PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER, HEALTH, AND HUMAN RIGHTS
  • Home
  • Students-Who We Are
  • Faculty-Who We Are
  • About UW Bothell and WIT
  • Discussions/Padlets
  • Book Club
  • Final Project: Video, Photo Essay, or Audio Interview
  • Films, Video, and Television
  • Podcasts and Interviews
  • Social Media
  • Blog Posts
  • Campaigns
Follow us!

woman in Haiti and the global social ecological factors that impact them

1/21/2020

6 Comments

 
PictureImage from Weebly.com

Write about a story from the Girl Rising film that was memorable to you.  

I found the story of Wadley to be joyful, sad, and inspiring all at once. How she dreamed of a carefree life frolicking in the wildflowers but woke up to study her readings. How she generously brought food to share with a classmate who recently lost her father. She was so creative and loved to write of the wildflowers from her dreams, but her simple life was forever changed by the 2010 earthquake and now she wonders the tent encampment dreaming of simpler times when she could, once again, dance through the wildflowers. I learned so much from her story, the most profound being empathy and compassion. I have heard of the earth quake that devastated Haiti back in 2010, and it has been easy for me to look at it from a public health standpoint analyzing how the lack of adequate infrastructure, reliable electricity and roads for easy access to rural communities magnified the devastation (Pallardy, 2020). But I have never taken the time to look at this tragedy through the eyes of those who lived through it, especially the young girls. These factors greatly impacted the life trajectory of this child as she no longer has a home of her own and her mother can no longer afford to send her to school. It makes me wonder how different her life would be if Haiti was supported in the same way as the Dominican Republic? Could we even go as far as to say that the devastation this young girl faced was due to our global social ecological factors dictating how we support countries like Haiti? Though Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same land, the Dominican is a much wealthier country with a stable government that has more funding for natural disasters such as these (Park, 2016).With Haiti being the poorest country in the western hemisphere, should other economically stable countries be required to help these people during a crisis? Or better yet, help them develop a nation that is better equipped to handle these natural disasters on their own? How would this impact the lives of woman and young girls in Haiti who have been classified as some of the most vulnerable people in the world? There are many social ecological factors that contribute to the devastation Wadley has lived through, many of them being at the political and global scale. Who’s responsible for shifting the scales in favor of children such as Wadley and how can we support her and other young girls in Haiti whom suffering can be traced back to these global social ecological factors?

As I have previously mentioned, there is a wide range of social ecological factors that impact woman, some of them being on a global scale, and some of them being specific to individual communities. Global social ecological factors that impact woman in impoverished countries include, access to health care, education and equal rights in the workplace. Countries such as Haiti are uncapable of providing these resources for Haitian woman, and even if they were, would they make the effort to make these things a priority? This is where I believe it is the responsibility of wealthy countries to help improve the quality of life in these poor nations, and that starts with improving the lives of woman. As mentioned by Dr. David Allen boys and men are healthier in communities with healthy woman (David, n.d.). It is in the best interest of these underprivileged countries and those who support them to ensure health, education, and equal rights to woman to ensure a bright future for all.



​By: Haley Barton
 
Pallardy, R. (2020, January 5). 2010 Haiti earthquake. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/event/2010-Haiti-earthquake
Park, M. (2016, October 11). Two countries, one island, life-and-death differences. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/11/americas/haiti-dominican-republic-visual-explainer/index.html
David, A. (n.d.). Retrieved from  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j_MCYknSqQ&feature=emb_logo 




6 Comments
Dr. Early link
1/22/2020 09:27:47 pm

You raise some important questions, especially as they relate to our global investment into education. Check out this report from UNICEF about the impact of education for nations, and why wealthier countries should look at aid for education as an investment in helping to spread peace and prosperity the benefits everyone. http://www.ungei.org/

Reply
Haley Barton
1/25/2020 01:46:15 pm

Very interesting Dr.Early, thank you!

Reply
Erica Nguyen
1/25/2020 12:49:23 pm

Wadley's story also resonated with me as well. It made me realize that there are people out there with bigger problems and bigger issues. After watching the film, it finally hit me that these children face these problems everyday - this is their life and I had a hard time wrapping my head around that. I liked how made the connection between the natural disaster and how much of an impact it had on the lives affected by it. I also appreciated how you create a big picture of the different layers that are causing such a huge impact on the lives of the children such as lack of infrastructure and reliable electricity. I was shocked by the living conditions of Wadley as well as the people around her and it was crazy to think that there are millions of people whose lives are impacted.

Reply
Stephanie Cruz link
1/25/2020 04:00:43 pm

Hello Haley,

I really enjoyed reading your post and agree with Dr. Early about how this brings up some important questions. I also liked that your brought up how we have to consider the social ecological factors that impact women. This is so true because we have to consider ones upbringings, culture, environment. There is so much that goes into this that people tend to forget and ask these questions case by case. Access to health and education are also factors that play a huge roll

Reply
Christine Nguyen
2/4/2020 03:59:26 pm

Haley,
I find it interesting how the wealth in our world is distributed and I think it's also unfair that the wealthy are sometimes greedy to the sense where they fail to support people in need. If they were to take action in improve the world, it'll give opportunities for other people to not have to worry about necessities they need. It'll help improve the quality of life in these poor nations. Thank you for sharing your blog post!

Reply
TJ Kapil
2/23/2020 10:53:01 am

Hi Haley,
I found reading your post to be very interesting. I'm sure you have heard the saying " with great power comes great responsibility". I think that rich and powerful people with the capability to help others definitely should. They are people suffering around the world everyday longing for things we take for granted on a daily basis. If each one of us could even help out a little, it would add up and make a huge difference.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

Photo used under Creative Commons from hoyasmeg