Things I’ve Learned
I’ve learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them; I’ve learned that no matter how much you care, some people just don’t care back; I’ve learned that it takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to […]
Ramadan: Preparing Patients with Diabetes for a Better Fast
During the month of Ramadan, Muslims practice an act of worship to build empathy for the world’s less fortunate, for whom hunger is not a choice. Muslims get a chance to reflect, deepen spiritually, and strengthen bonds with family and friends. Ramadan is divided into three parts, each of which consists of ten days. The […]
Addressing Cultural Competency: Healthcare for Refugees & Minority Populations
Fatima, mother of eleven children, had watched as her town in northern Kurdistan was turned from a small river community into a combat zone. With foreign armies marching through her city and one son taken into captivity, her family fled to a refugee camp in the bordering region. Years of economic sanctions and multiple home […]
The Implicit Bias in Delivering Healthcare
Our human brain, the most powerful organ in the universe, is just remarkable! Humans are constantly striving to understand what we don’t already know. As a species, we remain unsatisfied to accept things the way they are, so we strive to be informed and make judgement from our existing knowledge. If something doesn’t match or mesh with a […]
Healthcare with no Limits
Bekhal was fading fast. The 25-year old woman, trapped in her native Kurdistan in northern Iraq, had unknowingly taken counterfeit medications, given to her by doctors, and as a result the Leukemia in her bones continued to spread. Standing frailly in a doorway of her family home, Bekhal listened as her father told me about the investigation into […]
A Schizophrenic Kurdistan: Living a different life everyday
Its dawn, the rays from the sun shine across my bedroom and my eyes open wide, I grab my IPhone and I see that its 6:30am. Time to get up? I then realize its Friday, my off day from work. I try to get back to sleep but I am too awake. Instead, I decide […]
I cant give a proper “goodbye”
So it was 9am on August 30th, 2012. I was still asleep until I heard my phone ringing. It was my driver from the American University of Iraq in Sulaimaniya (AUIS). “Miss Helene, where are you, I am in my way to get you.” I immediately jump up quickly and try to comprehend the driver’s […]
Thank You :)
My wonderful and loyal followers, how are you? I have been away for some time because of my trip to see family in the US. I have two days until I say goodbye to America once again, a country that has been so good to me. I stayed a little over two months with my […]
Modernizing Kurdistan; A Bhutanese Approach
Architecture in Bhutan is in harmony with its culture The idea for today’s blog came after a Friday get together with a group of friends who keen so much love for Kurdistan. We had a wonderful lunch and then we decided to watch a documentary on the little Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. As I was […]
