HEAL believes that everyone deserves high quality health care. COVID has laid bare deep health inequities in this country, especially for black, indigenous and communities of color.

Since 2015, HEAL, a two year immersion program for health workers across 9 countries, has partnered with Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the US, to support the leadership and transformation of local health leaders.  In the last five years 150 fellows are currently in or finished the program, 1/2 of whom are Navajo or from the Global South.

To amplify our longterm efforts in the time of crisis and to respond to President Nez’s call for health worker reinforcements, UCSF & HEAL sent Solidarity teams of over 40 nurses and doctors on between April and July of 2020. These teams worked alongside 50 HEAL colleagues and hundreds of local health leaders to take care of both unsheltered COVID positive patients in motels and extremely ill COVID patients across 5 Navajo Nation hospitals.

In this video series, UCSF HEAL Fellows and members of the solidarity team share their experiences on equity, solidarity, and the ongoing injustice of COVID disparities in the Navajo Nation.