Health Partnerships engage in Science Museum ‘Lates’ 

On 11 September the Science Museum’s ‘Journey of Life’ Lates in London explored the enormous progress made in health around the world and how society might tackle the next big challenges. Two Health Partnerships working within THET programmes had the amazing opportunity to showcase their work and demonstrate the value of health partnership working, including use of innovations to improve health and well-being. 

Science Museum Lates bring together a host of themed talks, workshops and activities based around a variety of science-related subjects, attracting 3,000 visitors. This Lates event hosted by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a valued supporter of THET, asked questions including: How do we ensure everyone gets the best start in life? How can we ensure equitable access to healthcare, and fight the deadliest diseases? THET engaged with this event to highlight the value of global health and investment in health. 

Eye Health Africa showcased achievements and demonstrated innovative new technology including Arclight and OUI Smart Eye Cameras to use in rural settings where millions have never had an eye test. Activities included a mini quiz with a focus on child eye health, in particular Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), an eye disease that can affect premature babies, and Retinoblastom, a rare form of eye cancer that can affect young children. The organisation highlighted challenges in lower- and middle-income countries. 

Primrose Magala, Founder of Eye Health Africa, said: “It was the first Lates event and experience for all of us and an incredible fun-filled, shared learning opportunity for us and the visitors who participated in our activities. One participant failed the colour vision test – he was advised to seek expert advice. 

“We wanted to use the opportunity to share learning and exchange knowledge with support from Global Health Partners and NHS expert volunteers, inspiring more engagement and participation locally and globally. At the same time, we aimed to sensitise the public on preventable eye conditions and highlight some of the innovations making a difference in lower- and middle-income countries. Through platforms and activities such as this, we hope to attract and engage more strategic leaders and partners, so that support and resources can be made available by decisionmakers and governments to scale up and accelerate development efforts to prevent and reduce avoidable blindness.” 

Also in attendance was Imperial College London. Alison Perry, who is a midwife and women’s health researcher based at The George Institute for Global Health at Imperial College London, took the opportunity to showcase some of the organisation’s global twinning work with Uganda, that has been supported by THET. The theme of global health inequalities in maternal health inspired Alison and her team to develop a radio show concept called HER (Health Equality Radio) Radio 5XX Live from Kampala!  For this, the team staged a chat show with a panel of three midwifery guests from Kampala, with Alison as host. Members of the public attending were able to see, by screen, the conversation and were invited to join the show by phones, behind a large radio prop, to listen or share insights and questions. The focus of the discussion related to what health inequality looks like in the Ugandan setting and to consider how inequality plays out in the midwifery profession and the impact on childbirth.  

Alison said: “HER Radio was lots of fun and gave my Ugandan colleagues and I the idea to continue conversations around maternal health and midwifery with more episodes in the future. It was a great way to engage with members of the public through the creative, but familiar platform of radio. Now, we are undertaking qualitative focus group research with women about vaginal health and we’ve found that women really want to share their voices and experiences in health (funded by THET), so watch out for future episodes of HER Radio in the future!” 

Eye Health Africa is hoping to raise £2,500 to conduct community screening activities (focusing on child eye health and school eye health) in rural communities in Eastern Uganda using donated Arclights from World Cancer Hope USA-UK and KnowTheGlow. You can find out more at www.eyehealthafrica.org