Stephen Lewis on Global Health

Stephen Lewis arrived Friday, January 22 to an auditorium packed with people of all ages anticipating his speech on global health and the panel following it.  He passionately spoke about the eight goals the United Nations intends to reach by 2015: To cut in half world hunger, to dramatically reduce infant mortality rates, to reduce maternal mortality rates, to send every child in the primary age group to school, to approximate gender equality in all countries of the world, to turn back AIDS, to further sustainable development, and to legitimately share wealth between the North and South without dishonesty and enormous debt.

During his lecture, Stephen Lewis explained that ten million children die each year from easily preventable diseases such as diarrhea, the common cold, and pneumonia.  1.5 billion people or one quarter of the world live on $1.25 a day and regularly attend soup kitchens for their only meal of the day.  Over 100 million children never go to school and Lewis explained, “It is this attendance of school that presents hope, community, self-efficacy and love.”  Without it, children do not learn to properly take care of themselves and feel lost and unimportant.

He then broached the topic he seems most passionate about – the poor status of women in these countries.  He described how groups use rape as a cost-effective political strategy as a means to subdue villages.  One hospital he spoke of treats twelve to fifteen women a day, women who often need surgery due to the injuries sustained.  Lewis believes that through the collection of detailed statements from these women pressure will be placed on the governments and justice might be brought about.

Over and over, Stephen Lewis emphasized that “in the North we are incomparably privileged.”  We live in a world with great wealth, great luxury, and great power to bring about change sitting at our doorstep.  It is our responsibility to help people so less fortunate than us.  When querying the panel, the dominant answer to the question: what can we do as individuals to help?  Visit.  They explained that over and above giving a few dollars or a cheque, the greatest way to benefit these countries is to witness for yourself the problem and to speak of it when you return.  Stephen Lewis concludes by saying that “It isn’t a matter of ideology but decent human behaviour.”

Stephen Lewis is currently a Professor in the social sciences at McMaster University.  He has also been the leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, the Deputy Executive Director of UNICEFF in New York, worked as Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations, and was voted in the New York Times as one of the hundred most influential men in the world.