“When women decide something, I think they can get to it,” says Nadia Aïssaoui, of the Mediterranean Women’s Fund as she tells this story about a group of women living in the mountains of Algeria who chose to come together around their own health care needs rather than waiting on healthcare services to arrive. Their self-started efforts then attracted support from outside their circle, including local government officials and the ministry of health.
By “starting somewhere” and “counting on themselves,” Aïssaoui tells us the women’s journey “to produce, to survive, and to impose themselves as citizens, as actors of their destiny.”
As we navigate new turns of the global COVID-19 pandemic along with our everyday personal and collective challenges, what can we learn from this small group of women about where to locate the starting point to our health and safety?
Going Further
- What Could Neighborhood Health Autonomy Look Like? (Johnson)
- How Community Action Shapes Health (Puntenney, McKnight, Block)
- Special Issue: Community Development & Women’s Empowerment (IACD Magazine, Issue 15)
- Co-Production: Always in Second Place (McKnight)
