21-Day Global Health Equity Challenge

Have you ever made a successful change in your life? Perhaps you wanted to exercise more, change jobs, or move to a new place?  Remember how that change required a lot of time and attention?  Change is hard. Creating effective social justice habits, particularly those dealing with issues of power, privilege, supremacy, and leadership in global health, is like any lifestyle change. Nonetheless, those of us engaged in global health programs, research, and education at UCSF are motivated to decolonize our work to realize an authentic and transformative vision of global health.

Setting our intentions and adjusting how we think about power and privilege is essential. It’s all about building new habits. Sometimes the hardest part is just getting started. The good news is, there’s a host of resources to help us become better informed so that we can be effective advocates and allies in our pursuit of authentic global health equity.

We have gathered a series of articles, poems, and videos that address coloniality, its legacies and attitudes that affect global health work. We hope this self-guided learning activity will increase awareness and deep thinking of our own work and inspire self-reflexivity around how we conduct our work.

All UCSF faculty, staff, and students are welcome to participate in this challenge, particularly those involved in global health work.

How it works

  • Commit to 21-days (January 18 - February 8) of learning-by-engaging with an open mind and an open heart.
  • Sign up here to officially join the challenge. You will receive a weekly reminder email for the next 3 weeks.
  • Each day, do one action to further your understanding of power, privilege, coloniality, supremacy, oppression, and equity.
  • Dedicate a set amount of time to read, react, watch, listen, engage, connect, or act.
  • In addition, participate in self-reflection by answering some of the questions posted in the weekly email.
  • At the end of the 21-day challenge, consider how you can apply learned tools and new perspectives into your daily global health work.

FAQs

This challenge was put together by the UCSF Decolonizing Global Health Working Group, members of the IGHS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee, and members of the Bixby Center’s GH Equity taskforce. This challenge was inspired by 21-day equity challenges at other academic institutions. We think understanding coloniality, white privilege and white supremacy is a powerful lens into the complexities of doing global health.

Music speaks

We have started a curated playlist about liberation and legacies of colonialism and oppression.

This list is a work in progress. If there is a song that speaks to you about this topic, or if you think we are missing something, please email us.

We hope you enjoy it!