In December of last year I received an email from August. August is the executive director of Grounds For Health— a non-profit preventing cervical cancer in coffee growing communities. Within a month we were plotting a way to bring my approach to climbing, adventure, and risk together with their approach to cervical cancer prevention. In a video. What we created was just shown at Women Deliver — a heavy-hitter, international-impact-instigator veiled as a conference.
Climbing, on the surface, has nothing to do with cervical cancer prevention. But August Burns, Ellen Starr, and the team of change makers at Grounds For Health had a vision because of how they do the work they do. They go deep into rural coffee growing regions and implement low tech and low cost methods of screening and treatment that prevent the development of cervical cancer. They do it this way because this is what works. They train, support, and help establish programs in Tanzania to Costa Rica to Peru. And then they leave. Grounds for Health is focused on creating sustainable change. To do so they’ve had to constantly adapt and re-imagine their work to make it better able to live and flourish while they are on the ground and when a program transitions to independence. It’s no different from re-imagining an expedition or an objective to make it fit with the real terrain, conditions, or community around you. Take a New Approach, the video, is the outcome of our collaboration. It just showed in Kuala Lumpur and I’m honored to share it with you above. Visit their site http://www.groundsforhealth.org to learn more about their strong and inspiring work and the impact of the single-visit approach.