September 28, 2009 – November 6, 2009

Against the Odds: Making a Difference in Global Health is a banner traveling exhibition highlighting the role of communities in improving health at home and all around the world. The exhibition explores the shared basic needs required for a good quality of life, including nutritious food and clean water, a safe place to live, and affordable health care.

Using historical and contemporary photographs, the banners tell stories of collaboration between families, scientists, advocates, governments, and international organizations, all taking up the challenge to prevent disease and improve medical care. The journey begins in Pholela, South Africa, where husband and wife team Sidney and Emily Kark developed a holistic approach to community health. Traveling on, the exhibition showcases the work of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee to teach mothers across the country Oral Rehydration Therapy, a lifesaving treatment for childhood diarrhea.

Other destinations include Brazil, where the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), or Landless Workers’ Movement is empowering poor citizens to begin subsistence farming on land left idle by agricultural corporations, and Central America, where the Pan American Health Organization launched Health as a Bridge to Peace to put an end to conflict and rebuild health care services.

As well as recent developments, the exhibition also focuses on historic campaigns that have changed today’s attitudes. The role of activists in the United States during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, for example, includes the work of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and the battles of Ryan White, the teenager who fought to attend school after contracting HIV through a blood transfusion.

This exhibition raises awareness of the sources and effects of health inequalities and invites each of us to join the global campaign for health and human rights. The experiences described here constitute a legacy of success, often based on the simplest means. Working together, we can make a world of difference.
An online web version of the exhibition, including opportunities to get involved, is available at http://apps.nlm.nih.gov/againsttheodds/index.cfm

This exhibition is brought to you by the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.