Black Lives Matter
To our friends and community,
Recent events in our country have sparked global outrage and condemnation of racism in America. The murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd were tragic, unnecessary, and unjust. The hardest part for me has been that these are just a few names in a long list, a list that many Americans have not paid attention to up until now.
When explaining why our work to connect people to healthcare is so critical, I often tell the story of a woman named Sada Ziwade. Amid labor pains, she was faced with a choice to walk six hours and risk a roadside birth or spend her life's savings on a motorcycle taxi to get to a hospital. At the end of recounting Sada’s story, I always make the point that her story isn’t unique; in fact, it’s quite normal. As a US-based organization that works to dismantle healthcare inequities abroad in vulnerable communities of color, it’s important for us to look at our own country’s inequities. We must face them head on and take time to look inward, because the deaths of innocent Black Americans are also not unique. This is the norm.
The Okoa Project provides life-saving emergency transportation to anyone, regardless of gender, race, or ethnic group. We exist for patients who cannot access the healthcare they need simply because of the geography and class they were born into, people who are struggling to make a path for themselves in a system built against them. We combat this through providing platforms for communities to build their own solutions to healthcare access.
Today, though, we want to take a step back and listen. It is important for us as an organization to acknowledge that racism and its lethal consequences are tightly intertwined with the work we do. During this time, we are taking a hard look at racism within the US and within all the countries that we work in.
Racism is and always has been a public health crisis. Amidst the current pandemic, Black people in the U.S. are disproportionately more likely to die if infected with COVID19. This isn’t a result of any genetic difference, but rather one of compounded systemic obstacles that they face; healthcare access, food deserts, redlining, policing, mass incarceration, the school-to-prison pipeline make up a few. As a healthcare organization based in the US, it is our responsibility to amplify BIPOC voices, unlearn our own biases, and dismantle these barriers at every opportunity.
All of us at The Okoa Project stand in solidarity with our Black colleagues and the Black community. We are committed to educating ourselves and taking action against racism not just now, but every day.
There comes a time when silence is no longer an option, and that time is now. We will not be silent. Our team would like to be a resource for anyone in our community who would like to continue the conversation further.
In solidarity,
Emily Young
Executive Director & Co-Founder