The Global Philanthropic Committee (GPC) is a partnership between the American Urological Association (AUA), European Urology Association (EAU), International Continence Society (ICS) and the Société Internationale d’Urologie (SIU), with the goal of supporting proposals for worthy projects to improve urologic care throughout the world. The GPC allows organisations to pool their resources to fund larger scale philanthropic projects as a collaborative effort.
The GPC’s mission is to provide philanthropic support to improve urological education in the developing world. The GPC strives to provide funding mainly for education and generally will not provide funds for purchasing expensive equipment. The primary goal is to help build the infrastructure for a sustainable and self-sufficient educational hub in areas of need; using a “train the trainer” model.
The inaugural GPC project was the support of two regional, urology training centers in Nigeria and Senegal that serve multiple countries. A formal proposal was submitted by the Pan African Urological Surgeon's Association (PAUSA) and was approved by the GPC in May 2011. Since the implementation of the GPC’s support of those training centers, both have established formal academic training programs and have significantly improved the urological care provided to patients. The GPC’s support also led to increased awareness of their institutions’ contribution to their community as a whole and spurred increased local governmental support and funding for their programs.
Since its inception, the GPC has supported educational efforts in Cameroon, Haiti, Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania. For more information about the GPC, please contact: GPC@siu-urology.org
Applications for funding from the GPC are not currently open. When the opportunity is available again all societies will inform their memberships.