and Grade 6 in learning about key concepts including species, zoonotic disease, mutation and vaccine development and how they are critical in understanding One Health in action.
We would like to thank East Brisbane State School Principal Lauren Sturges, teachers and students for supporting the first ever One Health Lesson in Queensland, Australia. We are also grateful to Dr Deborah Thomson (Founder and Director of One Health Lessons) for all the work she puts in to growing this movement worldwide. We look forward to finding opportunities to grow our reach together in our core countries of operation and high need communities in 2023.
If you would like more information about One Health Lessons curriculum and potential programs, please connect with Dr Smith and Dr Thomson through kyeema@kyeemafoundation.org / Deborah.Thomson@OneHealthLessons.org