“Good Health and Well-Being" is the goal number 3 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. However, research shows that over 400 million people worldwide lack proper access to healthcare services. In order to address the importance of health and medicine in our lives, DAIS and Huamei students have gathered to form Action Potential, an organization that brings light to issues revolving around healthcare today.
Myungha Kim, the founder and President of Action Potential, describes that the COVID-19 outbreak was what initially inspired her to form the organization. At the beginning of the pandemic, many people were unaware of the disease's direct cause, symptoms, treatments, and ways to prevent it. This is largely due to the public's lack of access to resources and knowledge in the healthcare field. Therefore, Action Potential aims to educate more people about healthcare, first aid, sanitation, and diseases/illnesses present in our world today.
Action Potential’s motto is: ‘To understand and care, fight discrimination and indifference, spread awareness and love, we must take action now.’
Action Potential was first created with a similar purpose as the Red Cross, a humanitarian organization that provides international aid to communities in need of emergency assistance and support. However, Action Potential has a wider vision – their goal is to provide support to communities in need of medical assistance through fundraisers and educate the public about the problems in the medical world.
Action Potential Leadership:
Action Potential has been actively working on several projects to raise awareness, both online and offline.
Action Potential has two main branches: content team and service team.
The content team focuses on creating articles, posters, and social media posts every month, targeting a specific disease/illness representing the month. For instance, October was breast cancer awareness month, November was diabetes awareness month, December was AIDS/HIV awareness month, and January is glaucoma awareness month.
For all these months, the content team has developed articles and social media posts dedicated to specific illnesses, talking about their causes, symptoms, treatment, diagnosis, statistics, and so on. Not only this, but Action Potential has tried to spread awareness among as many students as possible by putting up flyers around the school, which can be seen throughout the Secondary Building to the Cafeteria.
“Not only are we helping out communities in need, but we are also growing our knowledge of medical diseases and widening our scope of the field.”
Joni Li
Vice President
Leader of the Content Team
While the content team focuses on the educational aspect, the service team focuses on hosting fundraising events. On January 18th, Action Potential was able to host their first onsite fundraising event, Movie Night. The team played the movie "Encanto" and sold various desserts and drinks, from red velvet muffins, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, hot chocolate, to more.
More than 60 parents and students joined, and the team was able to generate around 2000 rmb of funds. All of the money will be donated to the Red Cross to support patients suffering from diabetes.
“This movie night was not just about everyone getting together to have fun, socialize, and watch a movie. Gathering everyone's ability to help patients with diabetes is what makes this movie night meaningful. Even as students with limited ability and restrictions, there are more organizations and institutions doing the same thing as us. Just imagine how much help will be provided to the diabetes patients who cannot afford medical treatment and living expenses when countless meager forces are put together.”
Toni Li
Treasurer
Leader of the Service Team
Anyone interested in healthcare and medicine from Grades 8-12 can join Action Potential now. Students can earn volunteer hours and take part in a meaningful journey.
