Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Poverty

  • Dr. Thomas Barnardo

    Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel The title of a short 1904 note in the journal Hospital was “Dr. Barnardo’s Homes.”1,2 Thomas John Barnardo (1845–1905) was described as “evangelical, entrepreneurial and philanthropic.”3 He helped vast numbers of children living in homelessness and poverty. Barnardo was born in Dublin, Ireland. His father emigrated from Hamburg, Germany. His ancestors were…

  • The disease called poverty

    Olufolakayomi Christiana Thomas Lagos State, Nigeria   Photo by Rui Rocha on Flickr. It is a hot Friday afternoon in Lagos, Nigeria. Everyone is gearing up for the weekend and already starting to leave work. The clinic staff does this each week under the guise of attending Friday Jumat prayers, even though the clinic does…

  • The paradox of blood donation

    Beukou SteveLimbe, South-West Cameroon “Please I urgently need a donor who is blood group O rhesus negative for my sister to be operated. Please tell any of your friends.” These types of messages have become the newest type of notifications on our social media platforms in Cameroon. The notifications, while made up of  different combinations…

  • Humanitarian for all: The life of Henry Dunant

    Stephen KosnarLima, Peru In his late thirties and bankrupt, Henry Dunant lived in abject poverty, on occasion being forced to eat bread crusts and sleep outdoors in Paris. It is a bitter slice of one man’s history, particularly given that only a few years earlier he had founded the International Committee of the Red Cross.1…

  • Health, wellness, and their determinants

    Travis Kirkwood Ottawa, Ontario, Canada   Original map made by John Snow in 1854. Cholera cases are highlighted in black. 2nd Ed by John Snow. Public Domain due to age. John Snow is often referred to as the father of modern epidemiology. His work is certainly worthy of this1 and present-day public health2 still strives toward…

  • Consumption, Collapse, and Family by Alice Neel

    Gregory Rutecki   “The personal images in Alice Neel’s work not only reflect her life, they also provide metaphors …There is no peace…in (her) paintings, only agitated recognition of inevitable struggles.”1 “…Alice Neel described the 20th Century as she experienced it, living in the ghetto with those against whom most of society discriminated. She has…

  • Laundry

    Susan Beck Fort Collins, Colorado, United States   Photography by reb Smell is the sense below the surface; tangled like seaweed, moving in currents, unfurling in the depth of the open ocean. “Why does poverty smell like laundry detergent?” I never expected an answer. The long and tangled history of the question began in Baskerville,…

  • Of starlit huts and Sahelian sand

    Sara BuckChicago, Illinois, United States Landing in Dakar airport, the Air Afrique flight from New York hummed into the humid night air. Having traversed the nocturnal waters of the Atlantic, our plane descended upon the capital city, its sparse lights glittering along the coast and the nearby Île de Gorrée as if lava were streaming…