The inaugural University of Maryland School of Medicine Global Health Alliance (UMGHA) Charity Golf Event held on October 30 at Waverly Woods Golf Course in Marriottsville, Maryland was not just a sporting event.
It was more about bringing together a shared commitment to global health, international collaboration and investment in the next generation of researchers.
The event convened University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) faculty and staff, community sponsors, golfers and international partners, including ambassadors from Kenya and Uganda, to support UMGHA’s mission of strengthening global health research and building lasting partnerships between the University of Maryland and institutions around the world.
According to UMGHA event coordinator Dr. Cathy Mwangi, the event highlighted the importance of investing in researchers and creating opportunities for scientific collaboration, training and exchange. It also marked an important step in building a philanthropic community committed to advancing global health research and supporting scientists whose work addresses critical health challenges.
“The Global Health Alliance is really about international relations,” Mwangi said, explaining how her experience had exposed her to the reality of talented researchers whose promising work cannot move forward because of limited funding.
Mwangi emphasized the reality that “we can’t afford to support everyone” underscores the need to create additional opportunities for researchers and scientific collaboration.
Research and scientific capacity
The University of Maryland School of Medicine has a longstanding history of partnerships across Africa, including work in Kenya, Uganda and Malawi. Through the Global Health Alliance, the University seeks to build on these relationships by connecting its broad scientific and clinical expertise with the knowledge, leadership and priorities of international partners.
The university leadership underscored the importance of these partnerships and the value of investing in people as a foundation for sustainable global health progress, highlighting the school’s contributions to vaccine development, health workforce development, trauma care and surgery, among other areas, and emphasized the importance of sharing expertise across borders.
UMGHA co-director Dr. Megan Fitzpatrick announced the introduction of the Adopt-a-Researcher Initiative which seeks to mobilize resources to facilitate long-term, impactful investments in research and scientific capacity. The initiative is designed to connect donors directly with the researchers benefiting from their support.
Rather than directing contributions into a general funding pool, the program will provide supporters with opportunities to learn about the individual researchers, their projects, their international collaborators and the communities their work serves.
“We want our donors, our sponsors, and our supporters to really know who has received the money, who at Maryland and who our international partners are that are benefiting from your support,” Fitzpatrick explained.
Through this approach, the Alliance aims to make philanthropy more personal and transparent while building meaningful connections between supporters and the scientific work they help advance.
Strong relationships
The participation of ambassadors of Kenya and Uganda highlighted the Alliance’s commitment to international collaboration. They committed to support for the initiative and emphasized the importance of strengthening relationships between the University of Maryland School of Medicine and African institutions.
Kenya’s ambassador David Kerich noted that the initiative offers opportunities for expanded research partnerships, faculty and student exchanges, and greater collaboration between researchers in Kenya and the UMSOM. He also emphasized the importance of regional cooperation in addressing infectious diseases and other health challenges that cross national borders.
“Health is quite important. Kenya takes health very seriously and when friends like the University of Maryland come up with such a great initiative assisting researchers then we really have to support,” said ambassador Kerich.
“Researching on diseases that affect people around the world like cholera, malaria and now ebola is a noble cause that the Kenyan embassy supports.”
For Uganda’s ambassador Robie Kakonge, the value of international relationships and the potential for collaboration to support research, education and health initiatives is a critical element of health diplomacy that reflects a shared interest in connecting institutions, expertise and resources to address common challenges.
“Diseases know no borders and there are so many layers which require research,” said ambassador Kakonge.
“So we are looking at health security and how we begin to engage in a manner that we can take great responsibility in health.”
The inaugural tournament brought together 27 golfers representing Kenya, Uganda and the UMSOM. Team Kenya took first place, followed by Team UMSOM as runner-up and Team Uganda in third place. Closest-to-the-pin and longest-drive contests winners were also recognized in the men and women categories.
