Many of our students attended this year’s meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA), held in Atlanta, November 4 – 8. What follows is a post from one of these attendees.
By Bejanchong Foretia, BA
APHA was once again a great experience to learn, network, and reflect on the many issues in the world and solutions to solve these issues. Climate change was the theme for this year’s meeting and it was amazing to see every section integrate this topic in such a way that everyone can understand the need for a global solution. I admit, though I know about climate change on a superficial level, I did not know much about it in relation to maternal and child health, infectious disease, population and sexual health, and overall global conflict. I found myself going to a lot more global health sessions than I intended, but each session brought me closer to some unknown issues, as well as well how climate change interacts with them all.
APHA introduced a few main points to me about climate change: it affects
- immigration and displacement;
- MCH, including nutrition and pregnancy;
- sexual health including sex trafficking;
and can be the cause of war in and between nations. Of course, I understand the climate change pushes people to new homes in foreign places. However, I did not think about the strain that the host country must endure for the new immigrants, or the heavy toll of finding work in a new land with children for a young mother. And then there’s the new wave of vector-borne diseases like Zika virus because of the increase in mosquitoes, subsequently affecting our mothers and children. We may not think about drought causing increased need for labor by human trafficking, or increased child marriage to secure girls to food and water provisions in countries at war. And even war has much to do with the claim of natural resources that have quickly declined due to climate. These aspects may not seem like global conflict on the surface, but these are all issues that are connected internationally. They seem far off and should be of concern to the UN not the U.S. But in just the same, if not more ways, they affect the women and children here at home.
I learned that that the scope of my studies does not go deep enough to pinpoint the variety of ways these problems interconnect and circle around to each other. As a result, we end up with very narrow and linear interventions that may not be sustainable long-term. In this way, it helps me to realize the value of my MPH a little bit more as I go through course work that prioritizes global issues, multilevel thinking, and intersectionality.
Bejanchong Foretia is a second-year MPH student, concentrating in Maternal and Child Health. She graduated with a degree in psychology from Spelman College. She plans to graduate in May 2018. Her interests include infant health, reproductive health, racial equity, as well as global health. She also loves reading, dancing, and traveling to as many countries as she can.
