Doctor. Counsellor. Freedom Fighter.

She was a healthy young woman who came to see me for a “complete check-up” before a holiday overseas. Although I tend to think “complete” check-ups are somewhat overkill, they do present a good opportunity for health promotion and disease prevention. As one does, I asked about sexual history and family planning. She hesitated just

What I See In Your Photos With “Poor African Children”

5. I see someone who took a picture of an attraction.

We take pictures of the Taj Mahal and Mauna Loa and the Shwedagon Pagoda and Table Mountain and so, why not, of these adorable African children. And we post them online too, because the world must see what we saw.

Land of the Disability Grant

I won’t be one of the voices that claims that social grants are inherently bad, because I certainly agree that they have their place. But I know that MANY doctors around the country do fill out Disability Grant applications for patients who don’t qualify for them, and many patients have come to expect that. I don’t entirely blame them.

Hypothesis: South African Sights for South African Vision

While I was in beautiful Cape Town for my leave (wow, that was a long time ago), my sister and I mused about how we have access to this gorgeous country simply by virtue of being born here. “Just think,” she said, “people pay thousands of rands to see Table Mountain, and here we are, just

Paired Reading: Refugees and Displaced Persons in Africa

How does one express the kind of tenderness evoked by this narrative? And yet it is not overtly biased. It is not manipulative. It is a stunningly crafted narrative that focuses on a young man’s memories and struggles. Struggles that were meant to change when he reached South Africa, the supposed land of milk and honey.

For Healthcare Workers: Turn Their Pain Into Power

When one patient after the other in Antenatal Clinic is a teenager, and I feel angry about their bad decisions and angry at their parents for not looking after them well enough and ANGRY with whatever boy did this to her…

I ask them if they go to school. What they want to study after school. Affirm that yes, that’s a great decision, and yes, you can do it.

Turn their pain into power.

Reviewing “Ebola” – and can we just admit that we don’t have a handle on this?

I read Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus by David Quammen. There is hardly a more current book on the matter and I am getting so many questions from friends and family that I figured I might as well inform myself a little more. In 1976 a deadly virus emerged from the

Visiting Haiti through “Because We Are”

Ten-year-old orphan Libète has been hardened by the daily struggle to survive in Cité Soleil, Haiti’s most infamous slum. But when she and her best friend, Jak, discover a young mother and her baby brutally murdered in a nearby marsh, it’s unlike anything she’s encountered before. Though initially shocked, the adults of Cité Soleil move

Book Review: Broken Monsters

Broken city, broken dreams In Detroit, violent death – along with foreclosure and despair – is a regular occurrence. But the part-human, part-animal corpses that have started appearing are more disturbing than anything Detective Gabriella Versado has ever seen[…] […]Broken Monsters lays bare the decaying corpse of the American Dream, and asks what we’d be

Armchair BEA: More Than Just Words

I’m joining Armchair BEA for the first time this year by participating in a few discussions. My dream is one day to attend the real deal… but till then, this will suffice. Today’s discussion is about books that are “more than just words”, and to this end I’m sharing three mini-reviews for books I recently received