Cebu and the Social Franchising Conference

I recently spent a week in the Philippines for the Global Conference on Social Franchising for Health. I was honored to have the opportunity to work with the University of California, San Francisco to plan and implement this exciting conference.

Quick definition: “A social franchise is a network of private sector healthcare providers that are linked through agreements to provide socially beneficial health services under a common franchise brand.” (SF4Health)

The number of social franchises for health have significantly increased since the 1990s, with over 90 reported franchises as of 2014. These franchises network over 95,000 private physicians, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, and health workers in over 40 countries. This year, the University of California, San Francisco’s Global Health Group (GHG) brought together over 160 social franchise practitioners, implementers, policymakers, funders, and researchers in an exciting conference held in Mactan Island, Philippines.

The Philippines has among the highest concentration of Social Franchising organizations of any Middle Income Country, and with PhilHealth’s work to expand the range of services it covers, while collaborating with social franchise programs to expand access to health services in areas that are underserved by the public health system. It is a leader in coordination between the public and private sectors for many health services.

That’s the academic introduction. Now onto the personal story side. In the short, it was an incredible conference in an absolutely stunning setting! Our team spent months of careful, dedicated work preparing for this conference so it was a true joy to see it successfully implemented and see so much learning and excitement for future projects come out of the conference.

I worked hard while I was there, I promise!

Beautiful sunset.

Visiting the local fruit stands and trying things like durian (bleh) and mangosteen (YUM!) for the first time.

One of the many adorable towel creations left by the kind hotel staff.

A trip to Well Family Midwife Clinic prior to the official start of the conference. This is the birthing room. It was an impressive clinic!

Participants brought so much energy and enthusiasm. Through presentations and networking, we shared knowledge, experience, successes and challenges that will strengthen health service offerings through social franchising.

Our trip on the way home included a 10-hour layover in South Korea, so we took advantage of the Korea Free Transit Tours offered at the airport. Our first trip out was into Seoul, starting at the Gyeongbokgung, the largest of the Five Grand Palaces.

We stopped at a temple in the heart of the city on our way to lunch.

Our traditional lunch of bibimbap was followed by a super fast look-about at Insa-dong, the famous and traditional shopping street.

I have really got to learn to use chopsticks… It’s a good thing I have gracious colleagues.

Because we had such a long layover, we were able to sneak in a second trip, this time into Incheon. We started by crossing the Incheon Grand Bridge, the 6th largest bridge in the world and the largest and longest bridge in Korea. We then visited the Heungryunsa Temple, founded in 1376.

We also visited the Koren War Memorial, commemorating General McArthur’s landing at Incheon to take back the southern peninsula.

We packed a lot into this trip, from San Francisco to the Philippines to South Korea and back. I am grateful for such supportive and adventurous colleagues, and such a chance to learn during this trip in so many different ways.

 

Cantor Center Sculpture Tour

One of the advantages of being on an academic campus is the wide variety of cultural and learning opportunities (many of them for free!). We recently organized a sculpture tour of the outdoor sculptures at the Cantor Center for our residence hall. I highly recommend this tour. Our guide hit just the right level of technical information with the “oh, cool!” factor, balancing the tone for those who have an art background and those (like me) who know next to nothing about art.

Our tour guide walked us through the sculptures, telling stories and providing background as we moved from one sculpture to the next. We started at “Stone River” sculpture by Andy Goldsworthy. He is known for creating ephemeral works of art that are intentionally washed or worn away. The stones of the “Stone River” are placed together without mortar, built from original Stanford limestone recovered from buildings that were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.

We then moved into the Rodin garden where our guide showed us how Rodin reused shapes and molds that he liked, showing us how the leg of one sculpture was duplicated in the leg of another.

Rodin liked this leg and foot so much that he used it in multiple sculptures.

Rodin worked in clay, sculpting small models that could be scaled into casts for what we all think of as the traditional bronze sculpture of Rodin. The French government now owns Rodin’s casts and has limited the number of new casts that can be made to a total of 12 for each cast. Stanford has #5 of the “Doors of Hell,” which is a fascinating concept to think about maintaining value.

When Dan asked why some of the body parts were out of scale, our tour guide smiles mysteriously and said, “Hold that thought…we’ll see in a minute.” After examining more similarities and re-used casts on the “Doors of Hell,” we moved inside to review a perfect-to-scale sculpture of a male model, Rodin’s first sculpture. Because he was an unknown name at the time, he was accused of casting a human model, instead of creating the sculpture from scratch. He vowed at that time never to create a perfectly-t0-scale sculpture again.

We moved on to more modern sculptures and one that came into its true essence at Stanford. This outdoor sculpture, one that you can walk through, was meant to sit outside. The iron is meant to oxidize in the elements, creating its unique color and texture. But before coming to live at Stanford, it had been housed inside. The experience of winding through the structure is pleasantly disorienting, only really getting the full picture from above.

So go. Visit the Cantor Center for the Arts and take advantage of one of its free tours. Click here to learn more.

Hart + Connolly Wedding

Pinterest ain’t got nothin’ on the Hart-Connolly wedding. Every detail (down to socks for tired dancing feet in wedding color boxes decorated with a little gem and a s’more bar) was covered. I challenge you, reader, to find a detail that was not done (plus a little something extra). Check it out from pre-wedding pampering to post-ceremony dancing:

Getting our nails done up.

Rehearsal dinner at Wilderness Ridge.

Hair and make-up done.

At the church and about to get into THE dress.

With the beautiful bride.

The stunning matron of honor writing the wedding toast, which could be catalogued as one of the best I’ve ever heard.

Getting ready to walk down the aisle at St. Paul’s.

Marriage!

My hottie husband / My Daniel from Northeast Ohio.

Horse-drawn carriage ride through the Haymarket after the ceremony.

Wedding party photobooth fun!

More photobooth fun!

It was a true honor to celebrate with Natalie and Daniel, not only Natalie’s good sense to choose a man named Daniel from Northeast Ohio, but their love and respect for one another and the start of their married lives together. And the added bonus of this event was that it brought together some of my all-time favorite people all in one place, maximizing the opportunity to actually see all these beautiful people and to get recharged from the joy of being together.

It also gave us the opportunity to see many of our Midwest family and neighbors, a much needed trip that we would not have scheduled without the good excuse to celebrate with Natalie and Daniel. And it allowed for a trip to the family farm, one of my favorite places on this earth, and the place where I always leave feeling truly loved, capable, and ready for the next challenge.

Cousins on the farm with Norm.

The family farm = joy.

We even got a chance to see this lovely sister from another mother. This visit officially allows me the chance to tell her will-be-born-in-February baby that I first met him/her when they were -3 months old.

Tiny pregnant woman. (Why I’m pointing at the hard-to-make-out baby bump.)

The weekend was packed (I don’t believe we could have squeezed in one more activity), and just what I needed.

Congratulations, Natalie and Daniel! Here’s to a lifetime together!