PHAM 2022 | My Green Diary
Seemab Mehmood, PHCA 2022
The journey begins with 20+ hours of travel from Lahore to Doha and finally to the destination city, Boston. It was quite exhausting. But I must say the invaluable experience waiting for me there was worth it.
It goes back to 2021 when I attended the PHAM 2021 virtually. I was not even aware of the word ‘Planetary Health’. But my innate passion thrills me to dive deep into it. So, Saulo Paulo Declaration, the PHA newsletter, and the PHCA program are some notable chains that build my way to PHAM 2022.
And I am happy to share a part of it, although the journey is still in progress and I am looking forward to cruising on it for so many years to come.
The Planetary Health Annual Meeting (PHAM) was hosted by the Planetary Health Alliance (PHA), based at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, MA, USA from October 31st to November 2nd, 2022. Having been selected as a Travel Scholar 2022, I got a chance to become a part of this huge gathering for 3 consecutive days. This experience helped me to explore this field, as I was expecting. But it exceeded my expectations when I eventually attended it. Out of many, some highlights of my prominent roles were:
[i] PHAM 2022 Side- Event Speaker
I have attended many National & International workshops as a side event speaker, but it was the very first time that I had physically experienced being present. My side event session was titled ‘Role of Youth in bridging the knowledge gap between Planetary Health & Pakistan’ in Room 217, Harvard Martin Conference Centre for one hour. I realised there were 2 journeys for this, one before that, and one after that. Before the session, I was alone and my thoughts were assisting me. But after the session, I learned so much new information that can help me expand upon my existing ideas. I am still working to process this new information so that my lessons learned and ideas innovated can become a part of CHALLENGES’ next edition.
[ii] PHCA 2022
My other role was that I was there as a Planetary Health Campus Ambassador 2022. It was wonderful to meet my fellows in person and have a good discussion with them. But after attending the meeting, the following keynotes/sessions were worth mentioning.
[a] PH Regional Hubs
I have attended the Regional Hub Meetings, and it was an amazing experience to work in small working groups (SWG) with people equally enthusiastic and equally involved in Planetary Health from all around the globe. Therefore, I had a great learning experience there and through this, I got to know about different existing Regional Hubs. I have since joined most of them on Hylo.
[b] Next Generation Network Meeting
This was the most exciting thing to me throughout the conference or even after the conference, as this is where my role and my passion stand. In the Next Gen Meeting, I was at a table with so many front-line warriors of this campaign. And by listening to such wonderful people there and their self-reflective key messages, I found it even more insightful about Planetary Health and its need to build the movement forward.
Besides that, Clinicians for Planetary Health is another topic I learned more deeply about at PHAM 2022. My discussion with respected C4PH Chair, Teddie Potter, still fascinates me often and her words echoed in my mind when she said that ‘… You can be a PLANETARY HEALTH LEADER in Pakistan, then!’. I still remember it and am equally passionate to turn it into reality.
Building the Field and Growing the Movement
Throughout the conference period, I was focused on how to fulfil the aim of building this movement and helping it to grow through my active role and engagement. However, I was unsure how to do this. After I got back to Lahore, the results start showing up: and these are some highlights of my projects initiated after PHAM 2022:
[i] Planetary Health Report Card
After PHAM 2022, I had a meeting with PHRC Co-director, Isabel Waters on Zoom and have started working on compiling the very first report card from Pakistan in the year 2023. Hopefully, once it completes, I will share it with the PH community on Hylo!
[ii] CHALLENGES Submission
After learning about so many new experiences, I decided to take forward my research passion, particularly in the PH field. Currently, I am working on two working papers for CHALLENGES submission. Both are focused on the key messages, highlighting present campaign challenges and their possible solutions on/about Planetary Health.
[iii] PH4A Workshop
I was already working on designing this workshop ‘Planetary Health For All [PH4A]’ even before the conference. And now, I have finalised it and am working on making this workshop designed primarily in three stages of inculcating all levels of medical students/healthcare practitioners. Hopefully, in the year 2023, I’ll take this workshop with increased visibility at my Campus, Fatima Jinnah Medical University, Lahore.
[iv] PH Connections
Currently, I am studying two focus areas of planetary health ‘Planetary Health Education’ & ‘Clinicians for Planetary Health’ through the available resources on the PH websites. Before I start advocating for them at my campus level, I am really excited to learn from the great minds leading this campaign, particularly the Respected C4PH Team member, Vanessa Goes. Additionally, the discussion I held with ‘Sunway Centre for Planetary Health [Malaysia] Leader, Jemilah Mahmood for starting and building my own Planetary Health Club in Pakistan is one of the fruitful connections I made at PHAM 2022. And I am very thankful to her for keeping me in touch via email for this! Lastly, my conversation with our very own, Dr. Samuel Myers on the 3rd and last day of the conference was a very valuable connection I made.
However, I still believe that this campaign needs more global attention and action to achieve the goal of ‘where all people thrive by protecting and regenerating Earth’s natural systems for generations to come will take all of us.’
I hope that this campaign is going to be a huge success in the year 2023 and beyond. I also look forward to reconvening with the Planetary Health community in Kuala Lumpur in 2024!
