Today I wanted to post something positive, so I decided to go with Fatima Hassan’s essay to the Stanford class of 2009, recently published in the New York Times. I find her words, on the topic of obstetric and traumatic fistula, which causes women to leak urine and/or feces due to sexual violence and lack of maternal health care, nonetheless incredibly inspiring, reminding those of us in a position to help others why we can never stop working to rid the world of sexual violence:
… these women’s struggles are written into my soul, fueling my desire to change the world… When we truly listen to the communities we wish to serve, we absorb their pain and invigorate our search for justice and solutions. We cannot trick ourselves into thinking “someone else will do it†because we are the ones privileged to have attended college. It is now our responsibility to rethink and implement sustainable change, whether local or global.
