Understanding ‘Stories Beneath the Numbers’.

Since 2011, the Boston University Program for Global Health Storytelling has combined the expertise of public health experts and journalists to deliver far-ranging conferences and symposia on issues ranging from natural disasters and endemic diseases to quiet, ongoing crises such as child marriage, gender-based violence, and the efficacy of foreign aid.

This year’s event, “Ending AIDS: The Politics of Possibility,” will examine the much-heralded successes of the fight against HIV/AIDS as well as the lingering issues that hinder the best efforts of health workers to stem new infections. The discussion will touch on the multiple hurdles—shifting donor priorities, faulty supply chains, extreme poverty, and the many layers of stigma and discrimination that influence local laws, social norms, and individual behavior—that persist even in the wake of global awareness campaigns and effective treatment regimens that have saved countless lives.

As part of SPH Narrative Month, a panel of journalists, filmmakers, and public health experts in the field of HIV/AIDS will gather to share stories about human resilience, hard-won triumphs, and ongoing challenges over the last 35 years of this global pandemic.

This event is among the highlights of the ongoing collaboration between the College of Communication,  the School of Public Health, the Center for Global Health and Development, and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

The partnership, according to program organizers, is designed to mirror the symbiotic relationship between journalists and health workers. In crises, health workers need journalists to communicate accurate news to the appropriate audiences and journalists need health workers to provide them with news and opportunity to learn about the issues of concern. The program aims to “examine the separate, but sometimes overlapping missions of journalism and public health, and to investigate the connection between data collection, reporting and the delivery of health and humanitarian services.”