What is the number one killer worldwide...

Heart disease? Lung cancer? Traffic accidents? HIV/AIDS? This was one of 50 questions over 600 Bay Area teenagers had to answer as part of World Savvy's World Affairs Challenge .

This year’s theme, apropos to InSTEDD’s mission, was Global Health, and students prepared a 15 minute presentation, answered a 50 question world affairs quiz (which you can take below) and discussed a contemporary issue. I was one of the privileged judges.

I was completely inspired by the students' creative presentations and their ability to look at the challenges we are addressing with fresh eyes: they held mock trials against China's environmental protection agency, prepared faux news reports from Sudanese refugee camps, and simulated a convening of a World Health Organization conference.

Several teams chose to present on issues they felt were left out from the global health discussions, including the health effects of the contamination of Lake Tai in China, viewing the genocide in Darfur as a public health issue, highlighting the plight of the thousands women a year who die during childbirth and addressing the rise of obesity in Mexico.

More important than the content of their presentations, was their sincerity of purpose and enthusiasm for the subject.

From InSTEDD’s standpoint, the most interesting part of the day was what was called the Collaborative Question. This activity requires 4-6 teens to debate and agree on a proposed solution to a problem they receive at the start of this activity. This year they acted as Finance Officers for the mock Institute of Global Health in London. They had to decide how to spend 30 million dollars to address Japanese Encephalitis. They had the option to work in 3 countries (India, Vietnam or Cambodia) and use one of 5 interventions (education, vaccination research, pig extermination, pesticide spraying of mosquitos and childhood vaccination).

Of course I was most excited about the group who chose to spend their 30 million in Cambodia on a village education campaign. They chose Cambodia because they were concerned about its low life expectancy (54 years) and they felt, with 14 million people (relative to 1 B in India and 85 million in Vietnam) they had a chance of making a difference. I told the young people I would share their ideas on my next trip to Cambodia.

By the way, the Global Burden of Disease report by WHO found that heart disease is the number one killer worldwide. For those who are inspired to go through the entire quiz, World Savvy has graciously shared it with me.

Here's the whole World Savvy quiz if you want to take it (it's about 10 minutes). And, the answers, of course. Thank you Dana and Bryn at World Savvy!