Doctor Mehret

The Ethiopian Review recently posted a great article on an Ethiopian surgeon performing surgeries in remote medical care settings in rural Africa. His work is an inspiration and an example for the obligation that comes with training. (To check out the full article please click here)

Human capacity in the form of doctors and other service providers are invaluable resources in sub-Saharan Africa. I am aware of this and plan on staying in multiple places with my for this very reason. Human rights, and more specifically, social and economic rights know no geographical boundaries. My work is about teaching about the connection between health and human rights. This work takes me across many geographical boundaries, one of which is Ethiopia. I am due back this December to continue this work.

There are many Ethiopian ahead of me that are blazing a trail, some are physicians like Dr. Mengiste, some are public health practitioners like Sister Zebider, and other are good samaritans like Abebech Gobena. I hope to support all these Ethiopians in their endeavors as well as create a community in the Diaspora that can begin to get organized around the issues of social development.

My most recent involvement to this end has been serving as a technical advisor to the Ethiopian Forum for Peace, Democracy and Development (EFPDD). (Visit the Facebook page by clicking here). It is a non-political group devoted to helping Ethiopia meet her Millenium Development Goals. This groups is desperately in need of young members and I encouraged all interested to join.

The work with the EFPDD presents an important opportunity for intergenerational dialogue. The founding member’s are my father’s peer group and the Chairman, Ambassador Imru Zelleke, is one of the most active 85 year-olds I have ever met. The degree to which he is engaged in civic life, public affairs, and world matters sets a high bar for advocacy. The youth would benefit from exposure to such vitality.

I am in the process of digitizing some of the lectures the Forum has hosted on Ethiopia as part of a public video series. I hope this series will help spark dialogue and foster participation among the younger members of the Diaspora. I think it’s time young and old finally find ways of productively building bridges together and I am excited to help in this endeavor.

As far as public service is concerned, young and old need each other to prevent making the mistakes of the past and learning how to map a new future.

The importance of seeing the forest and the trees is critical in HIV prevention work. I had a meeting with a public policy manager at an AIDS-service organization today that reminded me how important it is to take a step back. Sometimes, we all get so caught up in the details of our work that we forget the larger picture.

As it relates to HIV, public health, and human rights, the larger picture is about building a prevention model of care that works. Health is a lot more than the absence of disease. Many in specialized circles have been advocating for this expanded definition since the Alma Ata declaration of 1978.  Alma Ata’s 30th anniversary just passed and we are no closer to the robust definition of health for all.

Yet when you listen to patient’s stories, it is pretty clear that housing, education, employment, and a host of other societal determinants are critical for promoting health. Conversely, violence, incarceration, poverty and other negative societal determinants are obstacles to health. The challenge remains incoproating these “non-health” factors into policy about public health and re-focusing our gaze on the forest.