This week’s post-earthquake turmoil in Nepal is provoking some soul searching among the Nepali living in the United States, asking What is our responsibility to assist? Many of us who are well-resourced but not ethnically Nepali are nonetheless asking similar questions. This image of the Good Samaritan is one I photo in the […]
On March 13 I described the New York Times article by editor Nicholas Kristof about Steve Foster, tirelessly serving Angolans in that nation for the last thirty-seven years. What’s the difference between Mother Teresa, you, Foster, or any number of others? Thousands of dedicated individuals are persevering, often at great personal cost, in effective
“The next time you hear someone at a cocktail party mock evangelicals, think of Dr. Foster and those like him. These are folks who don’t so much proclaim the gospel as live it. They deserve better.” New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof posted his findings this month in an article titled A Little
“Yet another 9-year old with a coin stuck in the esophagus,” explains Steve Foster, INMED faculty physician in Angola, southern Africa. “I grabbed it with the biopsy forceps, and up came the coin worth maybe 6-7 cents… Then a laconic comment from an ER nurse, ‘Oh, there’s a guy here who can’t talk.’ That
INMED, in short, is all about equipping healthcare personnel with the skills essential to caring for the world’s most marginalized people. This graphic illustration, created by INMED Chief Programs Officer Elizabeth Burgos, condenses a thousand words into the essential ones. GREAT NEED: In spite of today’s communication and transportation marvels, women commonly perish during
Fierce was the competition leading up to selection of this year’s Time Person of the Year. Runners up included Chinese business entrepreneurs, Russian politicians, Kurdish leaders, and even St Louis street protesters. But striding out front – on par with Pope Francis, 2013 Time Person of the Year – is this year’s winner “The
Thanks and giving. The union is a powerful combination. Do you have thanks for the advantages you receive? Perhaps education, good health, encouraging friendships, a little financial margin. Recently have you told those in your circle of your gratefulness? Expressing appreciation is excellent for the health of any relationship. And whether earned or undeserved, it
Should people of faith be allowed to participate in global health discussions or initiatives? Does not their spiritual orientation create ulterior motives and cause them to take advantage of people in need? How can those that may believe in a supernatural Being or an afterlife be considered respectable, professional colleagues in undertakings of such
The debate surrounding Kent Brantly, the American physician serving in Liberia who became infected with Eboli, is representative of the dilemmas faced by many of us who are lead by good intentions. “Why wasn’t he taking care of his own people back home?” “It’s irresponsible to put himself and his family in such a
The horrific recent videos of murders allegedly committed by the Islamic State In Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are deeply disturbing and provocative. They remind me of how very great is the potential for humans to willingly instigate and participate in great evil. As youngsters, the neighbors of these assailants surely could not have imagined them