What keeps you hopeful?

Dr. Joia Mukherjee, a leader in global health with many years of experience caring for the poor, once commented about how she remains hopeful:

"Interviewer: Having worked in poor communities for many years, you must encounter a lot of despair. What keeps you hopeful in these situations?

JM: That is where being a doctor is a great thing. I do sometimes feel that it is overwhelming, but when you are a doctor you get to make the person better. The whole world isn't going to be better in a single day, but you get to see people you know you have helped and that is incredibly rewarding…That is what keeps me hopeful. Also, I think it is not fair of us, as privileged, middle-class Westerners to be despairing because the poor depend on us to not be despairing. If we despair we get to go home to our nice beds and sleep. If we want a better world for people who are essentially voiceless, then we have done them a disservice. It is not about our despairing as much as it is about the people whose life and death depends much more on our actions than even our own does."

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