Gender

We tried to recruit more female mentors but were not as successful in 2021 as we were in the two previous years: Women now represent 33% and men 67% of all our current mentors (from an almost 1:1 M-F ratio in 2019 and 2020). Among mentees, the gender distribution is 22% males and 78% females. The gender disparities among and within generations reflect the opportunities and increasing success of young female students entering and working in the field of Global Health and Human Development.

Geographic distribution

From 2017 to 2021, our 64 mentors and 261 mentees and former mentees (Multipodians) were born or are currently residing in 107 different countries

• East and South Africa:  Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia

• Central and West Africa: Benin, Cameroon, DR Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, the Gambia, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan,Togo

• North Africa: Algiers, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco

• Middle East: Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen  

• North America: Canada, Mexico, United States, United States-Mexico Border

• Central America: Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama

• South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru

• English, French, and Dutch Caribbean: the Bahamas, Barbados, Curaçao, Haiti, Jamaica, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago

• Western Europe:  Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland

• Northern Europe: Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom

• Southern Europe: Croatia, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Macedonia, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey

• Eastern Europe and Caucasus: Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Poland, Romania

• Central Asia:  Afghanistan, Belarus, Kazhakstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan

• South Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka

• South East Asia: Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Vietnam

• East Asia: China, Hong Kong (CN), Japan, Singapore

• Oceania: Australia, New Zealand

Academic and Professional Background

MultiPOD is not just a health-related program. Although we have students and professionals working in the fields of medicine and public health, our 250(+) mentees, and 60(+) mentors have been trained in more than 70(+) academic disciplines. The common link, however, is that all participants in our program are already working or committed to work in global health, human development, and environmental protection. The following list is not exhaustive but gives an idea of the diversity and multidisciplinary strength of MultiPOD:

Health Disciplines: Global Health, International Health, Public Health, Microbiology, Pharmacy, Pharmacology, Health Economics, Health Systems, Food and Nutrition, Statistics, Virology, Medical Anthropology, Forensics.

Social Sciences: Economics, Political Science, Sociology, History, Geography, Law, Criminology, Anthropology.

Policy and Management: International Development, Management, Policy Analysis, Finance, Innovation and Management, Governance and Leadership, Business Administration, Business Management and Marketing, Drug Regulation, Project Plannin, International Affairs, Monitoring and Evaluation.

Information, Education and Communication:  Informatics, Multilingual Communication, Communication and Media, Education, Computer Science, Bilingual Interpretation, Curriculum Design.

Clinical Disciplines: Dentistry, Nursing, Medicine, Surgery, Psychology, Anesthesiology, Oncology, Physical Therapy, Dietetics, Psychiatry, Sexology, Infectious Diseases, Healthcare Navigation.

Ecological Disciplines: Environmental Studies, Botany, Life Sciences, Zoology, Veterinary Medicine, Parasitology, City Resilience, Disaster Preparedness.

Basic Sciences and Research: Tumor Biology, Biomedical Sciences, Genetics, Biochemistry, Cognitive Brain Science, Neuroscience, Systems Research, Bioengineering, Genomics, Biology, Transdisciplinary Research Methods, Epidemiology, Pharmacy, Robotics, Mathematics.

Other: Music, Engineering, Architecture, Literature, Design and Innovation, Innovation and Applied Technology.

Languages

Since the beginning of the program in 2017, MultiPOD has had a multilingual cadre of mentees and mentors who are native speakers of almost 70 languages. Although English is our working language, 90% of our mentees and mentors in the last five years are fluent in at least two languages, and of these, about one third speak three or more languages. These include the six official languages of the United Nations: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish, and other Asian, European, African, and American languages.

 Albanian, Amazigh, Amharic, Aramaic, Asante, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cantonese Catalan, Chichewa, Croatian, Danish, Dari, Dutch, Ewe, Fante, Farsi, Finnish, Ga, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Igbo, Igede, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kinyarwanda Krobo, Marathi, Mina, Nepali, Norwegian, Odia, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Siswati, Slovenian, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tajik, Tamil, Telugu, Tigrinya, Turkish, Twi, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Wolof, and Yoruba.

Generations

A nice to know fact: Our mentors and mentees at MultiPOD represent five generations:

Silent generation (1928-1945): Program Coordinator and one Main Mentor

Baby Boomers (1946-1964): Most mentors

Generation x (1965-1980): Many mentors and one mentee

Millennials (Generation y) (1981-1996): Almost all mentees and twelve new mentors this year

Generation z (1997- 2010s): Our four youngest mentees

(There’s a new Generation born in the 2010s that will start joining MultiPOD in the 2030s)

Our five MultiPOD generations indicate that we are moving through time and that MultiPOD has already started a legacy cascade, one legacy after the next.

MultiPOD´s Evolution

MultiPOD Mentoring was created in 2016 as a mentoring program for young people working and studying Global Health and rapidly evolved into a program for Global Health and Human Development. Because of the diversity of disciplines represented by our mentees and mentors, MultiPOD has now become a multidisciplinary mentoring program of and for all generations interested and working in Global Health, Human Development, and Environmental Protection; in other words, from 2022 on, we will be working for the total health and welfare of our planet, i.e., Planetary Health and Welfare. And our mentees will be in charge; hence, the world is in good hands.

List of Mentors and Mentees

List of mentees and mentors (and countries of birth) participating in the Class of 2021.