As the days grow colder and darker, and we hunker down for what always feels like a long winter ahead, there may be an innate tendency to shift to an inward-focused survival mode, regardless of it being the "season of giving." The pressure cooker of the med school and residency years may further exacerbate this tendency toward self-preservation above all. However, as current and future healthcare professionals, perhaps we have an awareness that can propel us to challenge convention this holiday season. Given our training, we are expected to be more informed of the needless suffering beyond our borders caused by deadly yet easily preventable infectious diseases that produce massive childhood suffering and morbidity throughout the world. What better time than the holidays to think of such things, as we are just about to dump an additional 7 million or so pounds of excess waste into already-overflowing landfills. I propose that instead of falling victim to the futile trends of needless gift-giving and receiving, so much of which ends up in the trash anyway, we do something more productive with this splendid time of the year. The holiday season has increasingly been consumed by a commercialism that threatens the true concept of altruism. If we look beyond major consumer-targeting conglomerates, we may notice that NGOs, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs everywhere have come up with strategies aimed at making it easier and easier to give to those who are less fortunate than ourselves during this month of excess. What better way to ring in the New Year than to attack head-on those diseases whose death grip on millions of children's lives may be thwarted by some simple preventive measures? Maybe, instead of a Secret Santa, Elf Exchange, or an all-out gifts-for-everyone approach, we can remember how much our hefty dollars can buy for children in third-world countries. One of the simplest and more effective measures that could prevent disease in millions of children everywhere is sending bed nets to regions afflicted by malaria. Nothing but Nets is an organization that does just that. Teaming up with local United Nations' partners and governments to identify areas of greatest need, they send insecticide-woven bed nets to families at risk. Bed nets are an extremely cost-effective solution to the damaging health and economic consequences of malaria in regions where the mosquitoes feast during the night. It's not a perfect solution, but I guarantee that it will bring a lot more into the homes of its recipients than whatever excess junk no one really needs or wants will bring into yours. Source
