-Ron Lapitan, Former Community Outreach Coordinator
“Next week, the Center for Health and Human Rights will go to one of the schools in our program to give free sports physicals, so the students can enroll in sports,” I told my mom at breakfast this morning.
The International High School at Langley Park in Prince George’s County, MD, is 100% immigrants and refugees.
“That makes sense. That’s a low income area,” commented Mom. She paused at her own comment, then said, “It’s funny how we categorize things, like ‘low income’ and ‘high income.’ You live here, so that must mean you act this way.”
“The coach who is also the vice-principal told me that he always feels anxious during sports practices. Since none of the students have health insurance, if someone gets injured, it is a lot more complicated,” I said. “And yet, the students push themselves just as hard to develop their skills as the youth in any of our other schools. No matter what our circumstances, it is inspiring to see that we all have the same desire to be excellent.”
The dream of CHHR is to help people be excellent. We do it through medicine, and now we’re doing it through a high school program.
“It’s hard to change a way of thinking,” said Mom as she washed her plate in the sink. “First, you have to notice your perspective, then make a shift. The easiest way is to just go with the way you’ve been taught to see without questions,” she said. Is it not the same with everything we wish to change to build a culture of health and human rights?
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”
-Vince Lombardi
#healthasright #youthteams
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