Enlightenment and Education: Our Generations Call by Natasha

Enlightenment and Education: Our Generations Call by Natasha - April 2015 Scholarship Essay

My personal experience with education has spanned international borders, as one does not only learn within the confines of a structured educational institution. The greatest lessons I have learned in life, and the greatest education I will ever receive, arose from working with others, and being immersed in cultures and beliefs other than my own. For my personal experience with education, and the reason in which I am continuing to pursue further enlightenment on matters of Global Health, I would like to tell a story of the greatest lesson I learned.

Following my first medical experience abroad, there was no denying my career goals lie in aiding the eradication of hunger and tropical diseases, by empowering vulnerable communities, especially women. Education is empowerment. The truth of the matter is, you cannot look inequity in the eyes, which in this case presented itself in the form of a starving child, and turn down such lament for help. Milagro was a twelve year old girl who graced me with her presence in a makeshift clinic in the secluded mountains of the Dominican Republic. The desolate village was absent of medical workers, and lacked established roads for accessible transportation to the nearest hospital. Within the confines of thin clay walls, a grass thatched roof allowed glimmers of sunlight to illuminate the intimate work space during my time as a service worker. Milagro ushered her two younger brothers, Emmanuel and Dey, in search of medical aid, food, and most importantly hope. The two young boys slumped forwards, with emaciated spindly bodies, and engorged abdomens. Like the hundreds of families and children before them, their chief complaint was hunger, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. The contaminated small stream, in the drought stricken area, was the sole source of drinking water. With no infrastructure for waste disposal, the water supply was inevitably polluted by surrounding waste. It was no surprise this family was infested with parasites, as the water was also used for bathing, cooking, and cleaning.

With limited resources, I turned to sustainable ideas to aid the community members; introducing plant based home remedies to rid the children of their parasites. I led a group of student nurses in the distribution of a ground Papaya seed homeopathic remedy. The papaya fruit was sold in the neighboring markets, and grown within the community’s borders. Therefore, it’s renewable and practical application to healthcare was made possible with the understanding that the community must be self sufficient, and reliant on their internal natural resources such as Papaya. I wanted to leave the community with some semblance of a long lasting intervention; this materialized with the additional encouragement and education of each patient to teach neighboring community members of this antidote. If one patient taught another, then the exponential effect could far surpass my interim confines as a medical aid worker. The translation of the name Milagro from Spanish to English is miracle. I was never able to provide her with the miracle she deserved. I wanted to rid every child and family of the exposure to tropical disease, but knew I was helpless against the endless battle that is poverty and the deplorable conditions which ensue. I see myself applying education in nursing, to alleviate disease burden, by using upstream approaches in medicine, and sustainable grassroots interventions to ultimately assuage global health issues. One requires education to enlighten, therefore further educating myself on interventions to combat these struggles will strengthen my ability to heal, guide, and alleviate.

Therefore the purpose of education both academically and interpersonally is the uplift those around us, to create better individuals and communities, to hope that our generation, the current pupils of the world, will take on life's challenges and make them their own. To take the uneducated and uplift them from their sorrows, from their life burdens, and to create and more equitable and just world. We are worldwide navigators of change with the capacity to battle all elements diminishing quality of life, and access to basic elements to life. With the help of fellow educators and individuals who hope to make the world a better place, any challenge can be overcome with the congruent passion which education has provided.