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be able to take away from you, not even an earthquake, tor- In areas where we have worked to build community through
nado, hurricane or pandemic. Education of girls is the key to community health clubs, the villages have edited their proverb.
improving the health standards of communities all over the Now they say, “The business of the sheep IS the business of
world; something that our own mothers may have struggled the goat.” Put another way, our differences are dwarfed by our
to give us. Research has proven many times over the value of commonality.
educating young women. When girls are educated, they marry
later, have healthier families, fewer children and more-educated SHIFT OUR FOCUS
children. The magnitude of the positive ripple effect that one I challenge myself and you, my sister women doctors, to shift
educated girl can create is awe-inspiring. our focus from our very real overfull plates and frantic busy-
In Haiti, there are many proverbs. One centuries-old proverb ness, to the ideals of community, love, gratitude, education
holds that, “The business of the sheep is not the business of and inclusion. I wish for each of us the energy, faith, courage,
the goat.” Sheep are sheep and goats are goats, and we should love and gratitude that can come together to make lives better
keep them separate to have order in our lives. But when we in- for women, whether very close to home or very far away.
troduce health education in Haiti through our structured ap- To avoid burnout and find fulfillment, I encourage you to
proach to community health clubs, we begin to see some of connect with your patients, connect with your community,
that separation melt away. Standing water in my yard really and listen to the narratives, because there you will find hope.
does become YOUR business, if we realize that the mosquitoes
breeding over here are biting the children and the old people Ruth Berggren, MD, is a professor of internal
over in YOUR yard. The kind of latrine that I build at my medicine and infectious diseases at the University
house has a lot to do with whether or not people in YOUR of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
house will contract typhoid, or cholera in the rainy season, so and a BCMS member.
here again, my business is your business, because the determi-
nants of our health are interconnected.

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