Passion For Global Health

I was nine years old when my family made the stannous decision to come to America; with only a few clothes and barely any money, the pursuit of the American dream seemed more like a fantasy than anything else. Ever since I was young, I was drawn to the medical field. Looking back, it all appears as a nightmare now: a cold room, no electricity, and my parents imploring for the nurses help. Yet this nightmare was my firsthand experience at the detrimental effects of a limited healthcare. Growing up in a poor town of Albania, I faced minor health concerns, but it wasn’t until I got sick with a common cold that my life almost ended. The unsanitary hospital condition and the lack of medications were part of the sad reality I could not escape from. Thus today, it is my goal to make a significant contribution to the health of the future generations. My passion for the medical field combined with my determination on building and perpetuating an outstanding healthcare service, has lead me to pursue a master’s degree in Health Administration

I’ve lived in places where healthcare was inaccessible, where doctors were not fully equipped with the tools necessary to preform regular checkups, and where people died chilling deaths from misdiagnoses or lack there of. I was born in Khartoum, Northern Sudan as my parents were in transit to come to the land of the free from Eritrea. In the midst of its 30-year war with Ethiopia, both of my parents fled the compromised country at the age of 18 and 20. The war had made it difficult for children to attend school, therefore my parents fled with what would be considered a middle school education. After two years and through much treachery, we successfully made it to America.

My grandmother was born in Guatemala into a struggling family of seven. In Guatemala, kids are often forced to leave school and start working to help provide for their family´s food and shelter. Similarly, my grandmother was not able to complete her education. Instead, she had to take care of her siblings, providing for their basic needs. As she grew up, she had three kids, including my father, and needed to find a way to give them a better life.

I assume that in today’s world, there is a lot of information and scholarly research available that shows factors such as economic status, income, social situations, education, ethnicity, employment, availability of affordable housing and geographical (place where one was born and lives) conditions have a tremendous impact on the health and well-being of individuals, countries and communities (Amaro, 2014). Inequalities in health and well-being are created by social determinants and economic conditions for many in our community (Brannigan &Boss). The people that are affected the most are people with low income and minority groups here in the United States. This creates health disparities and unequal care (Brannigan &Boss). In many developing and under-developed countries, the situation is dire: lack of modern health services, illiteracy, poor economic conditions has created a cultural situation of desperation and unhealthy behaviors. Corruption by African governments is rampant. To improve the health and wellbeing of communities, we need to start thinking of how we can create a culture of health.

What do we expect as a life of a Mexican migrant? The American public consistently listens to the media to these people crossing the border illegally, which is deemed as a crime. They see these people as stealing American jobs and benefiting from government programs such as welfare. Countless people think it was voluntary for them to come to the United State, therefore they deserve whatever comes their way, either health problems, racism or low paying jobs. However, what countless American people don’t realize is that the majority of Mexican migrants are forced to migrate to the United State to survive. They constantly risk their lives to cross a dangerous border in order to find the jobs that the American people don’t want to endure. In the book called Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies, the author, Seth Holmes focus on the lives of an indigenous Mexican group called the Triquis. Throughout the book, he focuses on the journey of the group from their hometown in Oaxaca to farms in California and Washington. The book also emphasizes on how racism and health problems of migrant workers have become invisible. Their health problems and their social status in the social hierarchy are blamed on themselves because they decided to come to a place where they are seen as illegal aliens. Instead of blaming the Triqui people of their sickness, health care facilities need to treat them without judgement, address what exactly their sickness is as well as its structural causes.

Health care is one of the most controversial and discussed topics in the United States. This is mainly because of the enormous issues that surround this subject matter, such as the goal of creating a greater diversity in the medical professions, the goal to reduce health care disparities, and mainly to improve health care for all. In my personal experience this issues have affected me and my family very closely. As immigrants, I saw my parents struggle with the language, adapting to a new culture and even seeking healthcare. Health care disparities is an imminent issue that affects many of us, including me. On top of the financial struggle my parents faced as immigrants, they also faced the barrier of not being understood. I witnessed how my

Growing up, my dad always told me that we were the lucky ones. At the age of 15, he escaped from Vietnam, leaving with only the clothes on his back. Saigon fell to the north, sending people in a final desperate exodus. He would say “If the mines didn’t kill me, the bullets surely would. If the bullets didn’t kill me, drowning would and if drowning didn’t kill me, dehydration would.” In spite of the possibilities faced by thousands like him, my dad made it onto the US Navy ship. While my parents had escaped the war, we faced a different conflict in acclimation. My dad struggled to keep a job. We could barely afford rent, nevertheless see a doctor. For some people, “health disparities” can be described in terms of statistics and terms like “preventative care” and “optimizing accessibility”. For my family, “health disparities” was just a part of life in America. It was the uselessness I felt as I watched my dad work 80 hours a week at several minimum wage jobs just so my brother and I could focus on school. It was the frustration I felt spending hours in vain researching ways to ease my mother’s pain as she suffered from years of untreated stomach ulcers. It was the worry I felt knowing that, despite ranking among the top 10% of students in my high school class, I still could not afford to go to college. In spite of everything, I am one of the lucky ones as I was able to fully fund my college education in scholarships and grants. I am lucky because these experiences taught me

As a future physician, I want to provide the necessary health care and guidance to children of low-income families, both here in the United States and in developing nations. Current advances in technology and medicine have allowed a vast majority of diseases to be treated, prevented, and even cured; yet, it is a grave reality that many individuals still do not have these innovations available to them. Ultimately, my goal is to act as a link between

“The only real nation is humanity” (Farmer 123). This quote represents a huge message that is received in, Tracy Kidder’s, Mountains Beyond Mountains. This book argues that universal healthcare is a right and not a privilege. Kidder’s book also shows the audience that every individual, no matter what the circumstances, is entitled to receive quality health care. In the book Kidder represents, Paul Farmer, a man who spends his entire life determined to improve the health care of impoverished areas around the world, namely Haiti, one of the poorest nations in the world. By doing this the audience learns of the horrible circumstances, and the lack of quality health care that nations like Haiti

It is important to understand determinants such as poverty, lack in health care access, exposure to disease early in life, social positions, gender, race/ethnicity will all effect communities who receive health inequalities. Organizations such as WHO, National Institute of Health (NIH), and Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been working to provide the best quality of care for urban/rural populations. An adjustment in policies is needed to protect access to health, education, and employment for disadvantaged populations. Even though governments have made policies to provide health to all, we can see urban/rural populations are in a lack of quality of care. Health needs to be a right for all, and not based on whether in urban area or socioeconomic status they are in. Individuals’ irrespective of socioeconomic class or race should have the same rights and

Health and social justice have continued to be a major problem that affects the way people live and chance of illness, and consequent risk of premature death. The recent report from the World Health Organization shows that health disparities have continued to persist within and among countries and different regions of the world. For example, infectious diseases and undernutrition are common in poor and developing countries (WHO, 2018). The gap is even much worse between the rural and urban dwellers because of the economic differences and availability of healthcare services. Although some of the developed nations have attempted

During my numerous trips to Nigeria to visit my extended family, I saw firsthand how international health disparities can affect communities. It is often challenging to make the highest standard of care available to all groups and individuals here, and I became increasingly motivated to devote myself to the mission of reducing health disparities in African countries. People in my family, regardless of societal class, suffered from various illnesses including HIV/AIDS, malaria, and polio because of poor access to quality healthcare services. My goal is to return to underserved communities in the United States and Nigeria after being armed with the training from the University of Michigan School of Information that will allow me make

In the summer of 2014, as a part of the Global Medical Brigades, I visited and stayed at a small village in Nicaragua for 11 days. While visiting Nicaragua, I was really astonished by the lack of health care as well as, the lack of any health system in particular. Families did not have access to any type of medicine, unless they lived in the village and had money to spend. However, this was not the case for many of the families in the village so several of them suffered and fell ill to diseases and infections. Also, the water was not very clean and access to clean water, once again, could only be found in cities. About 50% of the population lives in poverty in which 85% of this population struggle to live on more than one-dollar daily (Balint 1999). Several communities are limited in their access to basic health services because of poor road infrastructure, which makes transportation and trade tremendously difficult. Historically, each step forward that Nicaragua has taken in the realm of development has been counteracted with a step back in the form of a revolution, natural disasters, repealing of funding for governmental projects or foreign aid. The focus of my research is observing and recording the factors that contribute to the high mortality rate of the Nicaragua populations and how these challenges can be combatted and resolved. My paper will discuss the inaccessibility of health care and why it is difficult to reach among populations that live in poverty and rural

The knowledge gap that will be the focus of my practicum project is the relationship between health access and inequity and diabetes in Oaxaca, Mexico. This site will allow me to develop a meaningful, feasible and valuable practicum project due to its unique culture, but also to the many challenges in literacy, sanitation, unemployment, and access to healthcare services that the city of Oaxaca has. Over 50% of the indigenous Mexican population live in the state of Oaxaca while this is the third most economically marginalized state in Mexico mainly due to the lack of infrastructure and education. As described by CFHI, diabetes and other chronic conditions in Oaxaca are “increasingly common as

Global health is defined as “health problems, issues, or concerns that transcend national borders” (Institute of Medicine, 1997, p. 2). Koplan (2009) proposed a new definition for global health which he described as an “area for study, research and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide” (para, 7). Global health emphasizes transnational health issues, determinants, and solutions from an interdisciplinary perspective and blends population health and clinical care.