When Aware We Care is a project that showcases animated stories to raise awareness of real-life, personal experiences of patients and physicians who encounter barriers common to public health care systems across the world. Through illustrated narratives, the project illuminates several barriers, including:
- Distance/Location/Transportation/Access
- Financial Constraints/Cost of Care/Insurance
- Health Professional Shortage
- Physician Burnout
- Health Literacy
- Communication/Language Barriers
- Health Care Inequities
This project is generously funded by SciCommMake 2022.
Who are we?
We are an international, interdisciplinary team of scientists and artists who are passionate about creating change in public health and who are funded by #SciCommMake 2022 for their theme of “Public Health for All”. This year #SciCommMake brings together artists and scientists who are “tasked with determining the best way to communicate the complexities of public health to diverse audiences in a way that will lead to more immediate, inclusive, and just access to services.”
Our team includes:
- Dr. Vivek Podder | a Physician, Clinical Researcher and Scientific Writer focused on ensuring optimized patient care through pursuing evidence-based medicine and the continuous improvement of health platforms from Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Mudathir Adewole | A postgraduate student at the Department of Chemical Pathology, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan. from Ibadan, Nigeria
- Sarah Buckius | An artist, engineer, and educator from Santa Cruz, California, USA.
What is our project about?
Our project aims to raise awareness of barriers to public health worldwide by collecting people’s true stories of how they have been affected by barriers to obtaining health care in their countries and communities. The stories are shared through animations on our website and other online platforms.
Why do we care about this?
Our passion for improving public health care has led us to recognize barriers in public health and work towards removing them so that everyone, regardless of their location or background, can cross the bridge to better health. Through #SciCommMake, we have united to share our experiences and learn from each other, gaining insight into the universal issues that impact public health care globally. As we raise awareness of these barriers, we are working to ensure that the bridge to better health is accessible to all. We have learned that, while diverse in the country of origin (Nigeria, Bangladesh, United States), there are universal issues that impact all of our countries. The more we discussed the differences and similarities, the more we were inspired to bring awareness to the BARRIERS to Public Health Care Worldwide.
Voices
The journey to getting this diagnosis was quite long. We had to save for 2 months to afford to pay for it.
Abeke
To get my treatment, I had to go to another country. To go to another country, I had to get a visa. To get to the hospital, I had to take 5 or 6 vehicles and travel 500 miles.
Abdur
Sometimes I know that my patients won’t get the tests they need because their insurance won’t cover it.
Physician, USA
HEALTH CONVERSATIONS: When Aware We Care 