Blog
Posted on February 16, 2018
By Ulrike Hoessle
Panelists speaking about challenges of women & children fleeing conflict.
From L to R: Jo Lonseth (Extend the Day), Chitra Hanstad (World Relief Seattle), Nicky Smith (IRC), Jen Butte-Dahl (UW). Photo: Ulrike Hoessle
Imagine, suddenly in the middle of the night, you learn that a neighboring village has been attacked and you know that it is time to leave. You wake up your children, pack some valuables and provisions, and leave your home with your family – not knowing whether you will ever be able to return. You depart by foot or pay for a ride in an overpriced, crowded, and unsafe vehicle. You experience assault, even sexual assault, and you do not know where to go or whom you can trust. Once you arrive at a safer place you have to figure out – with thousands of other people – where to stay, how to get food and clean water, how to earn some money, how to access health services for diseases such as diarrhea or the common cold, both of which are normally curable, however, under these dire circumstances, might be deadly (especially for your younger children), and you realize that you may never return home again.
Continue Reading
Posted on February 5, 2018
By Annie O’Donnell
Photo: Hanna Hwang/WGHA
This last Thursday, over 100 women, and a few champions for women, gathered at Global Washington for an event jointly hosted with the Washington Global Health Alliance to discuss the unique challenges that women face in pursuing careers in global health and development. Topics included survival skills for balancing family and career, the importance of mentorship, and how to know whether an opportunity is right for you.
Panelists included Emily Bancroft, president of VillageReach; Willa Marth, vice president of equity & global programs for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands; and Fatema Sumar, regional deputy vice president (Europe, Asia, Pacific and Latin America) for the Millennium Challenge Corporation. The event was moderated by Dena Morris, president & CEO of WGHA.
Continue Reading
Posted on December 19, 2017
By Jeffrey Riedinger and Akhtar Badshah
Photo by @GregJeffersonPhotography via Twenty20
After the Global Washington conference last month, the two of us have been going back and forth about something that came up during the opening keynote discussion.
The discussion, moderated by Akhtar, included UW President Ana Mari Cauce; John Kelly, Starbucks Senior Vice President of Global Public Affairs and Social Impact; and Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision U.S.
Several of the speakers argued that we need to immediately address several pressing problems in Seattle, including homelessness. Some in the audience and media took that to imply an “America First” attitude. What they seem to have missed, as we later learned in conversations with other attendees, was the point several speakers made that we must tackle these issues BOTH globally AND locally. This is not an “either or” scenario.
Continue Reading