Today, The Geneva Learning Foundation launched a new set of “Teach to Reach Questions” focused on how health workers protect community health during extreme weather events. This initiative comes at a crucial time, as world leaders at COP29 discuss climate change’s mounting impacts on health.
As climate change intensifies extreme weather events worldwide, health workers are often the first to respond when disasters strike their communities. Their experiences – whether facing floods, droughts, heatwaves, or storms – contain vital lessons that could help others prepare for and respond to similar challenges.
Read the eyewitness report: From community to planet: Health professionals on the frontlines of climate change, Online. The Geneva Learning Foundation. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10204660
Why ask health workers about floods, droughts, and heatwaves?
“Traditional surveys often ask for general information or statistics,” explains Charlotte Mbuh of The Geneva Learning Foundation. “Teach to Reach Questions are different. We ask health workers to share specific moments – a time when they had to act quickly during a flood, or how they kept services running during a drought. These stories reveal not just what happened, but how people actually solved problems on the ground.”
The questions cover six key scenarios:
- Disease outbreaks during floods
- Health impacts of drought
- Care delivery during heatwaves
- Mental health support before, during, and after
- Maintaining healthcare access
- Quick action and local solutions to protect health
Each scenario includes detailed prompts that help health workers recall and share the specifics of their experience: What exactly did they do? Who helped? What obstacles did they face? How did they know their actions made a difference?
Strengthening local action: From individual experience to collective learning to protect community health
What makes Teach to Reach Questions unique is not just how they are asked, but what happens next. Every experience shared becomes part of a larger learning process that benefits the entire community.
“We don’t just collect these experiences – we give them back,” says Reda Sadki, President of The Geneva Learning Foundation. “Whether someone shares their own story or not, they gain access to the complete collection of experiences. This creates a virtuous cycle of peer learning, where solutions discovered in one community can help another on the other side of the world.”
The process unfolds in four phases:
- Experience Collection: Health workers share their stories through structured questions ahead of the live Teach to Reach event
- Live Event: During the Teach to Reach live event, Contributors who shared their experience are invited to do so in plenary sessions. Everyone can listen in – and join one-to-one networking sessions to learn from the experiences of colleagues from all over the world.
- Analysis and Synthesis: After the live event, the Foundation’s Insights team works with the Teach to Reach community to identify patterns, innovations, and key lessons
- Knowledge Sharing: Insights are returned to the community through comprehensive collections of experiences, thematic insights reports, and Insights Live sessions
Building momentum for Teach to Reach 11
These questions are part of the lead-up to Teach to Reach 11, scheduled for December 5-6, 2024. The experiences shared will inform discussions among the 23,000+ registered participants from over 70 countries.
“But the learning starts now,” emphasizes Mbuh. “Health workers who request their invitation today can immediately begin sharing and learning from peers. The earlier they join, the more they can benefit from this collective knowledge exchange.”
Why protecting community health against extreme weather events matters
As extreme weather events become more frequent and severe, the expertise of health workers who have already faced these challenges becomes increasingly valuable.
“These aren’t just stories – they’re a vital source of knowledge for protecting community health in a changing climate,” says Sadki. “By sharing them widely, we help ensure that health workers everywhere are better prepared when extreme weather strikes their communities.”
Health professionals interested in participating can request their invitation.
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Is your organisation interested in learning from health workers? Learn more about becoming a Teach to Reach partner.
Image: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2024