Bainbridge Island Youth Partners In Health Engage Chapter Presents its Celebration of Education Fashion Show on Saturday, May 13th

Margaret Millmore | Posted on May 6, 2023 |

The Bainbridge Island Youth Chapter of Partners In Health Engage (BYPIHE) is throwing a Celebration of Education Fashion Show Saturday, May 13 from 2-3:30 pm at the Historic Lynwood Theatre.

Concessions will be available during the show as well as some exciting raffle items from local businesses. Buy your tickets here!

The event is a fundraiser for the Partners In Health-supported medical school in Rwanda: the University of Global Health Equity. The models on the runway will be outstanding students and teachers of the Bainbridge Island community, celebrating the power of education in our community and around the world. Join them to cheer for our exceptional students and teachers as they strut in solidarity with the students of Rwanda!

Bainbridge Island Youth Partners In Health Engage is a chapter of the grassroots global health organization, Partners In Health (PIH). As an Engage chapter, they advocate, educate, and fundraise for PIH, a non-profit organization that fights health disparities around the globe.

Bainbridge High School student and Community Liaison for BYPIHE, Madelyne Brown, has led fundraising efforts for the last two years alongside Team Coordinator, Gigi Hendrickson. “This position has had a huge impact on me. I’ve been able to see how my fundraising efforts have truly affected lives here and beyond,” Madelyne said. “On a broader level, we have given Partners in Health the resources it needs to build sustainable infrastructure. Last year we helped give resources to mothers and children in Sierra Leone to combat the maternal mortality rates there.”

As noted above, this year’s fashion show proceeds will benefit health education through support of a medical university in Rwanda. On a local level, BYPIHE has raised “awareness on varying public health issues,” Madelyne explained. “Being able to show community members the truth of how others are living has been impactful. It’s inspiring to see how they all care and have empathy for communities beyond. Members of the island have shown up for communities in need each year!”

Bainbridge Island Youth Partners in Health Engage Chapter - various events - images courtesy of Madelyne Brown — Bainbridge Island Youth Partners in Health Engage Chapter – various events – images courtesy of Madelyne Brown

Madelyne joined the group in her freshman year at BHS and has been involved ever since. “I joined because I have access to excellent healthcare in my life… This access is a privilege,” she said. Like her fellow BYPIHE members, she wants to make healthcare a human right rather than a privilege. “Instead of joining other groups fighting for global health equity, I joined Partners in Health because of their approach to administering healthcare. Rather than building a hospital and leaving, they stay with the community to help build it. They build sustainable healthcare infrastructure so that the communities can withstand without being dependent on Partners in Health.”

PIH Mission – Our mission is to provide a preferential option for the poor in health care. By establishing long-term relationships with sister organizations based in settings of poverty, Partners In Health strives to achieve two overarching goals: to bring the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need of them and to serve as an antidote to despair.

We draw on the resources of the world’s leading medical and academic institutions and on the lived experience of the world’s poorest and sickest communities. At its root, our mission is both medical and moral. It is based on solidarity, rather than charity alone.

When our patients are ill and have no access to care, our team of health professionals, scholars, and activists will do whatever it takes to make them well—just as we would do if a member of our own families or we ourselves were ill. – Home – Partners In Health (pih.org)