I’m gonna ask you to be honest with me
if I were to ask you if your mind is
truly free would you be able to tell me
yes or would you have to say no you see
the mind is a powerful tool indeed it is
what houses our childhood memories and
those fears we had it is what allows us
to be able to process facts and most
importantly to develop and understand
ideas you see an open mind it’s very
important to anyone who wishes to have
an impact in this world it has even more
so important to those of you who are
passionate about health care about
making a difference in people’s lives
about community service and giving back
and as a result tonight I’m going to
share with you the power of an open mind
for me it started 22 years ago when I
was born under the incomparable West
African Sun in Accra Ghana to be exact
and after living there for but a few
months I transitioned with my family to
Botswana where I live for only five
years before coming to the United States
and while it took me almost 17 years to
return back to my motherland I believed
I knew what it was to be gone in after
all I was the child of African parents
who came to America in their 40s so the
only way they knew how to raise me was
the African Ghanaian way and my parents
made it extremely clear it didn’t matter
what my friends did what they were able
to wear or where they were able to go
they would always say Julia you are not
freaking girl your parents are not your
parents until you only do what I say you
are allowed to do and so while in the
four walls of my house I was indeed a
Ghanian child I didn’t realize until
last summer when I began my
turn ship in Accra Ghana then my
experience with Ghana was not much
different from many of you all sitting
in this audience in fact most of what I
knew about Ghana came secondhand it was
through the experiences that my parents
had shared with me it was through seeing
the black-and-white photographs of them
in grade school uniforms or the fact
that my closet thankfully is filled with
so many can take clause or infamous
effectually known as the cloth of Kings
beside being born in Ghana Ghana was a
mere title page in my life and outside
the perimeter of my household without
the fact that people had access to my
typical African name and knowing that an
accent is something I can’t end on and
off as I please many people didn’t know
about my African origin so why Ghana why
go back there what was I going to learn
or gain from going there and I say a
better question is what wasn’t I going
to learn as a college graduate on the
pathway to becoming a physician I cannot
wait to be able to intertwine my love
for medicine and culture and diversity
with that of different experiences and
Ghana allowed me to do just that and so
going to Ghana I had three key
expectations I wanted the experience I
wanted to feel authentic and being a
Ghanaian and that came by volunteering
and shadowing in places like the Focus
Hospital I also wanted to be educated
what would it be like if I was a woman
living in Ghana and that came through my
experience through my internship with
the Alpha Medical Center where I
specifically worked in the labor and
delivery section caring for women during
their pregnancy and the last thing I
wanted to gain was exposure exposure in
any way shape and form and it came by
talking to taxi drivers on my way to a
crowd Kumasi it came from eating meals
with my grandparents who had so much
knowledge to share
about the country it didn’t just come
from looking on the internet and
realizing what people said it was more
than that and in addition to the fact
that I also had expectations there were
challenges it was hard to adapt to a
life in Ghana other than the fact that
I’m a night person and Ghana’s about
four hours ahead I also had to get used
to the traffic to paint you a picture
traveling was sometimes like New York
City traffic during rush hour during a
parade it went absolutely nowhere I also
had to come to the terms with the fact
that I was ignorant yes I was ignorant I
didn’t know a lot about Ghana I knew I
wanted to go there and make a difference
in help and I knew I wanted to learn
about the healthcare system specifically
so that as a physician I can truly be
able to take us in the next level but
other than that I was ignorant about how
things truly worked on a day to day
basis I also had to get over my
assumptions assumptions I made as to
what people needed I didn’t really know
after all I was living a seven hour
airplane ride away but one of the
hardest things I had to go against was
my mindset you see the thing about
people who have caged minds is they
often don’t know it they are stuck
living in their ignorance and
assumptions and it makes it seem as if
everyone around them is the one who
actually has the caged mind but
themselves you see growing up Ghana was
never mentioned as a vacation spot and
it definitely wasn’t somewhere you
wanted to go and learn Ghana was only a
place that she went for service all of
my friends wanted to go to Dubai or Peru
or Jamaica no one understood why I would
want to go back to Ghana but I’m
thankful that when I went to Ghana I was
able to experience pieces that were able
to help me dispel those myths I was able
to walk alongside the national parks and
see sculptures of the first president I
was
to go to the mall that was not much
different from King of Prussia actually
I was also able to learn about history
by visiting the slave castles that were
housed there I remember looking up for
an assignment 20 ways to describe Africa
and I remember the top five things I saw
were disease famine genocide malaria and
sickness those were the top five things
that people had to say there was nothing
positive about it so I realized going on
I had to change my mindset I had to be
open to realizing and understanding the
truth I wasn’t just going there to help
them I was going there to help me and I
came across this quote that read if you
have come to help me you are wasting
your time but if you are here because
your liberation is bound up with mine
then let us work together and this is a
quote by Lila Watson who is an advocate
and educator for women rights and also
those of Aboriginal people so what I
want you all to do today is move forward
and erase the savior complex you may be
part of the solution when you try to
help but you are not the solution itself
we must be humble when we go to
different places and say we want to help
people so many times we’re so focused on
the problem we’re trying to change we
forget that the real reason we want to
work on the problem is because of the
people that it affects so it’s not
always that you help but rather how you
help what difference are you truly
making what example are you setting for
those who will come after you and with
that mindset I was truly able to explore
and learn how the Ghana healthcare
system works it’s broken into being
helped by the government but also with
the Ghana Health Service which is able
to allow us now as of 2004
move away from the cash-and-carry method
the cash-and-carry method basically
meant you carried your money with you
emergency or not if you went to a
hospital and did not carry your dough
you are not getting treated simple as
that now with this new National Health
Insurance Scheme we are able to at least
be moving and making progress into
universal coverage this NH is system
does not cover all treatments and care
but it’s a step in the right direction
also in Ghana many of their health care
centres are funded through missionary
work the religious organizations like
the Christian Health Association that
seeks to be able to provide health care
to the country lastly there are three
primary levels of health care in Ghana
the primary level basically associates
with those of the regional hospitals the
polyclinics the secondary are more of
the specialized hospitals and the
tertiary are the teaching hospitals
having an open mind allowed me to
realize that as many problems as they
are in the Ghanaian healthcare system
there are also strengths that they have
benefit packages the international
collaborations with countries like Cuba
to ensure that they were allowing other
people to come and be able to teach
their expertise to Ghanian doctors so
when they left their expect he’s didn’t
leave but what they were able to teach
was able to stay in Ghana and actually
help its citizens amongst the strengths
were many difficulties culture versus
medicine was a big one
the fact that many people in Ghana had
Geographic issues and were living too
far away from a hospital to get care
they went to the over 45,000 traditional
healers they were scared of medicine
they didn’t trust doctors and even if
they did how are they going to travel
their technology was also a big issue so
was electricity in Ghana we have
something that they called doom so the
light literally turns on and off and
some
days you’re there for three days and
there’s no electricity in your household
imagine that in a hospital that doesn’t
have a good enough generator money of
course is always an issue when you’re
dealing with healthcare as we know even
in America but in Ghana where one
American dollar it’s four of their
currency it becomes even harder the
average life expectancy in Ghana at
birth is 66 while in America is a 78 and
while that doesn’t seem like much
imagine 12 years ago what were you doing
were you the same how do you achieved
all the things that you wanted to
achieve and it was through maternal and
child health that I wanted to make my
impact and I learned that even though a
lot of people are at the age where
they’re able to utilize contraception
only 30% of the people do imagine how
many unwanted children are as a result
being given birth – and that is a reason
why women break down shredded glass and
drink it in order to get rid of births
that they didn’t want to have in the
first place so what are we gonna do are
we gonna be close-minded and ignore that
those facts happen or are we truly gonna
make an impact
I learned this while at my internship at
the Alpha Medical Center and I had the
best opportunity of delivering a baby
girl and in that situation I remember
sweating so much because there was no
there was no air system so we had to
turn off the fans to ensure that the
baby was kept safe the last thing I did
was be able to volunteer at the
foundation of orthopedics and complex
spine this hospital was started by a
doctor who was gone in who went to
America and graduated from Columbia
Medical School from there he knew he had
a specific aim he wanted to go back and
help the health care system there for
eight years eight years he went on
mission trips to Ghana four times a year
and he took people and when he went
there he learned
how the system operate he learned how
Ghana was changing living in America he
was getting removed and he knew that he
had to be able to realize how the system
worked to be able to truly make a
difference and so I started my
presentation telling you all about my
expectations but now I want to share the
realities that I discovered I learned
that we have to apply the realities of
the community in which we want to make a
difference not everything that works in
one area will work in the next you can’t
just bring technology over to Ghana and
dump it there and say use it they might
have never seen that technology before
how are they actually going to
incorporate it into their system and the
wisdom gained from those in the
community can often be what helps you
find the solution stop trying to be the
savior as I said earlier erase that
savior complex and realize that people
living there will often know much about
the problems then you do as an outsider
so let’s move away from the band-aid
solutions to sustainability so that when
you leave that place your talent doesn’t
leave your hard work doesn’t leave with
you but they’re able to continue for the
better
specificity and direction equal
achievable dreams so many of us want to
do so many things we want to be teachers
we want to help mom and dad we want to
be great well how are you gonna do that
let’s move away from just saying we want
to help and say how we’re gonna be
helping how much money is it gonna take
which population specifically is the
children as it men is that woman and
said elderly people and what direction
how are we gonna get there successful
goals are ones that adequately address
the specific needs of the population
involved and so to sum up I went to
Ghana with an open mind and I left with
an inspired heart and inspired how I was
able to stand here today and share with
you this idea of an opened mind and so
if I ask you to be honest with
me again hopefully this time you will be
it’s your mind truly free or is it caged
thank you
[Applause]
if I were to ask you if your mind is
truly free would you be able to tell me
yes or would you have to say no you see
the mind is a powerful tool indeed it is
what houses our childhood memories and
those fears we had it is what allows us
to be able to process facts and most
importantly to develop and understand
ideas you see an open mind it’s very
important to anyone who wishes to have
an impact in this world it has even more
so important to those of you who are
passionate about health care about
making a difference in people’s lives
about community service and giving back
and as a result tonight I’m going to
share with you the power of an open mind
for me it started 22 years ago when I
was born under the incomparable West
African Sun in Accra Ghana to be exact
and after living there for but a few
months I transitioned with my family to
Botswana where I live for only five
years before coming to the United States
and while it took me almost 17 years to
return back to my motherland I believed
I knew what it was to be gone in after
all I was the child of African parents
who came to America in their 40s so the
only way they knew how to raise me was
the African Ghanaian way and my parents
made it extremely clear it didn’t matter
what my friends did what they were able
to wear or where they were able to go
they would always say Julia you are not
freaking girl your parents are not your
parents until you only do what I say you
are allowed to do and so while in the
four walls of my house I was indeed a
Ghanian child I didn’t realize until
last summer when I began my
turn ship in Accra Ghana then my
experience with Ghana was not much
different from many of you all sitting
in this audience in fact most of what I
knew about Ghana came secondhand it was
through the experiences that my parents
had shared with me it was through seeing
the black-and-white photographs of them
in grade school uniforms or the fact
that my closet thankfully is filled with
so many can take clause or infamous
effectually known as the cloth of Kings
beside being born in Ghana Ghana was a
mere title page in my life and outside
the perimeter of my household without
the fact that people had access to my
typical African name and knowing that an
accent is something I can’t end on and
off as I please many people didn’t know
about my African origin so why Ghana why
go back there what was I going to learn
or gain from going there and I say a
better question is what wasn’t I going
to learn as a college graduate on the
pathway to becoming a physician I cannot
wait to be able to intertwine my love
for medicine and culture and diversity
with that of different experiences and
Ghana allowed me to do just that and so
going to Ghana I had three key
expectations I wanted the experience I
wanted to feel authentic and being a
Ghanaian and that came by volunteering
and shadowing in places like the Focus
Hospital I also wanted to be educated
what would it be like if I was a woman
living in Ghana and that came through my
experience through my internship with
the Alpha Medical Center where I
specifically worked in the labor and
delivery section caring for women during
their pregnancy and the last thing I
wanted to gain was exposure exposure in
any way shape and form and it came by
talking to taxi drivers on my way to a
crowd Kumasi it came from eating meals
with my grandparents who had so much
knowledge to share
about the country it didn’t just come
from looking on the internet and
realizing what people said it was more
than that and in addition to the fact
that I also had expectations there were
challenges it was hard to adapt to a
life in Ghana other than the fact that
I’m a night person and Ghana’s about
four hours ahead I also had to get used
to the traffic to paint you a picture
traveling was sometimes like New York
City traffic during rush hour during a
parade it went absolutely nowhere I also
had to come to the terms with the fact
that I was ignorant yes I was ignorant I
didn’t know a lot about Ghana I knew I
wanted to go there and make a difference
in help and I knew I wanted to learn
about the healthcare system specifically
so that as a physician I can truly be
able to take us in the next level but
other than that I was ignorant about how
things truly worked on a day to day
basis I also had to get over my
assumptions assumptions I made as to
what people needed I didn’t really know
after all I was living a seven hour
airplane ride away but one of the
hardest things I had to go against was
my mindset you see the thing about
people who have caged minds is they
often don’t know it they are stuck
living in their ignorance and
assumptions and it makes it seem as if
everyone around them is the one who
actually has the caged mind but
themselves you see growing up Ghana was
never mentioned as a vacation spot and
it definitely wasn’t somewhere you
wanted to go and learn Ghana was only a
place that she went for service all of
my friends wanted to go to Dubai or Peru
or Jamaica no one understood why I would
want to go back to Ghana but I’m
thankful that when I went to Ghana I was
able to experience pieces that were able
to help me dispel those myths I was able
to walk alongside the national parks and
see sculptures of the first president I
was
to go to the mall that was not much
different from King of Prussia actually
I was also able to learn about history
by visiting the slave castles that were
housed there I remember looking up for
an assignment 20 ways to describe Africa
and I remember the top five things I saw
were disease famine genocide malaria and
sickness those were the top five things
that people had to say there was nothing
positive about it so I realized going on
I had to change my mindset I had to be
open to realizing and understanding the
truth I wasn’t just going there to help
them I was going there to help me and I
came across this quote that read if you
have come to help me you are wasting
your time but if you are here because
your liberation is bound up with mine
then let us work together and this is a
quote by Lila Watson who is an advocate
and educator for women rights and also
those of Aboriginal people so what I
want you all to do today is move forward
and erase the savior complex you may be
part of the solution when you try to
help but you are not the solution itself
we must be humble when we go to
different places and say we want to help
people so many times we’re so focused on
the problem we’re trying to change we
forget that the real reason we want to
work on the problem is because of the
people that it affects so it’s not
always that you help but rather how you
help what difference are you truly
making what example are you setting for
those who will come after you and with
that mindset I was truly able to explore
and learn how the Ghana healthcare
system works it’s broken into being
helped by the government but also with
the Ghana Health Service which is able
to allow us now as of 2004
move away from the cash-and-carry method
the cash-and-carry method basically
meant you carried your money with you
emergency or not if you went to a
hospital and did not carry your dough
you are not getting treated simple as
that now with this new National Health
Insurance Scheme we are able to at least
be moving and making progress into
universal coverage this NH is system
does not cover all treatments and care
but it’s a step in the right direction
also in Ghana many of their health care
centres are funded through missionary
work the religious organizations like
the Christian Health Association that
seeks to be able to provide health care
to the country lastly there are three
primary levels of health care in Ghana
the primary level basically associates
with those of the regional hospitals the
polyclinics the secondary are more of
the specialized hospitals and the
tertiary are the teaching hospitals
having an open mind allowed me to
realize that as many problems as they
are in the Ghanaian healthcare system
there are also strengths that they have
benefit packages the international
collaborations with countries like Cuba
to ensure that they were allowing other
people to come and be able to teach
their expertise to Ghanian doctors so
when they left their expect he’s didn’t
leave but what they were able to teach
was able to stay in Ghana and actually
help its citizens amongst the strengths
were many difficulties culture versus
medicine was a big one
the fact that many people in Ghana had
Geographic issues and were living too
far away from a hospital to get care
they went to the over 45,000 traditional
healers they were scared of medicine
they didn’t trust doctors and even if
they did how are they going to travel
their technology was also a big issue so
was electricity in Ghana we have
something that they called doom so the
light literally turns on and off and
some
days you’re there for three days and
there’s no electricity in your household
imagine that in a hospital that doesn’t
have a good enough generator money of
course is always an issue when you’re
dealing with healthcare as we know even
in America but in Ghana where one
American dollar it’s four of their
currency it becomes even harder the
average life expectancy in Ghana at
birth is 66 while in America is a 78 and
while that doesn’t seem like much
imagine 12 years ago what were you doing
were you the same how do you achieved
all the things that you wanted to
achieve and it was through maternal and
child health that I wanted to make my
impact and I learned that even though a
lot of people are at the age where
they’re able to utilize contraception
only 30% of the people do imagine how
many unwanted children are as a result
being given birth – and that is a reason
why women break down shredded glass and
drink it in order to get rid of births
that they didn’t want to have in the
first place so what are we gonna do are
we gonna be close-minded and ignore that
those facts happen or are we truly gonna
make an impact
I learned this while at my internship at
the Alpha Medical Center and I had the
best opportunity of delivering a baby
girl and in that situation I remember
sweating so much because there was no
there was no air system so we had to
turn off the fans to ensure that the
baby was kept safe the last thing I did
was be able to volunteer at the
foundation of orthopedics and complex
spine this hospital was started by a
doctor who was gone in who went to
America and graduated from Columbia
Medical School from there he knew he had
a specific aim he wanted to go back and
help the health care system there for
eight years eight years he went on
mission trips to Ghana four times a year
and he took people and when he went
there he learned
how the system operate he learned how
Ghana was changing living in America he
was getting removed and he knew that he
had to be able to realize how the system
worked to be able to truly make a
difference and so I started my
presentation telling you all about my
expectations but now I want to share the
realities that I discovered I learned
that we have to apply the realities of
the community in which we want to make a
difference not everything that works in
one area will work in the next you can’t
just bring technology over to Ghana and
dump it there and say use it they might
have never seen that technology before
how are they actually going to
incorporate it into their system and the
wisdom gained from those in the
community can often be what helps you
find the solution stop trying to be the
savior as I said earlier erase that
savior complex and realize that people
living there will often know much about
the problems then you do as an outsider
so let’s move away from the band-aid
solutions to sustainability so that when
you leave that place your talent doesn’t
leave your hard work doesn’t leave with
you but they’re able to continue for the
better
specificity and direction equal
achievable dreams so many of us want to
do so many things we want to be teachers
we want to help mom and dad we want to
be great well how are you gonna do that
let’s move away from just saying we want
to help and say how we’re gonna be
helping how much money is it gonna take
which population specifically is the
children as it men is that woman and
said elderly people and what direction
how are we gonna get there successful
goals are ones that adequately address
the specific needs of the population
involved and so to sum up I went to
Ghana with an open mind and I left with
an inspired heart and inspired how I was
able to stand here today and share with
you this idea of an opened mind and so
if I ask you to be honest with
me again hopefully this time you will be
it’s your mind truly free or is it caged
thank you
[Applause]
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