activities
Introduction
On this page, we share activities most valuable for our current and future partners, as well as visitors interested in collaborating on ongoing or new projects. Visit our programs to view videos and curricula — and consider participating in or sponsoring these programs within your educational or cultural center, organization, or community.
Connecting Cultures is GHEF’s flagship multimedia program fostering intergenerational, cross-cultural dialogue on psychosocial topics such as loneliness, intimacy, migration, work, and belonging. Originally piloted in Bonn under the title Drei Zusammen, it brought together native Germans and Arabic-speaking refugees through in-person debates, video episodes, and podcasts. The program has since developed The Speed of Change, with extensive preliminary research embedded in live, in-person dialogues held in Bonn, Düsseldorf (Germany), and Zurich (Switzerland), exploring how generational shifts influence values around work, stability, and social expectations. Designed for adaptability, these curated discussions serve as research-informed templates to build empathy and understanding, reduce prejudice, and catalyze participatory approaches to public health challenges within communities. Connectivity emerges naturally through dialogue when nurtured in safe, well-curated spaces.
Being Expressive Being
Being Expressive Being is a youth-centered project designed to introduce adolescents to trauma literacy through theater, film, and guided expressive practices
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Developed with Lebanese-Swiss director Yara Bou Nassar and Nigerian-Swiss psychologist Dr. Celestin Mutuyimana (University of Zurich), it builds on principles of safe, participatory exploration—helping young people understand how trauma can manifest in daily behaviors and fostering individualized, non-judgmental pathways toward resilience and support.
Let’s Talk is GHEF’s evidence-based initiative addressing suicide prevention through filmed modules and facilitated dialogue. Originating in Montana—one of the U.S. states with the highest adolescent suicide rates—it equips communities to confront stigma and encourages open discussions on depression and self-harm. In 2024, partnerships extended to Lausanne and Webster University Geneva to explore local adaptation. A facilitator booklet and licensing toolkit are underway to allow NGOs and academic partners to implement the program with contextual flexibility. This model prioritizes grassroots empowerment and narrative-driven mental health education to reduce isolation and promote early help-seeking.
Ghosts began as a theater project directed by Stefan Herrmann in Bonn, commissioned by GHEF to address psychological impacts among forcefully displaced Syrian families. It evolved into a participatory play, followed by structured workshops,and was ultimately adapted into the silent film Shadows with an original score by Luciano Chessa. Screenings and facilitated discussions have since taken place in Bonn, Berlin, San Francisco, Zurich, and at Webster University Geneva, focusing on how unprocessed trauma shapes lives and families.
This project promotes rudimentary trauma literacy: educating community leaders and adults on the definitions and symptoms of trauma, and collaboratively establishing individual first steps toward seeking help—all within a non-judgmental, participatory framework designed to foster agency and dialogue.
The Salam Concert Series, co-created by international violinist Ashraf Kateb and GHEF Founder Dr. med. Tayeb Al-Hafez — an avid filmmaker — originated as Salam to Syria, a platform designed to preserve and celebrate intangible heritage such as music,
poetry, and narrative film. This initiative encapsulates diverse artistic expressions within concert formats, offering audiences experiences that safeguard cultural memory and dignity.
The series also serves as a unique forum for connecting youth and newcomers with accomplished diaspora artists from their own backgrounds, fostering inspiration, mentorship, and a sense of belonging. Funds raised through these events directly advance GHEF’s mission to build values-based, locally rooted pathways to health equity.
Locations & Chronology
• Berlin Kühlhaus, May 20, 2016
• Berlin BOX Freiraum, October 28, 2016
• Potsdam Damascus Room (Zimma), October 30, 2016
• Hamburg Mazza, January 17, 2017
• Berlin Blackmore’s Musikzimmer, April 1, 2017
• Bremen Sendesaal, April 2, 2017
• Bonn Trinitatiskirche, November 20, 2018 & April 11, 2019
• San Francisco InSpace Curatorial, October 2018 & January 12, 2019
• Zurich Trittligasse, April 2025
The Salam Concert Series remains a living platform for preserving collective stories and connecting communities through artistic dialogue, reinforcing GHEF’s dedication to achieving equity through education, cultural engagement, and creative public health approaches.
GHEF’s study abroad initiatives began with a pioneering program between Montana State University Billings (MSUB) and Aschaffenburg University of Applied Sciences in Bavaria, Germany.
This immersive model enabled MSUB students to engage directly with Syrian refugees about healthcare, human rights, and acculturation, producing video stories as research outputs. Building on this, GHEF also piloted programs in Eastern Montana, integrating European and Middle Eastern students to explore rural health disparities and the role of storytelling in community healing. These programs use place-based learning to uncover intersections of social equity, health, and cultural resilience. Today, GHEF is advancing partnerships with German and Swiss universities to expand modules on trauma literacy, mental health, and ecological health, positioning education as a core vehicle for building empathy and addressing systemic inequities.
Facilitator training on participatory field research is also available, equipping educators and community leaders to guide students through these transformative learning experiences.
We invite you to explore our Programs page for highlights, including videos documenting these cross-cultural exchanges.
GHEF organizes symposia that convene international experts to advance health equity, particularly for migrants and refugees. A landmark event was the scientific symposium on November 22, 2019 at the Bonn Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Learning (BIM) which examined best practices to improve mental health, PTSD literacy, and reduce barriers to care—highlighting the persistent gap between migrant health research and equity-focused policy. Follow-up gatherings include Essential in Mental Health Literacy, approved and planned to build on these findings, along with a proposed 2026 symposium on multidisciplinary storytelling, linking research, narrative, and community health interventions.
GHEF supported the implementation of home monitoring systems to advance health equity for patients with chronic illnesses and disabilities who preferred to remain in their own homes. This project delivered integrated monitoring, secure prescription management, and media-based interaction tools, enabling individuals to live more autonomously and with dignity as they aged. By reducing logistical and psychological barriers to accessing care, these efforts strengthened local support networks and enhanced long-term resilience within community health systems.
GHEF hosts live consensus building forums that bring together healthcare providers, administrators, experts, community leaders, and crucially, rural and small community leaders who often have no formal health background or support.
These gatherings identify critical gaps, discuss practical solutions, and build collective ownership of actions needed to strengthen healthcare systems and advance equity.
Key examples include:
• Making Tangible Improvements Toward Health Equity, Geneva, 2010 — convened during the World Health Assembly in partnership with WHO, setting a global framework for health equity dialogue.
• Priorities in Healthcare Delivery in Eastern Montana, Miles City, 2011 — a three-part series (March, June, September) that engaged local providers and small-town leaders to produce actionable consensus statements addressing rural health delivery gaps.
• Syrian International Coalition for Health, Istanbul, 2012 — tackling internal conflict’s impacts on health systems and shaping post-conflict priorities.
• New Methodology – Analysing Health Equity Gaps, London, 2012 — refining methods to measure and address equity shortfalls in health systems.
Recent forums in Geneva and Bonn have also focused on designing scalable licensing pathways to make GHEF’s programs more accessible to grassroots organizations while sustaining operational effectiveness.
Related Services
• Consensus forum facilitation and documentation
• Methodology co-design for equity gap assessments and participatory research
Possessions is an immersive art and fundraising residency that directly supports GHEF’s mission of advancing equity through community storytelling and innovative public health education. In April and May 2025,
it was hosted at Trittligasse 4 in Zurich, transforming the exhibition space into a dynamic hub where art, dialogue, and philanthropy intersect.
Developed to explore themes such as health, identity, migration, and resilience, Possessions features contemporary installations, screenings of Shadows (our trauma literacy film and workshop), and interactive panels like Connecting Cultures. It also incorporates gatherings under the Salam Concert Series, emphasizing the role of music, poetry, and cultural memory in psychosocial healing.
This platform invites supporters, sponsors, and donors to engage through art and curated experiences, with proceeds sustaining GHEF’s essential programs. By fostering an immersive environment shaped by the beauty of the arts, Possessions facilitates open discussion on heavy-hitting topics—encouraging resilience, empathy, and new values-based frameworks to understand and address public health challenges.
The My Home, My Mission activity is a Global Health Equity Foundation (GHEF) community-based media program developed as an extension of the Displacement aXis, addressing the mental health impact of eviction and displacement on children and adolescents in San Francisco. Conceived in collaboration with the social worker and the Sisters of the ICA at Cristo Rey Academy (a private, all-girls Catholic high school in San Francisco’s Mission District founded in 1883) the activity is rooted in a college preparatory environment that integrates a corporate work-study model and serves young women within the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Developed through GHEF’s storytelling-driven and community media–based approach, the activity engages high school students in film, art-making, and facilitated dialogue to help them process and express the anxiety associated with housing instability. Functioning as both a creative platform and a qualitative exploration of youth mental health within the broader framework of displacement, it supports emotional resilience, strengthens community awareness, and builds capacity among young participants to articulate their lived experiences through narrative, contributing to more grounded and human-centered public health understanding.
Commissioned by Dr. med. Tayeb Al-Hafez on behalf of GHEF during the pilot of Let’s Talk in Eastern Montana, this project invited award-winning siblings Leland and Lynna Howard to capture the region’s landscape and stories.
Their book blends striking photography with poetry and narrative, illuminating cultural, environmental, and heritage factors linked to Montana’s high adolescent suicide rates. Donors of $100 or more receive a copy, sustaining GHEF’s mission to deepen understanding and advance equity through education and meaningful community engagement.
The Displacement aXis is a Global Health Equity Foundation (GHEF) activity initiated in 2007 through a series of short documentary films, photo essays, and interviews captured across five countries—Syria, Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Tibet. This early body of work provided firsthand insight into profound health inequities and informed GHEF’s initial symposia and publications.
The Displacement aXis has since evolved into a developing program designed to be piloted and examined across diverse contexts, recognizing that the drivers and manifestations of displacement, whether due to war, famine, persecution, or natural disasters, vary significantly. Through GHEF’s community media–based approach, it functions as a qualitative research platform using storytelling, film, performance, and facilitated dialogue to explore how displacement impacts education, nutrition, and overall health.
By engaging individuals and communities in narrative-based reflection, the Displacement aXis generates insight grounded in lived experience and cultural memory, advancing trauma literacy and informing more human-centered public health responses. This work also gave rise to subsequent activities, including My Home, My Mission, piloted in San Francisco in 2017.
