The Equity Initiative

👉 APPLY NOW!  📚 Enhance your expertise in health equity and social justice through comprehensive, hands-on training and engagement with leading experts. Collaborate with a diverse community, and partner across sectors to amplify your efforts towards health equity. Address the range of factors affecting health and equity with comprehensive participation.  This fully funded fellowship enables you to fully immerse yourself in this transformative learning experience. Don’t miss this chance to make a significant impact. Apply now!  #TheEquityInitiative #Healthequity #Fellowship  #Joinus #Fellowsspeak #socialchange #changemakers 

🚀 We would like to share the story of Bich Ngoc, a Fellow from our 2022 Cohort.  Ngoc questioned her eligibility before applying, given her lack of a background in health. However, after a year of contemplation, she applied for the fellowship program, and it was the best step toward personal and professional growth. Ngoc's work centers on advocating for placemaking, green public spaces, and promoting good, clean, fair food for all. Through the EI Fellowship, she has applied health equity theories in practical settings, notably participating in UN-Habitat's "I am a city changer" campaign. This initiative aims to enhance public access to green spaces for better health and well-being. 🌱 The fellowship has provided Ngoc with invaluable knowledge, experiences, and a network of talented individuals from across the globe. It has empowered her to continue lifelong learning and pay it forward to the community. To future applicants, embrace the challenge and seize this opportunity. You are worth it! 🌟 📍 Harvard University, Global Learning Session #HealthEquityInitiative #EIFellowship #HealthEquity #SustainableFood #LifelongLearning #Fellowship #Fellowsspeak

Why does understanding health equity for professionals outside of the health or medical field beneficial? EI Fellow, Ana Santos (2018, Philippines) shares how understanding health equity has helped her tell better stories as an investigative journalist.     "Many people read the term 'health equity' and hesitate to apply for the EI Fellowship because they don't work in health. But health equity is broad. What area do you work in and how does your work in journalism fit into health equity and the EI community?"     I am an investigative journalist and storyteller. My calling is to bear witness. While I am not a health practitioner, my reporting on gender and sexuality rights exposes how uneven public health policies impact people's right to work, make decisions about their bodies, and own their future.     As an Equity Initiative Fellow, I learned the intersecting impact of social determinants on equitable healthcare access. Factors like income, socio-economic class, education, and gender shape access and perceptions of healthcare. For instance, during our project to expand PhilHealth Insurance under Universal Health Care, we found many urban poor didn't enroll due to the belief they were excluded because of their economic status. Making healthcare accessible means changing perceptions and ensuring everyone recognizes healthcare as their right. 😔     As a journalist, understanding health equity means viewing public health through an intersectional lens. Race, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status often intersect, creating compounded barriers. Highlighting these intersections helps audiences and policymakers understand why some communities face more health challenges. In short, understanding health equity helps journalists tell better stories—stories rooted in lived experiences that simplify statistics and resonate with audiences. These stories lead and inform legislators to draft thoughtful and inclusive policies, crucial steps toward creating fair, just, and equitable healthcare solutions. Connect with Ana Santos (2018, Philippines): IG: @AnaAllSaints | @Sex.and.Sensibilities  FB: Ana P. Santos  TikTok: @Sex.and.Sensibilities #TheEquityInitiative #Fellowship #Fellowsspeak #HealthEquity #Journalism #SocialDeterminants #EICommunity #HealthcareAccess

As an EI Fellow, you will embark on a transformative journey, gaining invaluable knowledge, skills, and experience that will empower you to lead with empathy, compassion, and innovation.    APPLY NOW!    #TheEquityInitiative #healthequity #Fellowship #joinus #Fellowsspeak #socialchange #changemakers #timorleste #cambodia #laos #brunei #socialjustice 

What has your Equity Initiative Fellowship experience been like? Carmeneza Dos Santos Monteiro (2018, Timor-Leste) speaks about her experience below:    “Being an Equity Initiative Fellow is like landing in the ocean of deep and multifaceted knowledge, skills, experiences & connections. You can learn many types of knowledge in this place – this is a place where you meet medical doctors, scientists, journalists, politicians, teachers, activists and influencer and many more. It brings you to places so you can link and test theories and hypotheses to real life experiences. The fellowship is wealthy in so many aspects, and it makes you grow as person and as a global citizen - if you are someone who loves learning through experience and traveling, this fellowship is for you – visa and long-distance traveling can be a hassle, but remember, the best fish are only found in the deep sea 😊”    #TheEquityInitiative #healthequity #Fellowship #joinus #Fellowsspeak #socialchange #changemakers #timorleste 

With applications in full swing, what did the Fellows experience at Global Learning II in Boston? On top of the classroom style lectures, Angie (Yusridar Mustafa) shares a different side of GL II:   “I walked this morning to a ‘place of healing’ Grasped a beautiful story from a ‘place of dignity’ I feel so loved In a ‘place of hope.’”   - A poem by Yusridar ‘Angie’ Mustafa, 2024 Fellow from Indonesia   What did the Fellows experience in Boston? Full story here: https://lnkd.in/gfcFkGhU APPLY NOW: https://lnkd.in/gHMTMufc

What was your experience of the Equity Initiative?   May Lyar Soe- 2023 EI Fellow, Myanmar "The fellowship was so much more than what was described in the brochure… What truly stood out for me, though, were the moments of reflections after each learning session and the meaningful conversations with Fellows throughout the year. Sharing perspectives and hearing about each other's diverse personal and professional experiences helped us grow, both individually and as a collective of changemakers dedicated to promoting health and social equity in our communities and beyond. I joined the fellowship seeking a learning experience, and I left with not only new knowledge but also a network of incredibly dedicated and humble individuals from Southeast Asia and China. The experience has helped me see why we are all driven to do what we do, and has inspired me with new ideas and potential collaborations for improving the health of displaced people along the Thai-Myanmar border." Manila Prak- 2023 EI Fellow, Cambodia If you only expect to explore more about health equity through this program, then the Equity Initiative may not be the right program for you. EI is beyond leadership in health equity—it has the power to transform your entire life, reshape your thinking, alter your worldview, and deepen your connections with others. By the end of the program, you’ll emerge as a different person. APPLY NOW: https://lnkd.in/gHMTMufc #TheEquityInitiative #healthequity #Fellowship #joinus #Fellowsspeak

Recently, I was asked “How did you find your purpose?” The first thing I wrote down when I was thinking this through was: purpose is not something to be found, it’s something to be lived. For most of us, many of the dots that constitute a purpose are connected backwards, because most times we don’t actually have full control over where life takes us, as was the case for me. My first encounter with inequity was when I was four years old. I was sitting in a car stopped at a traffic light in urban Guangzhou, China, when a little girl about my age knocked on the car window. She was begging for food. She looked straight at me, her mom had her hand stretched out to passersby who would not see them. My four year old body felt rage and my mind couldn’t comprehend why we were living two starkly different realities. It was my first memory of injustice: That’s not fair - why do I have what I need, and why can’t she have that too, when there is more than enough to go around?  The power of one is small and beautiful, but it is through the power of many that systemic barriers to equity can be torn down. That’s what Equity Initiative has been for me: it is the coming together of many ‘powers of one’ to form a power of many who share a common purpose. It is both a space and a community where I found I didn’t need to explain my ‘why’ so much, simply because on some fundamental level this purpose is already shared. In interactions among Fellows, purpose is not so much found but renewed, and reified through bonds and relationships that sharpen the ‘how’ and the ‘what’.  About a year after my graduation from the fellowship, I left my role in the Singapore public service in 2023 and founded the Equitech Collective to build transformative technology for a more equitable future. Equitech’s mission is to catalyze systemic breakthroughs that improve equitable access to health and education through the innovative use of technology. A number of our founding projects involved EI Fellows, and leveraged skills and experience of product engineers from the tech industry. Our purpose is never quite “found” - it continues to be lived everyday, expanding and evolving through collaborations and learning, failures and successes along the way. Like the Equity Initiative, it is about the coming together of many ‘powers of one’, to form a more enduring ‘power of many’, to advance equity in the diverse and colourful region that is Southeast Asia. And hopefully, dear reader, you will come to be a part of this journey too. -Chi Ling Chan, 2022 EI Fellow, Singapore   Don’t miss the chance to hear more from Chi Ling at the Online Open House pt. 2 June 20, 3:30pm BKK // 4:30pm SG REGISTRATION CLOSES 19 JUNE: https://lnkd.in/ga3bxqHt See more: https://lnkd.in/guj_xz68 #TheEquityInitiative #EquityInitiative2024 #healthequity #Changemakers #fellowshipapplications #fellowsspeak #purpose #findingpurpose

In a world with so many pressing issues, how do you steer the conversation to include the Southeast Asian perspective? Rennta Chrisdiana, is taking that step by representing the Equity Initiative on the Global Atlantic Fellows Advisory Board (GFAB)! GFAB’s role at the Atlantic Institute is to help shape programming, communications, and decision-making. We asked Rennta about why she wanted to join:  Why did you apply to be part of GFAB?  GFAB can help bridge EI Fellows’ perspectives to the Atlantic Institute to amplify their voice, needs, and also their ideas, resources, and contributions for the Global Atlantic Fellows communities.     How do you think being in GFAB will help you, our EI community, or Atlantic?  The Equity Initiative and the Atlantic Fellows have given me a sense of home, and a safe and secure place for me to grow. I want to be an active member of the family and give back to this community, and that’s why I applied for GFAB.   How do you foresee EI and Atlantic becoming more integrated in the future?  As Equity Initiative Fellows, we can wear 2 hats- as Equity Initiative Fellows as well as Atlantic Fellows. As Equity Initiative Fellows, we can focus on collaborating on national and regional issues in Southeast Asia, and as Atlantic Fellows, we can focus on global issues. As the world becomes more interdependent on each other, local, regional, and global need to be more integrated to achieve our shared goals for fairer, healthier, more inclusive societies.  If you want to know more about being an EI Fellow and an Atlantic Fellow, Rennta will speak more about this at the Online Open House pt. 2 REGISTER NOW ---> https://lnkd.in/ga3bxqHt

Applications Open Today! 🎉 The Equity Initiative Fellowship Program is NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS! Join a nurturing community of health equity champions and increase TODAY! APPLY NOW! #EIApplicant #Recruitment #TheEquityInitiative #fellowshipprogram2025 #EquityInitiative2025