Submitting guest blogs is open to Global Washington’s members of the Atlas level and above. We value a diversity of opinions on a broad range of subjects of interest to the global health and development community.
Blog article submissions should be 500-1500 words. Photos, graphs, videos, and other art that supports the main themes are strongly encouraged.
You may not be the best writer, and that’s okay. We can help you shape and edit your contribution. The most important thing is that it furthers an important conversation in your field, and that it is relatively jargon-free. Anyone without a background in global development should still be able to engage with your ideas.
If you include statistics or reference current research, please hyperlink your sources in the text, wherever possible.
Have an idea of what you’d like to write about? Let’s continue the conversation! Email comms@globalWA.org and put “Blog Idea” in the subject line.
Women carry so much of the world’s burdens. Across the globe, women and girls overwhelmingly shoulder the burden of unpaid and labor-intensive household duties. For those who work in factories and on farms, the work in the home doesn’t go away—the women simply wake up earlier. As development organizations and agencies increasingly identify women’s economic freedom as the key not only to empowering women but also unlocking benefits that uplift whole communities, it seems that women now also shoulder the burden of saving the world.
Empowering women economically and realizing its subsequent benefits for communities is easy in theory, but much harder to implement. On February 7th, Global Washington hosted an all-female-identifying panel to share their insights and expertise on using women’s economic empowerment to catalyze their leadership and improve rights for all. This panel was moderated by Teresa Guillien, Managing Program Director, Resource Media. Speakers included Anna Banks, Chief Marketing Officer, Fair Trade USA; Mara Bolis, Associate Director of Women’s Economic Empowerment, Oxfam America; and Dar Vanderbeck, Chief Innovation Officer, CARE. Continue Reading
Dr. Tom Uldrick, Deputy Head of Global Oncology at Fred Hutch. Photo by Robert Hood/ Fred Hutch.
In advance of World Cancer Day, Global Washington interviewed Dr. Tom Uldrick, the new deputy head of Global Oncology at Fred Hutch.
What led you to research the intersection of cancer and HIV/AIDS?
I did my medical training in New York City during the period when antiretroviral therapy was revolutionizing medicine. During my premed years, it worked in a large HIV organization and observed firsthand how advances in science could alter the course of an epidemic. During my residency and fellowship at Columbia University, I was inspired by many great mentors and leaders in the field of HIV and cancer, including Scott Hammer, Riccardo Dalla-Favera, Wafaa El-Sadr, Al Neugut, and Salim and Quarraisha Abdool Karim. My fellowship culminated in a Kaposi sarcoma research project in South Africa – that was the start of my research career in the field of HIV and cancer. Continue Reading
Pat Garcia-Gonzalez at the annual meeting of the Nigerian Society of Hematology and Blood Transfusion. Photo by Martin De Bruin.
Pat Garcia-Gonzalez, co-founder and CEO of The Max Foundation, has spent the last 15 years facilitating access to cancer treatment in low- and middle-income countries. In this Q&A with Global Washington, she shares the many lessons she has learned in this work, and how both cancer treatment and patients’ access to treatment globally has changed. You can also catch her talk on February 12, 2019, at The Pacific Science Center: “the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Pat will discuss the state of global cancer treatment and The Max Foundation’s strategies for removing barriers to access.
What lessons have you learned in 15+ years working in treatment access?
The first lesson I have learned is that it is possible. It is actually possible to provide access to innovative cancer treatment for patients living in low- and middle-income countries, even when the treatment might be long-term, and in some cases, indefinite. I have also learned that for every patient we are able to rescue, we are not only saving the life of that particular individual, but we are also saving the lives of many others in their family and their communities. We even have a great impact on the availability of oncologists and hematologists by providing the means for them to successfully treat patients and inspiring medical students to want to become oncologists and hematologists.
I have also learned that nothing is simple; these problems are often complex and require great commitment from multiple partners and a great deal of patience, hand-in-hand with a “never give up” attitude.
Finally, I have learned that no matter how hard it is, it is worth it. Continue Reading
