Health Insurance Is A Human Right
by Marsha Jean-Charles | originally posted on Jan 31, 2010
Many of my closest friends and neighbors do not have health care insurance. They, like I at times, have suffered varying levels of pain when managing an illness without sufficient treatment. With my mother’s employment, I have been fortunate to have health care insurance for much of my life. Because of this I have gotten medicine, tests and other treatment that I have desperately needed to deal with my asthma and get accurate assessments after two cancer scares.
In my world as a 21 year-old Black woman from Brooklyn, health care insurance seems to be the marker of a healthier and more secure lifestyle. The fact that 30% of people my age and their family members do not have health insurance is frightening. Furthermore, the reality is that a large portion of this group has either never had health insurance, or have gotten kicked off their families’ insurance once they have turned nineteen. This implies that they will begin their adult life not having the capacity to truly take care of themselves as they work hard and try to attain their dreams. These same people are from marginalized communities and are of the population already at high risk for heart disease and other illnesses. This is a daily problem many people in my family deal with. This reality is scary and disheartening. How are we to succeed and attain this country’s promises if we are too sick to do so?
Change in the health care system has been long overdue. I am not sure if the necessary change will be fulfilled with this new legislation, but I remain hopeful. Healthy living is a human right; health insurance and access to proper treatment and facilities are means toward more Americans receiving that right.
Marsha Jean-Charles is a sophomore at Wesleyan University. She is also an alumni member of the Liberation Program, and has participated in the International Study Program trips to Ghana [2007] and Brazil [2006].
Human Trafficking
by Moussa Sidibe | originally posted on Jan 31, 2010
I had no choice.
I didn’t want to do it.
I didn’t want to do it.
But I had no choice.
That’s it, I thought.
I’ve changed,
I’m a different person.
Human trafficking is the practice of people being tricked or forced into prostitution with little to no pay. Human trafficking is a big international problem, happening in countries around the world, including Bolivia, Cambodia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Kuwait, North Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Venezuela, and the United States. It has many features of slavery which is mostly illegal in countries, but nothing is being done. Things such as prostitution, forced labor, and selling children are done. It is terrible and it’s even more shocking that it hasn’t been stopped.
You might be surprised by the last country I mentioned, but it’s true. Many people in this country, especially women, are affected by trafficking, and it’s amazing that many people don’t know that it is happening. Every morning, a large number of women across the United States wake up knowing that she will be forced into sex. You may think to yourself “These women are stupid. Why don’t they just resist, or tell the cops, or something.” It’s harder than you think. One reason why it’s hard for them to resist, or run away and report it, is because they are dependent on and often under the control of someone else, and are often drugged. They never know the person they’re having sex with. It’s always an anonymous customer. Afterward, they rarely see the person again. The victims never know the name of the person they’re having sex with, or any other information. The person just pays to have sex with them and they will never see them again.
Before last month, I never knew anything about human trafficking. I never even knew that the term existed. When I first heard it, I thought it had to do with cars. On November 10, 2009, I, along with the members of the Strive to Thrive chapter at Mott Hall High School, visited the Journey exhibit with our chapter leader Enmanuel Candelario. The Journey exhibit was on display for just five days, from November 10th through November 15th in New York City, in Washington Square Park. It was created by Emma Thompson, an Academy Award-winning British actress. As a community activist, she decided to focus her awareness campaign on human trafficking, because she wanted people to know about it and how wrong it is. In an interview about the exhibit, she made a good point that stood out to me. She said human trafficking is a much easier crime to commit than dealing with drugs or weapons: “You can make $150,000 from one girl in a year, because moving people around the place is easier than moving guns around.” It’s true and makes the situation even more difficult to change and the criminals harder to catch.
Visiting the Journey exhibit was an amazing and disturbing experience. It made you feel like you were in that person’s shoes. It was told like a story. First, you walk in and see images from the person’s childhood. There are words on top of a keyhole and when you look through the keyhole, you can see dolls describing the words. Then, you enter a room where there was a very dirty bed with condoms all around the place. There were pills, lipsticks, and other dirty things. There was also this room that had a very bad smell. The smell was the mixture of vomit, semen, and other types of things. It impacted me in a big way because it was shocking and interesting at the same time. I had never heard of trafficking before, and now I understand so much.
An organization involved in fighting against human trafficking is Covenant House, which is a large private funded childcare agency in the United States providing shelter and services to homeless and runaway youth. Another organization is Safe Horizon, which assists survivors of human trafficking with shelter, access to public benefits, and many other things. City Bar Justice created a project to assist women and children of abusive parents and victims of human trafficking. Find out more about what these organizations are doing to fight against trafficking by visiting http://www.humantrafficking.org.
Moussa Sidibe is a sophomore at Bread and Roses High School. He is also a member of The Strive 2 Thrive Cipher, Liberation Program, and the Media Team.
Bro/Sis Photo@Random
