We Protect What We Love
At Global Health Corps Training Institute over one year ago, one of the speakers shared an important concept with our cohort: “We protect what we love.”
The phrase has stuck with me throughout this year. Our world is home to many injustices and disparities related to race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and more. While we may not personally inflict or support these injustices, what good are we doing if we stay silent and do nothing?
I have asked myself many times: What do I love? Do I love myself? Do I love other women? Do I love humanity?
I love all of these things, so what am I doing to protect that which I love, or claim to love? What am I doing to make the world a better place for myself and other women? If I’m a lover of humanity, why do I stay silent when I should speak up?
I know I cannot fight all the injustices and battles in the world single-handedly or all at once, but I can choose to focus on what I’m exceptionally passionate about and make a difference. Am I not better off protecting something that I love than staying silent and doing nothing at all?
During the course of my work as a Global Health Corps fellow this year, I have had the privilege of going to various provinces and towns in Zambia, meeting different people and learning about many issues that my country and its people face. One trip in particular stands out.
While visiting one of our partner organizations in Luapula Province, I witnessed a young lady come in to report her partner for not providing child support. When filling in the report, the man attending to her asked for her partner’s name, and she gave it. What made this scenario unforgettable is that before entering the name, the gentleman looked up at her and said “You still need to respect him and call him sir.”
I sat there, exercising all of my restraint to not say anything. The woman had not been openly “disrespectful” when giving her partner’s name — she had given it simply and plainly. She was seeking help to hold her partner held accountable for his actions (or inactions, in this case). She was met with a blatant reminder that in many ways, society still perceives men as superior to women and worthy of respect regardless of their behavior.
This isn’t a one-time occurrence — it happens all too often to women, at work, at home, and when accessing social services. How do we expect women to stand up for themselves if every time they do so, we shout to them “men are higher”?
Gender bias in my country runs deep. We allow men to walk through life with more ease than women, holding them to lower standards of behavior and still expecting women to respect them — not because of their achievements or moral character, but because they simply are men. We need a cultural shift — we need to be CONSCIOUSLY gender sensitive to make sure that we do not disadvantage women by making them feel and believe that males tower over them in both the private and public sphere.
My fight will be for me and for other women and girls. I fight and will continue to fight against cultural biases in my country and beyond, and against the pervasive sexism that has held women back for centuries. I will fight all the ways that sexism impacts how we are perceived in the work place, our decision-making power, and our access to health and social services. I will not stay silent.
I believe I will not be the only one fighting and protecting that which I love. I know this because as a Global Health Corps fellow this year, I have met so many passionate people who are here with me, fighting for health equity for all. I didn’t know how to even start to make a difference in health, but I know with people like my fellow fellows (soon to be alums!) fighting the same fight I am, I will always have people to lean on and carry on with.
So what do you love? What are you passionate about? What will you fight for and protect? Answer that and you might find a committed group of other advocates standing beside you, ready to fight with you. Let us show our light and our leadership through action.
Alice Maimba Mapulanga was a 2016–2017 Global Health Corps fellow.
