DGH Locally:
Liberation Medicine in the US
By Shirley Novak
You probably are most familiar with Doctors for Global Health’s international projects. This is to give an idea of what DGH is doing in the US regarding Liberation Medicine. There were two major problems in writing this: 1) There are so many possible ways to promote Liberation Medicine; and 2) Those doing the promotion are not boasting about their activities. Mostly, they go about their daily routines, living their lives, doing what they know and enjoy, doing what comes naturally and not thinking that what they are doing is anything special or unusual. Maybe it’s not special to themselves, but to those “who have no voice,” or to folks who “have difficulty making their voices heard,” it can literally mean the difference between life and death.

“Liberation Medicine is: The conscious, conscientious use of health to promote human dignity and social justice.”
Liberation Medicine is: “The conscious, conscientious use of health to promote human dignity and social justice.” The best way to do this–really the most effective way to do this–is to incorporate the concept and practice into our daily lives.

The very first step in any process is to become informed. To be educated. After that, one can make an informed decision, take a stand for or against something, make a meaningful contribution, make a difference. The work of DGH in developing countries is important–to the people living there and to us. Part of that work is being done by volunteers through funds donated by those already educated on the needs. Folks like you. In this world of injustices, where the needs are so great, it is easy to see the necessity of educating more and more people to make more and more informed decisions, to take more and more stands against injustices, so the wide gap between the haves and the have-nots is narrowed, where the voiceless can begin to speak–without fear–and be heard. Now I’ll share with you some examples of DGH members and supporters promoting Liberation Medicine, Health and Human Rights, within their own communities here in the US.

A DGH-sponsored health workshop for new immigrants at the Center for the Education of Workers in NYC.

Dr. Lanny Smith (far right) at a DGH-sponsored Liberation Medicine workshop at the American Public Health Association Annual Conference in Chicago.

Shirley Novak sharing her experiences in El Salvador with fifth graders.

DGH folks often take the opportunity to talk informally about the organization and its projects with their co-workers and visitors entering their workplaces. Indirectly, this helps make clear the existing inequities and injustices that make the work necessary. Such informal talks take place all around the country: in the Georgia Parks, Georgia Tourism and Wildlife Resources, and the Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo, MI, when a pediatric resident gave a Grand Rounds on her recent month spent in El Salvador. This exposes people to issues facing the marginalized poor of El Salvador (and other places) and gets folks thinking in ways they might not have done otherwise. For other DGH volunteers, the variety of formal and informal talks, often with slides of international projects, ranges from 3rd grade at area elementary schools and high school Global Studies classes, to university Spanish or Latin American Studies courses. Community organizations–religious and secular–are also the recipients of this Liberation Medicine/Human Rights promotion, though those terms are not always prominent, depending on the age group of the audience.

When one DGH board member was made aware of a local filmmaker’s search for a nonprofit organization willing to assist in channeling donation money, Liberation Medicine took on another form. At the screening of Long Haired Warriors in Salt Lake City, DGH was introduced to many more locals and the opportunity to pass on financial help to elderly women in need in Vietnam was realized.

Press work is an obvious and important aspect of this type of collaboration. DGH and Liberation Medicine/Human Rights themes are often addressed as volunteers make contributions to journal articles, local newspapers and organizational newsletters, and involve the non-print media whenever possible. With any DGH project, volunteers are encouraged to initiate their own press work. Since local media is often interested in covering stories of local community members, this allows marginalized groups like poverty-stricken campesinos in El Salvador and the indigenous of Chiapas to get media coverage for their seldom-heard stories.

DGH sponsored a poetry contest two years ago and this year a photography contest was held to illustrate the need for Universal Healthcare. Thus, we have brought Liberation Medicine into the realm of the arts, as we did with the film screening in Salt Lake City.

One of DGH ’s board members used his creativity and talents, when a photography exhibit became a fundraiser, generating money for DGH and promoting Human Rights at the same time (see above).

A major financial contribution came coupled with a very special award this spring. We were most proud when our founding treasurer, Renée Smith, was named Georgia Mother of the Year, and through this honor, DGH became more widely known. The state award recognized her essential work in the community in the formation and development of DGH over the past six years. RenŽe earned national recognition for herself and DGH as well, when she was named one of two special honorees and $1,000 from the American Mothers Group for the charity of her choice was donated for a DGH project enhancing the life of abused or abandoned children in Nicaragua.

Of course it is expected that numerous presentations would be given by DGH Board members and others within various medical institutions. Both formal slide presentations and informal breakfast table discussions are just two examples of Liberation Medicine promotion at the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine annual meeting, a Chapter meeting of Physicians for Human Rights, local faculty development classes in Arizona, Liberation and Social Medicine curriculum for medical residents in the Bronx, NY, at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta and many other similar institutions. Through Highbridge Community Life Center [Clinic] in the South Bronx, NY, the underserved–many of them undocumented immigrants–are offered health care with dignity. This is perhaps Liberation Medicine at its best.

The University of Iowa sponsored A Global Assembly: Advancing the Human Right to Health in April of this year. DGH was well represented. Two Board members and several Advisory Council members were major presenters at this conference. DGH also lent its name to this important gathering as one of the off-campus sponsors. Through DGH volunteers, Liberation Medicine has been brought to Manhattan through computer and health-related classes taught at an ESOL center for immigrants. The recent earthquakes in El Salvador encouraged the formation of a coalition of community groups in Syracuse, NY, to promote the sale of Fair Trade coffee from El Salvador. Given much local media attention, the mayor eventually signed a proclamation declaring “El Salvador Earthquake Coffee Month.” DGH was also promoted since a Board member and local resident had recently returned from volunteering in El Salvador, and the coffee project was carried prominently on the DGH web site (see page 11). You can also check out the DGH web site often for updates and links on a variety of Liberation Medicine and Human Rights issues.

With ever-increasing Globalization closing in and transnational corporations squeezing local companies out of business–putting profit before people–it has become very important for grassroots organizations in civil society to band together. DGH’s promotion of Liberation Medicine and Human Rights has taken the form of accompaniment. One of the original founding members of the Mexico Solidarity Network, DGH is proud to be part of this grassroots movement fighting not only for Human Rights and Social Justice in Mexico, but also for the rights of indigenous and minority peoples around the world.

The Latin American countries with which we partner have suffered greatly at the hands of soldiers trained at the School of the Americas (SOA), recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC). Over 75% of those cited by the United Nations Truth Commission For El Salvador for murder, massacres, torture and “disappearances,” were trained at the SOA. Ten of 12 officers of the Salvadoran army battalion that carried out the 1981 massacre at El Mozote, where more than 900 unarmed civilians were killed, including many children under the age of five, were graduates of the SOA/WHISC. Throughout the decades-long bloody civil war in Colombia, the civilian population has been caught in the crossfire where over 10,000 SOA graduates possess the worst Human Rights record in all of Latin America. Of the $1.3 billion US aid package known as Plan Colombia, more than 75% is in the form of military assistance. A grassroots movement to close the SOA/WHISC has mushroomed across the nation and the world to the point where another 26 US citizens have been sentenced and most of them entered various federal prisons this July for their non-violent acts of civil disobedience. DGH has written a proclamation against the SOA/WHISC. Many DGH members and supporters have attended those annual November vigils at Fort Benning, GA, the site of the SOA/WHISC; some have crossed the line in civil disobedience, and two Advisory Council members have served 6-month and 14-month prison sentences for their non-violent acts to shut down that School of Assassins.

Another grassroots solidarity movement where DGH volunteers have put their efforts is in the non-violent protest against US Navy bombing on the Caribbean island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. A civilian has been killed in this military test ground and folks committing civil disobedience have been jailed protesting the destruction of an ecological system, along with claims that the people are being exposed to toxic chemicals.

In giving this run-down of DGH Liberation Medicine and Human Rights promotion in the US, I purposely have not used names, with one appropriate exception. It is very likely that many of you have recognized yourselves in the brief descriptions of actions. That too would be no coincidence. Some of you are new to DGH, some have been around since the beginning. But we are all reading this because of an interest in Health and Human Rights, and that translates to the promotion of Liberation Medicine as well. We all can educate. We all can advocate. There are as many ways of doing that as there are individuals holding this in their hands right now.



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