health-activists

"Worldwide, sickle cell hemoglobin disorders lead to a substantial burden of disease that is not adequately addressed. Accurate data are lacking, but the worldwide estimate for neonates born with sickle cell disease each year is 400,000, including 300,000 with sickle cell anemia. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that 50%-80% of children affected die before five years."

"As a young person, the biggest hurdle was the stigma and discrimination because of sickle cell."

"We can’t really work from home 100%. Our experiments happen in the lab, so you have to find time to go onto campus."

"If you’re passionate about anything, just start up. Just start, even if you’re one person; along the way you’ll build and be able to grow it. You just have to start … Do not wait for anything. Just start."

"I had a wonderful, memorable and rich experience and its nothing as compared to what interns go through today as they are not valued."

"The earliest remuneration I saw was for my father and it was around Shs154, 500 at a time when I was right about to join campus."

"Heaven knows they need our help badly enough, poor lads! I don't think there is anything too good for these men : some of them are the finest men on earth. This, at least, I know : that though I never dreamed six months ago I was coming half-way round the world to be a canteen cook in this place of all others in the summer-time, no work could possibly be more important at the present time, for it does most certainly help to keep well men well, and help to buck up those who are seedy. As for the heat, it's no worse than lots of other places, and I don't feel it nearly so much as many other folk."

"If it were possible for me to run a properly conducted licensed house for the troops here, I would do it, for the sake of protecting the New Zealand nation against further invasion by venereal disease. It is not to do that at present, and therefore we have to rely merely on prophylactics. We shall all do our very utmost to get the New Zealand soldiers to use these whenever they are exposed to infection."

"You cannot dictate to any man what shall be his morality or his own religion. He must make his own choice. Your attempts to impose total sexual abstinence on him he regards as a meddlesome and impertinent interference with the expression of a natural instinct."

"We shall never conquer this greatest of national perils simply by spreading pious fluff over the landscape. Cannot we simply take our courage in our own hands now and face the facts of life as they really are?, because we'd know no one wanted to publicise the problem of soldier VD."

"The purpose of this club is to provide members of the NZEF with the necessary articles for the medical prevention of venereal disease. It has been established with the approval of the New Zealand military authorities in England, and the beginning made at Hornchurch, by their special request."

"We are getting on splendidly here. We have five large marquees up now, and have surrounded the only group of decent trees in the place. It is an oasis for the boys, in every way. They throng the place now. We have had some New Zealanders helping us, as a fatigue party, but most of them have returned to New Zealand - all but three. We have a grand party of Australians, who have quite got into the swing of the work. They are capable, and cheerful and helpful. The cooking has been the trouble. I have had to do that myself for several weeks, and the weather has been distinctly hot. I have stood over huge field boilers making gallons and gallons of blanc mange; all the boys are very keen on that. They simply devour anything that is made."

"By means of prophylaxis and the medical control of women, venereal disease has been practically wiped out at Port Said and elsewhere among Anzac troops. Until these remedies were applied, venereal disease prevailed to an alarming extent."

"I am beyond thrilled and we are honoured to accept the award! Like I always say, we do not do the work in order to be awarded but to be awarded for doing the work we love is a different kind of blessing. We are immensely grateful. When I say we, I mean my entire team and everyone that has been involved in my journey as a Healthcare advocate and humanitarian. The doctors that went before me and took the time to teach me what it means to be a good doctor, my mentor, my family and friends but most importantly, God. I’m excited for what the future holds for me and the millions of lives we are yet to save."

"I am really passionate about public health, and assisting people from poor backgrounds and the north was a better fit for me."

"Being a confident orator has gotten me into rooms I’ve only dreamt of. How you speak changes everything."

"The aim is to establish the largest public speaking school in the world and train the world’s greatest speakers."

"The emergence of social media platforms like Clubhouse has reiterated the importance of speech, a social media platform where all that matters is what you say and how you say it has reminded many that public speaking is of utmost importance."

"I am still trying to process this award. I’m still in awe. Hearing the news that I had won the award was a cherished but emotional moment. It has been years of hard work, sleepless nights and a lot of mental exhaustion."

"We do not work to be acknowledged, but to be acknowledged for doing the work you love is a different kind of blessing. This is my first international humanitarian award."

"Prosthesis products are widely available in terms of being able to dress fashionably. I have one for swimming, one for strapless dresses, and regular bras for other wear."

"If you see a problem and don’t seek a solution, you have no right to complain,"

"It costs less than getting your hair done three times a year. And if you don't have the surgery, then you're asking to die."

"My entire breast was removed in a modified radical mastectomy, and I didn’t bother with reconstructive surgery,"

"If every woman in Philadelphia had a Pap test once a year no woman need die of uterine cancer."

"My professional career in medicine has been inspired mainly by the many badly needed services to youth in the Black community."

"Follow your dream. You got two feet and a head? Keep going."

"It was what I wanted to do and I didn’t see why I couldn’t do it."

"Seventy per cent of the funding of the World Health Organisation comes from commercial entities…. As long as the WHO is getting industry funding or funding from vested interests, it should not be considered independent and the Indian government should ignore its advice. Those commercial entities are not interested in your health, they will make money by deception."

"They’re denying a lot of the pain that women and girls are going through, and just calling it Western influence."

"This is a battle of women around the world—because you may not sound like me, you may not look like me, but what they are trying to do to our bodies is the same everywhere."

"I remember feeling silenced and alone,the pain was almost too much to bear."

"It was important to lead an organization that was by people like us, who have lived experience and know how to tackle these issues in a respectful manner."

"I can’t tell you the amount of times in a day that I hear that I’m going to hell."

"These issues are personal to me, they’re part of my life history. We won’t have equality until girls can grow up with control over their own bodies and futures."

"I am proud to join UN Women in their fight for the rights of women and girls all over Africa. I want to see the day when no parent makes a decision that will change and limit their daughters’ lives. The girls of Africa and worldwide need to know that their future is bigger than they imagine."

"You should encourage women to seek medical attention during pregnancy to avoid complications that could lead to the death of the pregnant woman."

"The causes of this high mortality rate in Chad are early pregnancies, closely spaced or late pregnancies or even unwanted pregnancies."

"I would like to tell you about a not unpleasant experience that I had in the first years of my career... After prolonged treatment, I was able to assure the wife of an Amsterdam patrician that she was cured of a serious gynecological ailment, which she had suffered for many years. As was customary in those years, I submitted my account at the start of the new year. A few days later I received a visit from the husband of my ex-patient.... “What gave you the idea!” he shouted, full of indignation. “You must surely know that no one thinks of paying women's work as highly as work done by men.”.... “Did you then,” I asked very calmly, “when your wife was indeed seriously ill, seek inferior and therefore cheap medical help for her? I suspect that it was primarily good help you sought. I thought that was why you turned to me, the only female doctor in the Netherlands.” “Are you,” I asked further, “are you really seriously complaining about a bill based on the rates set by my male colleagues? You should rather appreciate that I adhere to this, instead of relying on the privileged position of being the only female doctor in the country for the time being and therefore being paid more expensively than the other Amsterdam physicians.” ....his wife came to pay the bill a few days later...."

"The word “prostitution” was not allowed to be mentioned in proper company.... How often have I tried in vain to throw down that wall of prejudice and routine! I am thinking, among other things, of a dispute with one of my professors. Completely in good faith, "Professor" proclaimed the position held by almost everyone at the time, that for a man satisfying his sex drive was a requirement of health and that it was therefore in the community's interest to ensure that by satisfying that drive no or minimal damage was done to his health. “If that is really your opinion,” I replied, “you are morally obliged to make your daughters available for this purpose.”"

"I want to encourage everyone to never give up on their dreams. If I can do it, anyone can do it. Just believe in yourself and keep your focus"

"Forbes - at the #ForbesUnder30 Summit in Botswana, Ouma Sekokole (April 2022)"

"Summiting Everest (And Africa’s Cancer Crisis) | Forbes Under 30 Africa (May 2022)"

"You need to have your ability to explore your human potential, which needs a lot of discipline, focus, positivity and removing all the negativity that is around you"

"As a climber, it's not about the summit, it's about the process"

"If Carey Mulligan reaches the Oscar podium on April 25 with her by turns thrilling and devastating lead performance in Emerald Fennell’s subversive feature debut Promising Young Woman, her win would cement her status as one of the most consistently brilliant actors in the industry today. Over the past 16 years, the 35-year-old Londoner has worked with quiet precision, bringing depth, complexity and intelligence to every part she takes on. While she’s still best known for playing strong-willed heroines in lyrical period dramas, it’s her contemporary roles... that are a true testament to her talent."

"What I really love about the (Suffragette) film is that (her character) has a little boy and she doesn't have a girl... Because she has a son, it's sort of reflecting the idea that this fight isn't for women... It's for human rights and equality and that serves men as well as women and that was something watching the film and talking about the film now is really important: That feminism isn't just for girls. It's something that is everyone's issue."

"Variety magazine’s first review of Promising Young Woman, a black comedy in which Mulligan plays Cassie, a woman who fools men into believing she is too drunk to give consent for sex, read: “Mulligan, a fine actress, seems a bit of an odd choice as this admittedly many-layered apparent femme fatale – Margot Robbie is a producer here, and one can (perhaps too easily) imagine the role might once have been intended for her. Whereas with this star, Cassie wears her pickup-bait gear like bad drag; even her long blonde hair seems a put-on.” ...Mulligan first took issue with the article in an interview with the New York Times in December, after which Variety updated its review with an editor’s note, which reads: “Variety sincerely apologises to Carey Mulligan and regrets the insensitive language and insinuation in our review of Promising Young Woman that minimised her daring performance.” Harvey’s original point remains in the text. The response from critics has largely sided with Mulligan... thrown him under the bus.”"

"I think in criticising or bemoaning a lack of attractiveness on my part in a character, it wasn’t a personal slight. It didn’t wound my ego, but it made me concerned that in such a big publication an actress’s appearance could be criticised and it could be accepted as completely reasonable criticism. I feel it’s important that criticism is constructive. I think it’s important that we are looking at the right things when it comes to work, and we’re looking at the art and we’re looking at the performance... It’s important to call out those things, because they seem small and they seem insignificant... People around me at the time said, ‘Oh, get over it. People love the film.’ But it stuck with me, because I think it’s these kind of everyday moments that add up.... We start to edit the way that women appear on-screen, and we want them to look a certain way. We want to airbrush them, and we want to make them look perfect. Or we want to edit the way that they work, the way they move and the way that they think and behave. And I think we need to see real women portrayed on-screen in all of their complexity. I felt that it was one small thing to point out that could be helpful.... I was really sort of surprised and thrilled and happy to have received an apology... I kind of found it moving, in a way – to draw a line and know that had an impact. (speaking about Variety magazine’s first review of Promising Young Woman, a black comedy in which Mulligan plays Cassie)"

"The thing about awards season that gives it value is celebrating film, obviously, but also highlighting films that might not otherwise have had an audience. When I read the Promising Young Woman script, I felt... I had to do it... My favourite way of working is having really long conversations with the director. When that relationship is solid, and you can talk for hours and figure this person out, and do that to a degree with the other actors, it feels like such a human thing... I have not had to experience what Cassie has gone through in this film and I wanted to make sure that it felt accurate, so that it didn’t sit wrong with people who’ve got real pain... I would never ask someone to relive something terrible for the sake of a film... the truth is that this situation is so common and what happens in the film is such a sad reality. You want it to be really clear about that. [During the pandemic] I haven’t worked much. I did a few audiobooks... A Matt Haig book called The Midnight Library and a kids’ book called The Worst Warlock, which was really fun, with trolls and wizards. And the EM Forster short story The Machine Stops. Published in 1909, it’s about an apocalyptic society where everyone lives in their own bubble and nobody has any human contact and everyone communicates through what are essentially iPads. It’s just nuts."