Fordham has received an $875,000 grant from the North Shore-LIJ Health System and Lenox Hill Hospital to expand the University’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA).
The grant, which will fund IIHA over five years, is designed to support four initiatives and programs, including:
• student scholarships for the Master’s in International Humanitarian Action program offered in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS);
• student scholarships for North Shore-LIJ Health System and Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine personnel to attend the month-long International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance intensive programs, offered each June in New York and in Geneva each February. The scholarships are earmarked primarily for physicians, nurses and hospital administrators;
• funding to IIHA’s humanitarian field director to support work being done abroad in the institute’s Disaster Response Training Fund; and
• funding to support IIHA publications, an annual lecture on international humanitarian affairs and other initiatives as deemed relevant by the IIHA director.
IIHA offers international training for people working in the area of humanitarian relief. The institute has forged partnerships with relief organizations around the globe to offer rigorous academic and training courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels.
Students earn diplomas in humanitarian assistance, action and leadership at Fordham and through courses in locations throughout the world, including India, Kenya, Sudan, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Turkey, Spain, Ireland and England.
IIHA has trained some 1,600 students from 133 nations, most of whom took a hiatus from aid work to acquire further training and preparedness.
“This is a validation by one of the largest healthcare system in the United States of the important work that the IIHA is doing in the field of humanitarian assistance,” said Brendan Cahill, executive director of the institute. “The grant will allow us to offer more support to those who need training, as well as create opportunities for the Fordham community to interact with political and humanitarian actors.”
“I am pleased that we are able to support Fordham in such an important effort,” said Michael J. Dowling, GSS ’74, president and CEO of the North Shore-LIJ Health System. “Not only will our partnership enable more individuals to be trained to work in humanitarian relief and promote the IIHA’s programs and activities, it will allow North Shore-LIJ employees and medical students from the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine to further develop their skills as healthcare professionals and first responders.”
The bringing together of medically trained personnel with those who have been on the front lines of humanitarian crises, said Cahill, will also be helpful in identifying areas in which to further improve IIHA training.
The grant is to be overseen by representatives from Fordham’s IIHA, GSAS and North Shore-LIJ Health System.
“They are now an active partner in this aspect of our work at Fordham,” Cahill said.
