The Global Pulse Journal Blog

This is a guest post by Daniel Rhee, AMSA Global’s Health and Human Rights coordinator.  It was originally posted on the Global listserv in honor of Human Trafficking Awareness Day on January 11, 2010.

“To some, human trafficking may seem like a problem limited to other parts of the world. In fact, it occurs in every country, including the United States, and we have a responsibility to fight it just as others do. ” - Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton (full article here)

Good afternoon, Global!

Today is National Global Human Trafficking Awareness day, and for those who are unfamiliar, human trafficking is “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.” (UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons)

It is one of several forms of slavery that exist today (click here to learn about modern slavery), and as our Secretary of State stated so clearly, it is not just an international issue, but a domestic one as well.

Here are some quick facts from freetheslaves.net and the US DOJ:

• there are more slaves now than ever before in human history – approximately 27 million around the world
• the cost of a slave has decreased from $40,000 in 1850, to $90 in 2008
• it would cost $40 per family to buy all bonded laborers in the world – Americans spend this much on chocolate each Valentine’s Day
• 17,500 slaves are brought into the United States every year
• sexual exploitation of minors is lawfully considered human trafficking – approximately 325,000 children in the United States are subjected to sexual exploitation every year
• the average age of entry into the commercial sex industry within the United States is 11-12 years old

So for those of you who want to learn/do more, here are a few things for today: Read the rest of this entry →

This is a guest post by Vanessa Coleman, coordinator of the International Women’s Health Leadership Institute and the International Women’s Health Working Group.

This New Year as you set down and make resolutions, we at AMSA urge you to make another one. Ghandi once said “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Imagine how much of a difference we could make in our practices, medical schools and in our communities if each of us 30,000 AMSA members made this resolution? Apply for AMSA’s inaugural International Women’s Leadership Institute and BE THE CHANGE.

Read on for details. Read the rest of this entry →

This is a guest post by Leah Bevis and Alison Hayward, MD for Uganda Village Project, an IFMSA transnational project. There are many ways to get involved with UVP, including through summer internships. – Sujal Parikh

Naigaga Florence lives in Bulumwaki Village, a small, extremely rural community in eastern Uganda. A thin, toothless, but smiling old woman, we first sighted her at a village outreach – in her arms was the most malnourished child that any of us had ever seen. The child’s eyes were dull, his hair a few blondish wisps on a dry skull. His tiny limbs were mere bones draped in shriveled skin, and his head lolled on his neck as if about to fall off completely. His name was Alfred, and he suffered from severe malnutrition, since his mother had died and was unable to breastfeed him. Without breastmilk’s protection, babies in the rural villages of Uganda face a grim prognosis. They are fed a thin gruel of flour and water which provides hardly any calories, or the protein they need to grow.   Read the rest of this entry →