Health in the Margins is grounded in the belief that global health systems will only be equitable when the knowledge, leadership, and healing practices of frontline communities are not just included, but centred.
We begin by recognising epistemicide—the systematic erasure and devaluation of our indigenous and ancestral knowledge systems—as both a cause and consequence of global health inequities. To counter this, we engage in epistemic disobedience: reclaiming and mobilising our ways of knowing to transform how health is defined, researched, and delivered.
Through a combination of community-led research & education, co-designed health programming and evaluation, and policy advocacy, we:
- Document and elevate subjugated knowledge and practices by using community-led methods to gather and share our ways of knowing and knowledge within our communities
- Build platforms for frontline communities to lead health interventions and shape narratives.
- Disrupt extractive and exclusionary global health models, and
- Foster alliances across movements for health justice, decolonisation, and community sovereignty.
We believe that when frontline communities define what counts as valid knowledge, we unlock transformative pathways to health equity—rooted in justice, dignity, and self-determination.
Examples of frontline communities facing epistemic injustice in the UK include but are not limited to:
- Black and Afro-descendant populations experience systemic health disparities, including higher rates of maternal mortality, cardiovascular disease, prostate cancer and COVID-19 deaths, rooted in legacies of medical racism and exclusion. Traditional healing practices and community care networks are often dismissed or erased, whilst culturally grounded advocates, such as black maternal health leaders, are sidelined in mainstream health systems.
- Refugees and Asylum Seekers face a high prevalence of mental health challenges shaped by trauma, displacement and barriers to primary care. Experiences of war, displacement, and oppression are patholigised and depoliticised. In addition, strong oral traditions that hold histories of cultural healing practices are undervalued and often ignored.
- LGBTQI+ communities confront disproportionate health risks, including later diagnoses, higher rates of infectious disease and higher rates of suicidality. Historical pathologisation and exclusion from medical curricula have led to a systemic lack of recognition and inclusion in mainstream western practices.