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Kavian Milani

Hyponatremia

August 7, 2018 Kavian Milani Life

-Elizabeth Chinery, Junior Community Outreach Coordinator

CNN.com

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/07/health/young-athletes-football-overhydration-partner/index.html

Water is essential for basic and complex human functions, however, too much of it can cause deadly outcomes. More athletes die from hyponatremia (over-hydration) than from dehydration. This is because your body requires a certain amount of salt to function properly. Drinking more water than your body can excrete lowers blood salt levels which “can cause all cells in the body to swell. Brain swelling from hyponatremia can cause headaches and vomiting, while muscle cell swelling can trigger whole-body muscle cramping.” A sad truth is that “these symptoms mimic those of dehydration[, meaning] they are often treated by medical staff with more fluids” which worsen the condition.

Discuss (preferably with your physician) the healthy daily water intake for you and your family, and encourage your family to stay alert for over-hydration

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Undocumented immigrants on dialysis forced to cheat death every week

August 2, 2018 Kavian Milani Accessible Healthcare

CNN.com (Undocumented immigrants on dialysis forced to cheat death every week)

-Elizabeth Chinery, Junior Community Outreach Coordinator

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/02/health/kidney-dialysis-undocumented-immigrants/index.html

Lucia, a 51-year-old undocumented immigrant and mother of five who suffers from kidney failure (specifically end-stage renal disease), is forced to wait for her condition to reach LIFE-THREATENING medical emergency status before being able to receive dialysis treatment since she does not qualify for Medicaid or Medicare and cannot afford private medical insurance or the out-of-pocket costs of the expensive treatment.

On the financial side, the article states that:

“A 2017 study conducted at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston found that the cost of treating undocumented immigrants with emergency-only hemodialysis is 3.7 times more expensive than caring for them with standard dialysis three times per week [due to the fact that] patients like Lucia are so much sicker and require more care by the time they come in for treatment”

Therefore, in terms of cost, it is VERY financially advisable and, in terms of patient wellness, EXTREMELY advisable for the government to prioritize early treatment, however, it chooses not to. This is a case that reveals medical bias against individuals who are undocumented and the life-threatening situations many (in this case, approximately 6,500 undocumented immigrants with the same disease) must endure on a frequent basis due to medical laws and policies that work against them.

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Dying Young Woman Calls Emergency Services and is Told ‘Everyone Dies’

July 31, 2018 Kavian Milani Uncategorized

-Elizabeth Chinery, Junior Community Outreach Coordinator

CNN.com (22-year-old Naomi Musenga who is told by a French emergency response operator that ‘everyone dies’ later dies shortly dies after arriving in a hospital)

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/11/health/france-ambulance-call-mocked-trnd/index.html

This story is a bit old but is still very disturbing nonetheless.

In France, a 22-year-old woman calls emergency services and during the call she is unable to properly describe her symptoms due to the excruciating pain she is experiencing and is only able to say that she is is pain and she feels like she is going to die. The operator’s response? “Yes…you will die, certainly, one day, like everybody else.” A family member later calls a doctor who then takes her to a hospital where she soon dies after two heart attacks.

Now…it’s understandable for an operator to be stressed after working 12 consecutive hours a day, however, this is no excuse to disregard a caller who was in so much pain she could barely speak. Every call should be treated as important because cases like this where a civilian who is in actual danger or pain is neglected come up all too often.

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United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF)

July 24, 2018 Kavian Milani Accessible Healthcare

-Elizabeth Chinery, Junior Community Outreach Coordinator

UNICEF

From its founding in 1946, UNICEF has always believed that:

“All children have a right to survive, thrive, and fulfill their potential – to the benefit of a better world.”

It has indiscriminately defended children from all around the world in over 190 countries and territories for over 70 years through programmes and National Committees using a life-cycle based approach. UNICEF uses this approach to recognize “the particular importance of early childhood development and adolescence,” focusing it’s programmes on “the most disadvantaged children, including those living in fragile contexts, those with disabilities, those who are affected by rapid urbanization and those affected by environmental degradation.”

“UNICEF was created with a distinct purpose in mind: to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path.” Through actions such as promoting girls’ education, immunizing children against common childhood diseases, advocating for and assisting in well-balanced nutrition, and mobilizing anti-HIV/AIDS efforts among young people, UNICEF is working hard to ensure that its purpose is met. In fact, according the UNICEF’s 2017 Annual Report, the organization “responded to 337 emergencies in 102 countries (8.8 million of whom where children), reached nearly 33 million people with safe water in humanitarian settings, supported the vaccination of 141 million children against polio in Africa, delivered health services to 15.2 million children and women in humanitarian emergencies, and helped bring the number of new HIV infections in children averted since 2010 to at least 1.6 million,” and many more achievements.

To take a look at UNICEF’s 2017 annual report:

https://www.unicef.org/publications/index_102899.html

For more information on or more news regarding UNICEF and its work:

https://www.unicef.org/

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United Nations World Food Programme

July 24, 2018 Kavian Milani Uncategorized

-Elizabeth Chinery, Junior Community Outreach Coordinator

UN World Food Programme

Established in 1961, the UN’s World Food Programme was originally an experiment created to provide food aid to countries during times of desperate need or following a crisis. Its current  commitment is to end hunger, achieve food security, and improve nutrition by 2030, focusing on “emergency assistance, relief and rehabilitation, development aid and special operations” to reach this goal.

Purchasing over 2 million metric tons of food each year and sending out 5,000 trucks, 20 ships, and 92 planes each day, WFP is able to distribute approximately 12.6 billion rations of food to 80 million people in around 80 countries each year, raking up an average cost of only .31 US dollars per ration. Of these 80 million people include between 20 and 25 million children across 63 countries who are provided school meals every year.

WFP’s efforts do not stop there:

  • Even after the subside of an emergency, WFP stays behind to help communities “rebuild shattered lives and livelihoods [and works hard] to strengthen the resilience of [the] people and communities affected by protracted crises.”
  • To ensure the authenticity and intergrity of the organziation, WFP “created an Ethics Office in 2008 to ensure that all staff members observe and perform their functions with the highest standards of integrity, as required by the Charter of the United Nations, and in accordance with the Standards of Conduct for the International Civil Service” and “adopted a Whistleblower Protection Policy” to protect individuals who report internal misconduct and wrongdoing as well as “cooperate with a duly authorized audit or investigation.”

Give a donation and support WFP’s goal of ending world hunger by 2030 by clicking the link below!

https://support.wfpusa.org/site/Donation2?df_id=4181&4181.donation=form1&s_src=UNR0000EXwfp

For more information about WFP and its cause:

http://www1.wfp.org/

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Soccer Without Borders

July 24, 2018 Kavian Milani Change

-Elizabeth Chinery, Junior Community Outreach Coordinator

SWB Colorado

Soccer Without Borders is an non-profit organization, founded by Ben Gucciardi in 2006, that aims “to use soccer as a vehicle for positive change, providing under-served youth with a toolkit to overcome obstacles to growth, inclusion, and personal success.” Its values include:

  • The inherent potential and gifts of all young people
  • Honesty and authenticity in speech and action
  • All learners as teachers and all teachers as learners
  • Openness to all perspectives, voices, and people

The organization has grown drastically through the last twelve years with global presence in 10 countries on 3 continents including programs developed in programs developed in 5 US states (California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Washington) as well as Nicaragua and Uganda, reaching over 2,000 youth annually and over 10,000 youth throughout its years.

SWB’s program is modeled to meet the needs of the target population of each individual location and create “a team environment defined by consistent leaders, dynamic and relevant program activities, and a culture of acceptance.” Its impact highlights include language development (including the SWB Baltimore’s integration of language learning into field practice), academic advancement through tactics such as academic intervention and regular tutoring, and reciprocal impact (i.e. volunteers learning from the participants as they also teach them).

To learn more about Soccer Without Borders, contact an ambassador, or become an ambassador to get your community involved click the link below!

https://www.soccerwithoutborders.org/

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“The Yorktown Leadership Course”

January 23, 2018 Kavian Milani Youth Teams
 -Ron Lapitan, Former Community Outreach Coordinator
“I was planning to see my counselor, but then I came to this class, because I definitely didn’t want to miss this,” said Malori, a student in the leadership course at Yorktown High School which is participating in our Health as Right Program this semester. For a person in any youth empowerment program, such a comment is a gift and an affirmation. It tells us we’re doing our job, which is to give youth their own intrinsic reasons for being a part of this world besides grades.
 
Last class, we picked “Immigration” as the subject for our semester service project. Today, we split the class into groups to research different aspects of the immigrant experience, including Food Insecurity, Employment, Education, and Legal Assistance. The teachers weaved it together with a lesson about examining the validity of sources.
“‘.edu’ means it came from a university, which is usually good. ‘.gov’ is also good, which means it came from a government. ‘.org’ means it came from a non-profit, which could be either good or bad because every non-profit has its bias,” explained the teacher to the students.
 
At the end, the groups came together and shared their most poignant learnings.
“I read a story about a woman who went to get a restraining order for her abusive husband. But then, her information was used to call immigration because she was undocumented,” said one student from the Law Enforcement Abuse group.
“Yes, a big problem is that undocumented people are scared of reporting crimes,” commented the teacher.
“I went through airport security together with a Muslim family. They easily let my family go through, but they immediately took the Muslim family behind us to search and question them because they were wearing hijab,” added Ethan.
 
There is very little I actually do in the class, other than provide a context for service-learning. However, the students and teachers alike embrace that situation and make the objective their own, as if they were waiting for it all along.
 
#youthteams #healthasright
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“Student Hunger”

January 10, 2018 Kavian Milani Social Discourse
-Ron Lapitan, Former Community Outreach Coordinator
 
The other day, the Center for Health and Human Rights met with two experts of the issue of hunger amongst children in Fairfax County to brainstorm next steps for our own efforts to address the issue.
 
One interesting problem they described was the lack of an emergency plan for students who receive food to take home home over the weekends because they otherwise wouldn’t eat outside of school. One of the experts volunteers with Food for Others, which donates the meals students can take home for the weekends to the schools, who distributes them on Fridays. Last week, she delivered the packs to the schools on Wednesday, then the schools shut down because of the snow. When she went to deliver this week’s packs, she found all the packs she had brought last week still sitting on the counter. The students had went the whole weekend without food because there was no backup plan to deliver them.
 
Another issue is food shaming. A student cannot be denied lunch when they are hungry, even if they don’t have money. However, if this is the case, they will most likely be given a plain sandwich PB&J instead of the full meal; something that communicates, “You didn’t have money today.”
 
Another issue is immigration fears. Many students who are eligible for SNAP (food stamps) or the free-lunch program in schools do not enroll because their parents are not legal citizens like them and fear that their information will be used to track them. Due to this, many of these students go hungry during the school day. Other families choose not to enroll because of pride.
 
Hard to know how to change such a complicated problem.
 
(Image: Map of the “15 Islands of Disadvantage” in NoVA, and CHHR’s school groups. #7 is where a CHHR team delivers milk, eggs, and cereal to families identified as food insecure.)
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“Premiere Day – Yorktown Service Project”

December 19, 2017 Kavian Milani Youth Teams
-Ron Lapitan, Former Community Outreach Coordinator
 
When a Health as Right group forms, it picks a social problem in the community that it cares about and spends the semester designing a service project to address it.
 
One school we had the privilege to work with this year was Yorktown High School, where our group consisted of a 9th grade ESOL class. The problem they picked was racism, which they chose to address by making a video to educate their school about the problem.
 
Yesterday was our grand premiere. As the teacher, Ms. Smith, and I put out refreshments and literally rolled out a red carpet, our student Zainab, who served as our enthusiastic director throughout filming, walked in nervously and practiced her lines as the MC in front of her friend Jennifer.
 
“We would like to thank the principal and also the director of minority achievement for taking time to attend our premiere,” she said to the audience of two classes and other staff from the school who packed the room. “We made this film to show that racism is a great problem, and it affects many people. We hope you enjoy.” The crowd applauded supportively.
 
 
After the movie, the class split into groups to discuss reflection questions we had prepared about racism. The students had much to say, having a great awareness of prejudice in society, but also showed hope in the potential of people and culture to change. The principal and the school’s director of minority achievement were part of those lively discussion groups and were greatly inspired. They thanked Center for Health and Human Rights for working with the class, then asked if we would work with another ESOL class next semester.
 
It was also my last day with this class. I thanked them all for the inspiring experience, then gave them each a CHHR bracelet as a memento of our time together. The bell rang, and I shook hands with each of them on their way out.
“Why do you have to go?” asked Maydeline and Nicole half-jokingly.
“I wish I could stay,” I said with a smile.
 
Saying goodbye is bittersweet. An experience ends, but a seed is planted: the realization of a cohort of youth for their own power to turn ideas into reality. People like me come and go, but these seeds, once planted, are a treasure that nothing can destroy. Now I move on to another garden.
 
“Education should not be the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” — William Butler Yeats
 
#youthteams #healthasright
 
(Image: Zainab addressing the audience.)
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“Yorktown’s Racism Video”

December 15, 2017 Kavian Milani Youth Teams
-Ron Lapitan, Former Community Outreach Coordinator
Our Health as Right team at Yorktown High School just finished their semester service project, which was to film a video to educate their school about racism and prejudice. Their first screening will be this Monday and will be attended by the principal in their classroom.
 
From Yaren, one of our students:
“The main idea of this video is teaching people not to be racist. If you are racist, the people near you will have bad thoughts about you. No one likes racist people. What do you think you will have if you are racist? In our story, we showed people how it makes them feel when someone judges them in a racist way. In the first scene we showed how people in their day to day life can hurt someone with only just a few words. I hope you will enjoy the story and see what a bad thing racism is.”
 
From Ede, another of our students:
“We created this video to show Americans that no matter where you are from, everyone should be treated the same way as others, and also because racism is a big problem in the world. This is why we decided to make a video about racism to show people that we are all human, and we all deserve respect.”
 
 
#healthasright #youthteams
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