Congratulations, Untold Global Health Stories Contest Winners!

The Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) and Global Health NOW from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health are pleased to announce the winners of the 2026 Untold Stories of Global Health Contest, designed to give a platform to important but underreported global health stories. 

It was a banner year for the nominations, and CUGH and GHN thank the many global health scholars and advocates around the world who submitted such compelling ideas. They all deserve a spotlight.

Grand Prize Winners 

A mental health crisis facing unaccompanied Moroccan boys in Ceuta, Spain, nominated by Audrey Claire Benson, Barcelona Institute of Global Health / University of Pompeu Fabra / No Name Kitchen, Barcelona, Spain

• With no full-time doctors, months-long waits for psychiatry, and routine reports of neglect and violence inside overcrowded shelters, boys turn to survival coping: daily use of hashish, Lyrica, Klonopin, glue, and recurrent self-harm.

Health disparities in widowhood: A global health blind spot, nominated by Jackline Odhiambo, Maseno University, in Kisumu, Kenya.    

• Widowed women remain one of the most neglected sub-populations in research, and in sub-Saharan Africa, they also face multiple health disparities—a problem that requires reflection and action.

Honorable Mentions

Judicial experts as guardians of occupational health in Mexico, nominated by Shaira Gabriela Camacho, Mexican Judicial Administration Authorities in Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico

Gaza’s alarming surge in Guillain–Barré Syndrome, nominated by Yara Ashour, Al-Quds University in Gaza, Palestine

Health care abandonment of trans communities in the South and Appalachia, nominated by Beau Morgan, Hellbender Harm Reduction / Quillen College of Medicine in Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S. 

Life-threatening barriers to health care for U.S. refugees with disabilities, nominated by Mustafa Rfat, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.

Modernize medical education to reduce brain drain in the Balkans, nominated by Timothy Gaul,Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. + Skopje, North Macedonia

The silent crisis of dengue in rural Bangladesh, nominated by Amit Banik, field research supervisor, icddrb, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Toxic heavy metal exposure among auto mechanics in Accra, Ghana, nominated by Anushka Peer, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, U.S.

Previous Winners: Read the full collection of Untold Stories

• GHN and CUGH began collaborating on the Untold Stories Contest in 2015; from 2016-2020, NPR’s Goats and Soda blog joined our effort to lift up underreported stories around the world. 

About the Sponsors

The Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) builds interdisciplinary collaborations and facilitates the sharing of knowledge to address global health challenges. It assists members in sharing their expertise across education, research, and service. It is dedicated to creating equity and reducing health disparities everywhere. CUGH promotes mutually beneficial, long-term partnerships between universities in resource-rich and resource-poor countries, developing human capital and strengthening institutions' capabilities to address these challenges. It is committed to translating knowledge into action.

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