“Why Don’t Men Menstruate?” Sexual Health Education as a Human Right
As Global Health Corps fellows, we believe health is a human right. Coming into GHC, I certainly believed this, but also felt as though calling something a “human right” has become a “sexy” buzzword trend. Sometimes the word seems so quotidian that almost everything is becoming valued as a human right. I share an office, […]
I don’t call them “crimes of passion”, I call them Feminicides / Yo no los llamo “crímenes pasionales”, yo los llamo feminicidios
Colombia legislators have recently voted in favor the “Rosa Elvira Cely” Law, which seeks to increase the penalties for crimes against women in my country. The bill proposal came as a struggle for justice from civil society organizations after the brutal rape and murder of Rosa Elvira Cely, a night school student, in one of […]
Standing on the Shoulders of a Giant: An Interview with Cecile Richards
What do heroes and heroines have to do with our life’s journey? While attending Global Health Corps training for the 2014-2015 fellow class at Yale University, Still Harbor taught fellows to explore where and from whom we find inspiration, guidance, and knowledge and how it might be applied or used to help shape our work […]
Constructing narratives: What brought you to the fight?
“Es chocante,” it’s shocking, said Dr. Acosta, a pediatrician working at San Benito Youth Clinic in Petén, Guatemala. In particular, Dr. Acosta is speaking of her work with teenage mothers. As she states, these young girls find themselves in circumstances in which they must assume the role of caregiver and wife. Detailed in a recent […]
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 […]
I got so much trouble on my mind
This nagging feeling is a confusing one. It sits between bereavement and astonishment. It engulfs. It depresses. This feeling rears itself as I scroll my Facebook newsfeed and hear the narratives of our clients at HIPS. Statistics are staggering but the autobiographical narratives reveal the dire straits of our people. Let’s look at our current […]
Living In a Messy House
Did I know that I could attain a GHC placement? No. Did I think I deserved it? No. Did I feel discontent about my village, my town, my city, my country, my Africa and my world? Yes. Who was I? How did I count? How did I mean something to the world and how could […]
Loving and Serving the Community
Global Health Corps is a leadership and professional development fellowship program for emerging global health leaders. It works to improve the lives of people in communities by ensuring social justice and health equity for all. ACODEV-Uganda, my placement organization, works to improve the lives of people in the community, especially the hard to reach […]
ICFP 2013 Reflections: Maternal & Child Health, Family Planning… and NTDs
As a current Global Health Corps (GHC) fellow, I was fortunate to attend the 2013 International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) last week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, jointly organized by the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia and the Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health. With a theme of “Full Access, Full Choice,” I was consistently inspired and challenged […]