IMHER.net - Scholarship opportunities for participation in the upcoming Women Leaders in Global Health conference

SUMMARY: Do you have ideas to share with others about women’s health and/or women as health care leaders? Are you working in Africa or Asia? Would you be able to attend a global conference for female health care professionals to be held in Kagali, Rwanda this November? Can you make the case that you need financial support in order to attend it? If so, consider expanding your network and learning opportunities by applying for a full scholarship to attend the next “Women Leaders in Global Health” conference. Applications are relatively short, and are due by September 15 at the latest.

DETAILS

ORGANIZATION: This is funding for a conference held by the organization “Women Leaders in Global Health” (WLGH).

TYPE OF FUNDING: Full funding (transport, accommodation, and registration to the conference) to attend the 2019 Women Leaders in Global Health Conference to be provided by the WLGH.

WHEN/WHERE: The conference will be held in Kigali, Rwanda, Nov 9-10, 2019.

RESPONSIBILITIES: At the conference, scholarship recipients will be sharing their “personal experiences or research papers” (some through poster presentations.) Additionally, 18 applicants from the African region will be selected to give oral presentations.

INCLUDED PROFESSIONS: “Health researchers, young health service providers and young health program managers” (they also later emphasize wanting applications from different groups, including “home-based care practitioners, nurses, midwives, community health works, medical doctors, and others.”) Given the emphasis on wanting a diversity of professions involved, it seems like many doing MHM work are likely eligible.

INCLUDED REGIONS*: Full scholarships will be awarded to 108 African applicants and 40 Latin American and South Asian applicants.

INCLUDED AGES**: The description on the scholarship page says that the scholarships are for “young” people in the listed professions, but it does not specify a maximum age.

TOPICS***: See the full list of conference panels here. A subset of topics that seem particularly relevant for some working on MHM topics include:

Where do we stand with women’s health and gender equity 25 years after Beijing?
Innovations in health
Cultural Barriers to Women’s Health across Africa
Women affected by conflict and crisis
Gender inequities in access to health education
The role of art and artists in global health and women’s leadership
What we have learned from African history: Women’s leadership and the health sector.

TO APPLY: Find the application form here. As applications for funding go, this one is relatively short. The application consists of a 250 word abstract for what you would like to present at the conference, and answers to a few questions about your contributions to women’s health and leadership goals, along with a brief description as to why you will need financial support in order to attend. You will also need to provide three references and their contact information.

DEADLINE The final deadline is September 15, 2019. The website says that scholarship recipients will be notified by October 30, 2019.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Go to https://www.wlghconferences.org/abstracts

* IMHER NOTE ON REGION: Country of citizenship and country of residency are requested on the application; however, it is not clear to us whether residents of those regions who are not citizens are eligible for the scholarships or not. IMHER has requested clarification from WLGH, and we will post it here when if/when we hear back from them on this point.

**A SUGGESTION ON AGE REQUIREMENTS: Birth year has to be entered on the application, so they will know your age. However, we do not see a formal definition of “young” listed anywhere. Without further clarification, it would be our advice to apply the term “young” very, very broadly (as in, perhaps unless you have great grandchildren, let them rule you out, rather than just assume you are not qualified.)

*** A SUGGESTION ON TOPIC CONSIDERATIONS: Remember that the topics of individual papers and the stated topics of conference panels often diverge considerably in practice. To the extent feasible and accurate, try to make your topic seem relevant to something from their full list of panels. But even if it seems like the fit will be a bit of a stretch, it would be IMHER’s recommendation to consider applying anyway. (Remember: women tend to too often pull themselves out of the running relative to their male peers; if you want to attend, apply, and let them decide if it is a good fit for this year’s needs, rather than making the decision for them.)

WANT EDITING HELP? LET IMHER KNOW!

Given that we are based at a university, we know that an extra set of eyes can help to greatly improve everyone’s writing, all the more when English may be a second language for a writer. If you would like editing input on your application, please let IMHER know using this form after you have drafted your responses. To the extent that time allows, an IMHER student research assistant may be able to edit your proposal, using the editing guidelines given to Dartmouth’s writing tutors. As with any editing partnership, it would be entirely up to you as to whether you use any suggestions. As with everything at IMHER, we are here to support menstrual hygiene work, and there will never be a charge to users for any services we provide.

A VISUAL SUMMARY of CONFERENCE CONTENT – 2018 MEETINGS