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January 06, 2011
Why Global Heath Matters to Me (The Mustard Seed)
An essay contest from the Acumen Fund and ABC News. My essay was selected as one of the ones features on their blogs:
Essay:
As a child, I was mesmerized by the parable of the Mustard Seed. In that story, a despondent mother attempted to bring a dead child back to life. A wise man said he could do that, but she would need to produce a mustard seed from someone who never known death. She quickly realized that it was not possible, teaching us that we all must know death. But I always wondered if people would suffer as much where access to healthcare was a right, not a privilege. Both in the United States and globally, access to the health care system is elusive. Global healthcare providers often struggle with ways to expand capacity to ensure that more people have access to life-saving and life-improving procedures. If we can all help in any way, we can collectively make the world that better place we all want it to be. My way is through information.
As a librarian at the Ross School of Business of the University of Michigan, I am able to work with many students who are looking at this very question. In many regards, helping these providers find the key information they need can be the real keys to success. My goal is to build a resource that can be used by business students and professional who are working in this space. Through providing some clarity among the millions of pages available via the web, we can help people find answers more quickly to the ways that we can help everyone across the globe get the attention that they need. And while this will never eliminate death and suffering, maybe, just maybe, librarians in Michigan can help others reduce the number of grieving parents everywhere. That is a mustard seed that would taste beautiful.
Posted by cseeman at January 6, 2011 08:53 AM