Manal al-Sharif: A Saudi Woman Who Dared to Drive

http://www.ted.com/talks/manal_al_sharif_a_saudi_woman_who_dared_to_drive.html

This TED talk by Manal al-Sharif starts off by asking the question, "Which is harder, battling oppressive governments or battling oppressive societies?" Although there is no law in Saudi Arabia that bans women from driving, it is a societal norm to discourage this. This norm is so strong that, when Manal posts a video of her driving as a part of her campaign to encourage female drivers, she receives threats to be killed or raped and is eventually detained for a short amount of time. Her campaign, in retaliation, begins to publicly mock the wide-held (and oppressing) belief that allowing women to drive would promote adultery, rape, illegitimate children, drug abuse, and prostitution, "...and only then did [they] realizing that it is so empowering to mock [one's] oppressor, it strips it away of its strongest power: fear". Manal emphasizes that oppression is the worst when women begin to believe in their inferiority. As I will let the viewer watch the video and form their own opinions, I think the question posed at the beginning of this TED talk would be a good discussion topic for a GlobalHealthU session, and how it relates to U-Tena and Kuza's work.

- Alicia

The United Nations' Millennium Development Goals

On September 23, the United Nations hosted a "high-level forum" to discuss its Millenium Development Goals. These MDGs, as they're abbreviated, were adopted in 2000 and have a target date set for 2015.

So what are these Goals anyway? They are a set of goals focused on improving basic areas of health, including the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases in all areas of the world. And though there have been some improvements in these areas, we have a ways to go until all the Goals are met.

For example, maternal mortality related to childbirth has declined to 210 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2010 from 400 deaths per 100,000 births in 1990. Sounds pretty promising, right? Well, the bad news is that there is still a long way to go to meet the 2015 goal of only 100 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births -- partially due to the fact that many countries with high maternal death rates continue to struggle with lack of prenatal care, assistance during childbirth, and broad contraception use.

Another partial success is the decline of death rates for children under age 5, which dropped to 51 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2011 from 87 in 1990. Still, nearly 7 million such children died in 2011, mostly from preventable diseases, and as many as 1 in 9 children in sub-Saharan Africa die before age 5. The goal to reduce the death toll to 4.3 million deaths may be achievable; after all, Bangladesh and Liberia have reduced their death rates to meet their 2015 goals. But clearly, there is still work to be done.

Finally, the goal to provide retroviral therapy to all people infected with HIV has not been easy to reach: 10 million people today are in treatment, and the goal is to treat 15 million people. Even this, though, is less than the 26 million in less well-developed countries who could use the treatment.

Some of the longer-term goals like eradicating extreme poverty and protecting the environment through sustainable development of natural resources, which are set for 2030, may not even reach their halfway mark unless more efforts are made. Still, we do seem to be moving in the right direction, so these goals may someday be attainable. Now's the time to make a difference!

Marisa M.

Year 2 Draws to a Close

Hard to believe, but GlobeMed at Brown is just completing its second year. Having only been a member this year, I count myself incredibly fortunate to have met such an amazing group of compassionate, passionate, intelligent, witty, and silly students, and I'm excited by the growth I saw of our chapter this year. What at the school year's beginning was a group of students dedicated to supporting the efforts of a program that helps girls in Nairobi became a tight group of friends in our own Brown community. In the year(s) to come, I look forward to more insightful discussions from GlobalHealthU, a Brown campus better-informed of GlobeMed and the importance of our mission, an even better blog and social network, greater goals to aspire and work towards, and a chapter that is just as (or even more) friendly and motivated as this year's.

Thank you to the seniors who founded and participated in GlobeMed at Brown, and we wish you the best of luck in the future! You got us off to a great start –– you will be greatly missed.

Have a wonderful summer and make sure to tune in to the blog, Facebook, Twitter, SmugMug, etc. to receive updates from our GROW interns as they spend part of the summer with U-Tena in Kenya!

Thanks for contributing to what turned out to be an unforgettable freshman year, team. Lots of GlobeMed love!

Marisa M.

Want to see more photos of GlobeMed at Brown from this year? Check out our Facebook page or our SmugMug page.

The Kuza Project Interviews: Irene

Irene is one of the founding Kuza mentors. She is a fantastic dancer and very outgoing!

A few notes on our interview with her:

When Irene refers to the girls of the Mukuru community being "spoiled" she means that they do not have any discipline.

As in earlier interviews, Irene mentions that having a separate center for the Kuza girls where they will have access to develop "life skills" would be critically helpful. Happily, I can write that we are currently in the process of raising funds for U-Tena in order to allow them to purchase a building within the community that would be used exactly for this purpose.  Please see the DONATE link above to help us accomplish this!

Additionally, at one point in the interview Irene mentions that if the girls knew that they would be learning life skills (aka making beads, learning to braid hair, etc.) they would be more likely to come to meetings. This may seem to imply that the girls do not have a consistent attendance rate. However, this is not the case. Overall, the Kuza Project has seen an extremely high retention rate of the girls enrolled in the program. The few girls who have left the program have done so because of family or logistical reasons- and we have had one death since the initiation of the program. However, it should be noted that this program takes in girls ages 10-17 and attempts to keep them in the program until they turn 18. While the lessons are also split by age (the younger group is 10-13 and the older group is 14-17), at some point the girls who have been in the program for a long time will have learned most of the lessons the mentors cover. It would be beneficial for the Kuza Project to provide learning opportunities that would establish a long-term base foundation of skill sets in addition to the sexual/reproductive health, self-esteem building, and mental health counseling.

-Sarah Sneed

Norovirus Strikes!

Happy Spring Break to all! I know one reason I'm happy to get off campus for a bit is to get away from the various illnesses circulating campus as winter drags on into late March (alas, I was still a victim of a hearty case of the common cold). One particularly nasty bug that has made its presence known is norovirus, or the stomach bug, which can infect a poor, unsuspecting student if only a few virus particles make contact with the host.

Alarmed by how serious the impact of norovirus was on College Hill this winter, I researched a bit to see how other parts of the country and the world fared this season. Turns out, not so hot: I found out from this BBC video that this year saw many more cases of stomach flu worldwide because a new strain of norovirus called "Sydney 2012" was responsible for infecting millions of people with the "winter vomiting bug" (as the Brits call it) from the UK to the US. Apparently, new strains don't make an appearance too often (at least not on an annual basis, like influenza), but when they do, the number of infected persons that season is distinctly higher than normal years. With no vaccine or sure-fire cure for the virus, the best that can be done to prevent infection is constant hand washing, but for those who do have the misfortune of acquiring it, be sure to rest and drink plenty of fluids.

Take care to help prevent the spread of infectious disease! But don't worry, spring should be right around the corner...!

Marisa M.

Balancing the rights of the sick with the rights of the healthy

At our last few meetings, our GlobalHealthU discussions have considered the question “Who has more rights than others?” Last week, we talked about the rights of the sick versus the rights of the healthy. We looked at various ethical scenarios, including quarantining a village to prevent the spread of multidrug-resistant TB. There was actually a surprising amount of disagreement about whose rights the government should be focusing on. Should we work to take care of the sick, or focus on keeping the healthy from getting sick?

I think this TED talk by Boghuma Kabisen Titanji about the problems for patients in developing countries involved in HIV research trials is an interesting example of the rights of the sick versus the rights of the healthy. While these research trials are invaluable in the search for better HIV treatments, patients are often left in the lurch after the trials end. In this situation, the sick have basically no rights-- they can choose to participate in a trial, with little to no understanding of what the trial is about and what will happen to them when the trial is over, or they get no treatment at all. To balance the rights of the sick with the rights of the healthy, Titanji stresses the importance of informed consent and examination of the cost and availability of treatments used in clinical trials. This way, patients would know what they were getting into, and would be able to continue to receive treatment after the end of the trial.

-Anna H.

The Kuza Project Interviews: Mary

A few notes on Mary's interview:

Mary is one of the leaders of the Kuza Project- Stella is the other. An enthusiast of the Kuza Project from the start, she has been instrumental to the success of the project.

At the time of this interview- although the Kuza girls were highly engaged in, and enthusiastic about, the program, they were not be able to optimally benefit from the program because the Kuza Project was not capable of supporting some of their critical physical needs (some of which Mary mentions).

This year, we were happy to announce that Brown GlobeMed has incorporated basic funding into the Kuza budget to support some of these needs! Furthermore, a skill-building component has been included that will train the girls in marketable skills that will allow them to start generating an income!

Along the same lines, the mentors are also frequently forced to make difficult monetary decisions; They are often torn between the desire to help the girls in the program and their responsibility to their own families. Furthermore, as she mentions- it is sometimes difficult to agree to buy things for one girl without feeling a responsibility to buy something for all of them. And while we hope that the additions to the program will help the girls provide more for themselves, we do hope to eventually provide a stipend for the mentors as well.

-Sarah Sneed