INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana University Center for Global Health and the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare program will be presented with the Celebrating American Ideas award by the Sagamore Institute at the Indiana Conference on Citizenship on Monday, November 23.
Since 1989, Moi University School of Medicine and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya, and a consortium of North American academic health centers led by Indiana University School of Medicine have worked together to deliver health services, conduct health research, and develop leaders in health care for both North America and Africa. The institutional partners are collectively named the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare. Working with Kenya’s Ministry of Health, AMPATH aims to develop an integrated health care delivery system that addresses the medical and social determinants of health. Serving a population of 3.5 million people in western Kenya, AMPATH aspires to reconstitute patients’ lives, not just their health.
The Sagamore Institute, an Indianapolis-based think-tank formed in 2004, created the award to honor those who inspire Hoosiers by putting their vision to work. The first Celebrating American Ideas award was presented to the Navajo Code Talkers in 2010.
“The award demonstrates the significant role that AMPATH has played in national and international global health circles,” said Jay Hein, president of the Sagamore Institute. “The Conference on Citizenship is dedicated to Hoosiers who make the world a better place through their service, and no one does it better than AMPATH.”
The Celebrating American Ideas award will be presented by Jim Morris, vice chairman of Pacers Sports and Entertainment and former executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme.
The conference, to be held at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, also will include the first-ever convening of recipients of the Sagamore of the Wabash, an award given by the governor to people that demonstrate exemplary contribution to the community. At the luncheon, Governor Mike Pence will celebrate their citizen service, call them to action, and challenge them to inspire the next generation with their citizenship stories.
After the luncheon, there will be a forum featuring global (AMPATH) and local (Indy Hunger Network) success stories to determine the ingredients for effective citizen action, strategic partnerships and innovative solutions to stubborn problems. Lieutenant Governor Sue Ellspermann has sanctioned the Conference on Citizenship as an official Indiana Bicentennial event.
About AMPATH
Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) was created in 2001 in response to the HIV crisis in western Kenya. It is built on a partnership between Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and the Moi University School of Medicine in Eldoret, Kenya, and a consortium of North American academic health centers, led by Indiana University. The partners joined forces to create one of Africa’s largest, most comprehensive and effective HIV/AIDS management and control systems. AMPATH is a formal partner with the United States government through a $75 million grant from USAID and has continually transitioned its successful HIV approach into a more comprehensive primary health care system. With a tri-partite mission of care, education, and research, AMPATH provides healthcare services to a population of 3.5 million people in western Kenya and focuses on improving the health and wellbeing of the entire population—leaving no one behind. For more information about the AMPATH program, contact Megan Miller at mejmille@iu.edu.
About Sagamore Institute
Sagamore Institute is an Indianapolis-based nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy research organization. Their mission is to research, analyze and respond to difficult issues, to serve as a meeting place for disparate groups, and to offer wise counsel for a world in progress. Sagamore is an action-oriented think tank. Through a distributed network of scholars and strategic partners, the charge is to make government policy smarter, to strengthen civil society, and to advance free enterprise at home and abroad. For more information about the Sagamore Institute, contact Jay Hein at jay@sagamoreinstitute.org.