Meat

Workshop 1 completed

Heres the deal, this is a big medical missionary conference with a lot mainly American doctors, and I’m no missionary and no american. They describe US health care as if it is a car crash, I describe those who would run our health care system in the UK as eager to import their system into the UK. Into that landscape of dispair we’re pitched to lead workshops on holism and compassion in health care.

You know what, it was not what I thought would evolve over the two 5 hours sessions, (I’m not sure I really had an idea what would evolve), but where we went and where we ended up was more than worth the effort, pretty meaty stuff we chewed over. I was struck by the thoughtfulness, humility, authenticity, respect, open mindedness, wisdom and compassion in the group. Most of the delegates were teachers, mentors and policy makers and the impact I sense will be muliples of what we brought to the table as teachers ourselves.

My head was a bit fried so I stepped out of it for a few hours to recharge. The introvert in me had been peopled out.

Reengaged with a session about human trafficking, we should hang our heads in shame that this happens in this world, the focus of the session was principally on sex trafficking as if other forms weren’t degrading and dehumanising enough.

Slavery is now illegal in every country in the world but estimates of 29.9million are currently in enforced slavery. 2/3 of the money made from slavery is in the sale and use of trafficked sex workers.

No apologies for stating these bleak facts – words fail me, to hear one story is more than enough, to consider that there are many millions of stories should be an outrage beyond ebola or petrol prices or whatever captures the headlines and I write this to help remind me not to forget.