Women Leaders, Forgotten Stories, and the Aftermath of Syria’s Earthquake

Editor's Note

This week, we finish Women's History Month with two pieces about female leaders in global health. The first piece features conversations with Maseretse Ratia, program officer at the UN Population Fund in Lesotho; Michele Barry, director of Stanford University's Center for Innovation in Global Health; and Roopa Dhatt, executive director and co-founder of Women in Global Health. Those women reflect on how they became involved in global health and what inspired them to become leaders in the field. The second piece focuses on Mary Dempsey, who developed "years of life lost," the idea that "every death represents years of potential life lost, years that might otherwise have been filled with rich memories of family, friends, productivity, and joy."  

We also published an analysis of problems with Guatemala's adoption system. The authors tell the story of Ignacio Alvarado, who was born in Guatemala but raised in Canada, after Guatemalan authorities pressured his birthmother to give him up for adoption. After returning to Guatemala to meet his birthmother, Alvarado partnered with Guatemalan adoptees in similar situations to found Estamos Aquí, an organization that sheds light on Guatemala's forgotten children and works to reunite them with their birth families.

Wrapping up the week, two researchers describe how the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria have converged with Syria's civil war to cause a catastrophic crisis for the Syrian health-care system. Months after the earthquakes struck, Syria continues to confront many health challenges, including constrained border crossings, a fatigued health-care workforce, and a cholera outbreak. The authors argue that stable humanitarian aid could help alleviate the crisis.

As always, thank you for reading. —Thomas J. Bollyky