HAIPEI CHEN
CHINA, 18
Project: AppilyDay
Basic Human Needs: Education, Health
During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Haipei’s father was sent to Wuhan to conduct COVID-19 testing, while her mom was a frontliner worker in a local Seattle hospital. Although Haipei’s family was directly impacted, young people in Haipei’s community didn’t seem to be aware of the virus. Haipei was shocked to learn 60+ countries had removed health education entirely from their curriculum. In March 2020, she began to curate concise, accurate health education posts using the Instagram account @appilyday. As her Instagram grew Haipei noticed an alarming lack of health literacy in youth and marginalized populations. In April 2020, Haipei formed AppilyDay – a global organization advocating for equitable health education and bridging healthcare information gaps in marginalized and non-native English-speaking communities. AppilyDay provides health education resources and campaigns, educational videos, and virtual and in-person workshops. They have created 41 multilingual videos translated in 40+ languages, established 9 youth-led chapters across the U.S., Canada, India and China, engaged 5,000+ young volunteers from 35+ countries and partnered with 7 healthcare centers in Seattle. Haipei received the Gold Sponsorship Award from the Chinese American Civic Association for her work in health education. In 2021, she hopes to establish 10 additional chapters across the world, launch and make their #healthedforall movement viral, and develop an official K-12 health and sex education curriculum. Haipei will continue to fight for health education worldwide until our world has equitable healthcare access, even in impoverished and underserved areas.