It Takes a Village, and a Tribe: Women Help Women Locally, Globally

The idea that “it takes a village” to raise children and maintain a healthy community has resonated for women all over the world ever since the 1975-85 UN Decade for Women brought women together from every corner of the world. “Women hold up half the sky,” became another mantra heard often at the 1995 review of the Decade known as the Fourth World Conference on Women. I thought about both expressions, reminders of women’s solidarity, strength, survival skills and commitment to social change and human rights, when I worked with pregnant refugee women in Greece recently. The experience grew out of my communication with a woman in Montreal who runs a small program that supports pregnant and postpartum women in the city of Thessaloniki and at a refugee camp an hour north of there. Our conversation soon grew into an international dialogue in which a network of women who shared the goal of helping refugees in Greece spoke to each other.  Soon What’s App text messages and emails were flying fast and furious between Canada, Greece, France, the UK and the US. It was women’s networking at its best and it resulted in my being able, along with a friend from France, to offer personal and practical support to women from Syria and various African countries whose stories of seeking refuge would break your heart. Part of what made this experience interesting and illuminating is that outside of my French physician friend who joined me in Greece, I didn’t know any of these wome...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs