Nicole posing with the provider guide she consulted regularly during her summer fieldwork in Haiti
Published October 22, 2015, last updated on June 3, 2020 under Voices of DGHI
By Nicole Jadue, MD, second year MSc-GH candidate
Whenever I see something in the news about a striking injustice or prepare myself to watch a movie about a social rights movement, I cannot help but wonder what I would have done. What would I have done if I had lived during the civil rights movement? Would I have joined the people on the streets in Selma advocating for human rights? I couldn't stop wondering after seeing Selma.
When I think about iconic moments in history, the same question invades my thoughts. What would I have done if I had been living during the Holocaust? Would I have opened my house to host Jews running away from the Nazis?
How would I have responded in times of worldwide emergencies or tragedies? Given the range of troubling current events around the world—including a seemingly endless list of global health crises—I actually have an opportunity to test this out.
I was reminded of this opportunity at DGHI’s Maternal, Adolescent and Child Health Symposium last month when DGHI professor Gavin Yamey gave his closing remarks. I was reminded that we live in a world full of disparities. We live in a world where incredible scientific breakthroughs and advancements are available but have still not been translated into policies. We live in a world where people are still dying or suffering greatly because of hunger, non-potable water and other preventable risk factors. We live in a world where one of the biggest burdens are still poverty-related diseases. Today, hypertension and other chronic diseases are still neglected in poor-resource settings, whereas in high-income countries, people like my father go to bed every day knowing that they have cholesterol medication.
I am part of a moment in history where there is so much to advocate for. We have solutions and we have knowledge. There is a know-do gap, no doubt about it. The world just needs knowledgeable individuals who decide to work toward these solutions, despite the challenges of doing so. People who decide to learn, get trained and go out there to go head-to-head with this suffering. People who wake up to the reality of the least privileged ones and decide to act on behalf of those in need.
I will never be part of the generation that celebrated the universal declaration of human rights in the late 1940s in Paris. I will never be part of the effort that eradicated smallpox.
But I am part of something—I am involved in the current events of my generation. Maybe this is my version of crossing the bridge in Selma. Maybe learning about research and global health advocacy is my way of standing up for the inequities and disparities that are hindering our world. For me, this is what having a voice in my generation looks like, and part of the journey is sitting in the classroom and learning about global health and research.
My generation has to get involved in this moment in history—making poverty history and working for the lives of more than three billion people. Just like the actions of the brave men and women who got involved in the civil rights movement or those who fought against the Holocaust, our actions can forever change the world we live in.
I am part of this generation—a generation that just has to be reminded that everyone has a place and a role in changing our history.
