Desi majored in psychology and minored in global health, graduating Colorado College in 2016. She joined GlobeMed during her sophomore year and held the positions of Community Building Co-Coordinator, GROW Intern, and Co-President. Desi is currently a Community Mobilization Coordinator Vital Village Network in Boston, MA through the AmeriCorps VISTA program, and remains one of GlobeMed’s most passionate alumni. This is her story.
Shortly after my first birthday, I was adopted from the Philippines and grew up in America. I became the first in my family to attend university when I left the Minnesota suburbs for the Colorado mountains. Eager to pursue my dream of nursing, I dove headfirst into all that Colorado College had to offer. However, my trajectory shifted as I grappled with my identity and society throughout my first year.
One of my most formative experiences took place on an alternative spring break trip, volunteering with a dedicated to long-term recovery efforts in New Orleans. Nearly ten years after Hurricane Katrina, the Lower Ninth Ward-a primarily low-income, African-American community-had been left behind. Families’ homes had been destroyed by flood damage, grocery stores were scant, and elementary schools had neither been restored nor reopened. Residential leaders explained how the discriminatory decisions of political leaders had slowed the recovery of their neighborhood. I began to see that health did not begin and end within the walls of hospitals ; our everyday lives and wellbeing are significantly impacted by our leaders and their decisions about people and priorities in a world with finite time and resources. Enraged and enlightened, my dinner table conversations started to center on the larger social forces that shape our upbringing, opportunities, and health. Through my psychology and global health studies, I focused on how our position in society intersects with our health and development. By the end of my freshman year, my nursing aspirations had transformed into a life dedicated to redesigning the institutions and systems that perpetuate inequality.
GlobeMed and the Power of Story
I was energized and driven by what I learned in the classroom, but craved direct experience working with communities to tackle inequitable health on the ground. To my pleasant surprise, I found my answer at the next student activities fair: GlobeMed.
The GlobeMed values and model have, and continue to, challenge, grow, and shape me into the global health warrior I am today. I believe the greatest lesson I’ve learned is the power of story. Stories allow us to exercise our own power and empower others. Stories can help us deconstruct how social structures work for and against humanity. And most of all, stories can be a catalyst for change.
Deconstructing Single Stories
GlobeMed taught me to never stop asking this critical question: who has a seat at the table? “The table” is where people make decisions for entire communities and where seats are too often reserved for people in society who hold the most power, privilege, and influence. Unfortunately, the global health workforce is not immune to this single story —leadership in the field still lacks diversity. The GlobeMed model directly challenges this single story and provides an alternative for global health leadership. As summarized in GlobeMed’s 10 Things We Know To Be True, we believe that “Poverty of means is not poverty of ability. Intelligence, talent, and leadership capacity are equally distributed around the world. Opportunities and resources are not.” Our story for the future of global health — a world where all peoples have the right to live a healthy, dignified life — can, and will, be written by people of differing stories uniting to write a new shared story.
My chapter, GlobeMed at Colorado College, was and still is partnered with Western Organization for People Living with HIV/AIDS (WOPLAH). In 2008, an all-Kenyan powerhouse team of self-declared Ambassadors of Hope, founded WOPLAH to promote stronger collaboration and provide their community with equitable access to HIV counseling and testing, health education, and economic empowerment. One of the key relationship building components of GlobeMed at Colorado College’s multi-year partnership is the Grassroots Onsite Work (GROW) internship, where GlobeMed students travel to work alongside the Ambassadors in their home community.
As a first-generation student, I worked four jobs on campus. Every penny went towards my living and educational expenses, and there wasn’t much for savings, let alone for international trips. Participating in the GROW internship seemed out of reach. Historically, the global health workforce has been criticized for being largely composed of affluent white people who are able to afford international opportunities. GlobeMed works to combat this trend, and make GROW available to all students. In July 2014, I found myself halfway across the world on a six-week journey, applying what I had learned about global health in the classroom to working on the ground with WOPLAH. This opportunity was supported and funded by Colorado College and the Global Health Fellows Program (GHFP) II.
The Empowerment of Story Sharing
I remember meeting Edwin Wetoyi, the Ambassador of Hope with whom we worked most closely, when our GROW team arrived in Mumias, Kenya. I was overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement, but also somewhat nervous. I stood out. Not only were a majority of the people I saw in Kenya Black, but everyone on my team was white — a visual reminder that I was different. I was a small, Filipino woman and first-generation student who — aside from flying from the Philippines to America as a baby! — had no prior international experiences. Did I really deserve to be there?
“MAMBOS!” Edwin greeted us at the gate with the biggest of hugs. He looked me in the eyes and said, “Desi, I am so excited to see you!” And my nerves subsided. Edwin barely knew me, yet instantly made me feel like I belonged. I quickly learned that this was one of Edwin’s special strengths: to see and care for people when they feel unseen and unworthy of care.
Of the many different stigmas associated with this infection, the gravest suggests that, “If you get HIV, there is no reason for you to live. You are going to get AIDS, and you are going to die,” despite that HIV is preventable and treatable. Day in and day out, Edwin lives and breathes WOPLAH’s mission, and empowers others to live fulfilling lives while HIV-positive. He conducts free HIV testing and counseling in local maternal child health clinics and nightclubs to reach every corner of the community. He encourages individuals to accept themselves and disclose their status to their loved ones. And as my teammate Claire so accurately, Edwin “manages to do it with a smile, a laugh, a quirky dance move, and the occasional song-all while taking daily ARVs himself.” As Edwin loved to say, he lives positively while being HIV-positive and inspires those he works with to do the same.
Edwin shared who he was through leading by example, through quality time together, and by encouraging us to ask questions. Edwin let us see him and hear his full story-something he does every day to empower others. Edwin is a community mobilizer and father-figure goofball. Edwin is a role model and cheerleader. Edwin is Kenyan and speaks English. Edwin is HIV-positive and a public health worker. Edwin is a leader.
Owning My Story
Edwin has and continues to inspire me. The bravery he modeled in owning and sharing his story encourages me to do the same. Owning my story not only guides my life’s purpose, but has enabled me to see how I am an asset to the global health workforce. At the age of 24, my mother was single parent of two and living in poverty. We had no food or shelter. And because she lived in the slums of a developing country, her best solution was surrendering me to others who could provide a life she could not. No child should come into this world starving, and no mother should have to surrender her child to be fed. My beautiful, privileged, and complicated existence is the result of a country and a community failing to support its families and care for its children. Now, I am dedicated to actualizing every family and every child’s right to health-to not only survive, but to thrive.
I was separated from my birth mother within the first 30 days of my life. According to prenatal psychology, shows that babies begin building a relationship with their mother in the womb. When I was born, I was already familiar with the sound, smell, and gait of my birth mother. I depended on her for love, nutrients, and safety. She was my first relationship and I instinctively trusted she would continue to care for me. When surrendered, the first relationship of my life was severed; a trauma that significantly impacts what I believe today: trust, accountability, and care need to be at the center of every relationship.
And as I have come to believe, any progress in global health equity is contingent on the quality of relationships. Partnerships, cross-sector collaboration, working committees, advocacy, communications, funding, and so on, a majority of global health work centers around the relationships.
Uniting to Write a New Shared Story
My experience in New Orleans, my time with GlobeMed and Edwin during GROW, and my own self-exploration have transformed the way I see leadership and the greater global health workforce: when our decision making tables are full of diverse leaders-they are not only representative; they are stronger, more dynamic, and resilient.
The global health challenges we face today are entrenched and complicated at best. Every human and every voice is needed for the movement towards global health equity to succeed. Edwin’s story matters. My story matters. And your story matters. The identities and positions we hold-seen and unseen-significantly impact our lived experiences. And every human’s lived experiences shape their own story-filling them with a wealth of insights, knowledge, and perspectives. What makes us different is also what makes us uniquely powerful leaders. With a brave and full heart, I am so grateful for GlobeMed, GHFP-II, WOPLAH, and everyone who is a part of this movement.
Embrace your own story, open your heart to the stories of others, and let’s write a new shared story of global health equity, together.
Originally published at https://www.globemed.org on January 29, 2018.
