 CONFERENCE EXPOSES ABYSMAL CONDITIONS OF RURAL WOMEN WORLDWIDE
For women and girls living in rural areas around the world, life itself is a desperate situation.
On a daily basis, millions face chronic poverty, discrimination, and unbridled violence, said presenters at "Empowering Rural Women of All Ages Through Urban and Rural Partnerships," a Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) conference hosted at Fordham on March 3.
"In many parts of the world, women are so beatedn down that they don't even realize what strengths they have or what resources [exist]," said speaker Catherine Alicia Georges, M.D.(pictured), chairperson of the Department of Nursing at Lehman College, CUNY, and president of the National Black Nurses Foundation.
According to Dr. Georges, who has worked with various organizations to assist nurses, midwives, and medical workers in rural communities throughout Africa, discrimination against women compromises healthcare in rural areas. Although women are the primary healthcare providers in many villages, their lower social status reduces their ability to fully care for their patients.
"We have to figure out how to help these persons recognize their own strengths," Dr. Georges said. "To try to get them to connect that to what they could do for the community and for them to affirm who they are."
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