The right to women’s health: Travel anecdotes (Part 1) – El derecho a la salud de las mujeres: Anécdotas de viaje (parte 1)
Two months ago I was traveling in Northern Peru, wandering the windy roads where sometimes we human rights lawyers end up. My mission was quite specific: the American Bar Association (ABA) had sent me as a due process observer to a criminal trial against more than 30 members of indigenous communities. I spent several days […]
A Life of Service: Insight into the life of a community health worker
The health sector in Zambia faces major human resources challenges, with a shortage of health care workers at practically every service delivery level. For example, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended establishment, Zambia faces a shortage of 9,271 nurses (a vacancy rate of 55%), 2,538 clinical officers (a vacancy rate of 63%), and […]
Finding The Balance
Before coming to Uganda, I had a very clear vision of what my life would be like living in a rural community. This included becoming close friends with all of my neighbors and holding lengthy conversations in Luganda (the local language) while learning to cook Matooke and groundnut sauce (the region’s staple dish). I would […]
Akros Conducts Pilot Using Android Tablets To Combat Malaria
Using technology to improve health systems is a large part of the Akros ethos. Since the inception of the Malaria Active Infection Detection (AID) program in 2011 in the Zambian district of Lusaka, several successes have been scored in the fight against the disease. Much of this involved the development of a system to locate […]
Of Predictable Surprises and Haitian Nightmares
Insanity is often defined as doing the same thing over and over again yet expecting different results. It is disputable where the saying originated. Albert Einstein, Mark Twain and Rita Mae Brown have all, at some point, been associated with this quote. Whichever mouthpiece you prefer, there is no denying the universal wisdom this line […]
What a year
While taking a stroll along a street; a street arched by tall leafy trees; a street covered by mud from the down pour two hours earlier, I walk circumspectly lest I get my shoes muddied; a street in a town I called home for a year; the year I did my Global Health Corps (GHC) […]
Superhumans
One of my main reasons for applying for a Global Health Corps fellowship in Uganda was to be closer to the work I was supporting. Before GHC, I worked at the US headquarters of a global health nonprofit organization. I loved it there: interacting with donors, writing about projects I believed in, and learning about […]
If we can’t talk about it, we can’t end it: Playing your part to end violence against children
In my first week at Together for Girls, I learned very quickly that experiencing sexual assault doesn’t make a person a victim, but a survivor; that there’s a difference between coerced and forced sex; that pairing photographed faces of young people next to data on the issue of sexual violence against children is a unanimous […]
DREAMers in Limbo: The Federal Decision to Delay Action on Immigration Reform
June 15, 2012 was a great day in the United States. President Barack Obama issued a ruling that would grant reprieve to hundreds of thousands of undocumented young adults who came to the U.S. as children. Immigrants were finally able to live and work in the U.S. without the threat of deportation and the possibility […]
5 Stages (and Secrets) of the Nerve-Wracking GHC Application Process in GIFs
The staff at Global Health Corps’ head office in New York reveal their secrets to the five most common issues and questions applicants confront when starting the application (and what was going through my head when I applied). I had all of these doubts and worries and not enough coffee in the world to overcome […]