A youth coordinator’s hard lesson about global health

Infrastructure such as hospitals and roads in Laos do not receive enough funding because the country is so poor. This is a toll booth in Luang Prabang.

For me, World Health Day on April 7 is a day to reflect on how important it is that everyone in the world has access to health care.

Before I started working at Free The Children, I travelled around the world for six months. I visited dozens of places in Australia, New Zealand and South Asia, but it was in the small country of Laos in the town of Luang Prabang where I had an experience that would change my life forever.

Laos is a beautiful, mountainous country with waterfalls, rivers and some of the kindest people in the world. However, the majority of the population lives in absolute poverty and because the country is so poor, infrastructure like roads and hospitals are in bad shape.

One day, I was riding up a mountain with friends in a jumbo tuk tuk (Laos’ version of a taxi), when it started to rain. With the mountain roads becoming more and more slippery, our driver lost control and the tuk tuk went careening down the side of the road and rolled down a hill. Fortunately, everyone was ok, but we needed to get to the hospital fast!

That’s when I realized how lucky we are here in North America to have good hospitals, lots of doctors and nurses, and health care.

Safe and sound in a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand.

We ended up staying in the hospital for 24 hours before being airlifted to another hospital in Bangkok, Thailand—but by that time, a lack of medical treatment had left my cuts infected. But we were lucky: my friends and I had travel medical insurance that ensured we got to a hospital that could treat us properly. But what about all the other patients in the hospital and the people of Luang Prabang and Laos? What will they do if they need treatment?

These are questions I ask myself every day. Don’t let it take an experience like the one I had for you to think about it too.

In honour of this year’s World Health Day, think about what you can do to help bring health care to the millions of people around the world who need it. One way is to support the health care projects in Kenya through Free The Children. You could help support mobile health clinics, build a new health clinic in the Maasai Mara or support lunch programs in schools. For more information, talk to your youth coordinator.

Kieran Bergmann
International Youth Coordinator

Free The Children is the largest network of children helping children through education in the world, with more than one million youth involved in our innovative education and development programs in 45 countries. Founded by international child rights activist Craig Kielburger, Free The Children has an established track-record of success, with three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize and partnerships with the United Nations and Oprah’s Angel Network.