Life is Sacred and Healthcare is a Human Right
By Yassah Lavelah
As a young woman who spent years in war zones and refugee camps, I have a first-hand account and understanding of the fight for social justice and human rights. Furthermore, based on my experience as a nurse advocate who has worked in some of the poorest communities in the world for the past nine years, I can confidently say that nursing, advocacy, and social justice are three inseparable things.
Working as a nurse, advocate for over nine years, with a specific focus on the role of maternal and infant health in community development and health delivery in low resource settings, I’ve come to realize that social justice is the best tool we can use to channel our quest for addressing the social determinants of health and healthcare as a human right.
My passion for caring and advocating are based on the values that no matter your financial, economic, religious, cultural, or social status, all humans deserve to live a healthy and thriving life.
In 2014, I had to turn down an offer from the US State Department to extend my stay in the United States, after I had completed a program at Notre Dame. I returned home to resume work at the ELWA Hospital with other nurses who were dying due to the lack of personal protective equipment and resources. I immediately began work at the only treatment facility in the country at the time under the supervision of Dr. Kent Brantley whose infection brought the Ebola crisis to the world’s attention. I attended to patients and served as the field representative of the Ministry of Health conducting workshops and lectures on prevention measures and safety.
I had worked at the hospital since 2012, but had never seen anything like the Ebola virus. For instance, we were using garbage bags as gloves and personal protective equipment to treat patients on the floor. In the midst of the chaos, we had to provide maternal health services like delivering babies and rendering care without drugs, hospital beds, or supplies.
With no means of transportation for patients in severe conditions, we had to use mini-motorcycles to transport patients on referrals.
After my experience with the deadly Ebola crisis in Liberia where I had to watch my co-workers die as we battled to understand the virus and how to deal with it despite the lack of resources like personal protective equipment and a non-existent healthcare system, I reminded myself of one thing.
If the Ebola crisis taught me anything, it was the fact that we cannot hope and wait for someone from somewhere to come and save us. We can determine our own fate by providing the leadership needed using the tools available to us especially in the health sector.
These experiences are the basis for my passion and life’s commitment. No one should be deprived of life itself due to the lack of basic and affordable healthcare because life is sacred and healthcare is a fundamental human right.
Yassah Lavelah is a registered nurse and an alumna of the global health delivery master of science program at Harvard Medical School and is currently pursuing a MSW at Temple University in Pennsylvania. She is also a program manager at Bancroft in New Jersey and the founder of Mavee Maternal Empowerment Initiative in Liberia.