Elevating the Girl Child

Lynn Sommers in Greece

As personified by the courageous efforts of Pakistan's girl heroine, 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, described so powerfully by former First Lady Laura Bush, the importance of education for girl children cannot be underestimated. As important as growing their intellect is the matter of their health. Girl children without access to education -- any children without access to education -- are very often children without access to healthcare.

I have the privilege of serving as the International Council of Nurses Global Ambassador for the Girl Child and working with nurses to identify and lead creative and compassionate strategies to improve the health of girl children.

Here at Penn Nursing, the majority of our research faculty focus on the health of under-represented populations, with women and girls prominent among them. At our Center for Global Women's Health, faculty and fellows just returned from Chalkidiki in rural Northern Greece where they worked with the isolated Roma community in a small women's health clinic. In addition to assisting with screening for orphaned or trafficked children, Lynn Sommers,  Maureen George, Kathleen Brown, and Ellen Volpe are providing education and training to community health workers in areas of critical importance to the local population.

Asthma is at a frightening high in Northern Greece, largely because of liberal pesticide use in this olive-growing region, plus a high rate of smoking. The U.S. State Department awarded funding to Dr. George, an expert in asthma prevention and management, for the Greece Health Promotion Project. The support enabled her to assist with training of 50 community health workers (including nurses, speech therapists, physical therapists, primary care physicians, rescue workers, teachers, and even teenagers and lay community members) on smoking cessation and asthma self-management at the Ormylia Foundation and the Panagia Philanthropini Center. The team is working with Brother Charles Anthony, director of the Ormylia Foundation Clinic in Northern Greece, and Penn Nursing's community partner on this project and on cervical cancer screening, asthma, smoking cessation, blood pressure screening, child development, and HPV vaccinations to prevent cervical cancer.

The Greece Health Promotion Team also is collaborating with a respected epidemiologist to create a database for child health screening for homeless children who are seen in the clinic. Before returning to Philadelphia, the team met with community leaders and high school students to discuss next steps: In May, they will again visit Northern Greece to provide further training for cervical cancer screening, smoking cessation, and first aid.

As this project gains momentum, it is helping the women and families of tomorrow by investing in girl children today. And, as the United Nations recognizes the first Day of the Girl Child, I encourage all of us who have the power of healthcare at our fingertips to consider creative ways to give girl children voice, hope, and health.