SAMAR BARAZESH

Youth Participant

Samar Barazesh (she/her) enjoys collaborating with others as part of a greater mission of serving a community. Her passion for health and equity combined with her Bachelor of Science and leadership training has allowed her to work as a researcher on five studies, while working in various educational, advocacy, governance, and policy positions. As a philomath, she’s most happy when she’s learning. She thrives on challenges, problem-solving, creating change, and helping people, but when overwhelmed, she turns to reading, playing the piano, a good jigsaw puzzle, and movies!

Which SDG are you most passionate about and why?

“I’m most passionate about good health and wellbeing (SDG 3) and gender equality (SDG 5), specifically the intersection of these two goals. I love Paul Farmer’s quote that ‘the essence of global health equity is the idea that something so precious as health might be viewed as a right’. I am most consumed by the idea that in most parts of the world access to healthcare is a privilege and the quality of that care is contingent on the patient’s socioeconomic status. Additionally, women and marginalized communities are burdened to a greater degree to receive a satisfactory quality of care.“

What issues are you most passionate about and what inspires you to take action?

“As mentioned above, I’m most passionate about health and medicine. The more I have become involved in the field, the more gaps, inequalities/inequities, and injustices I have observed. My intolerance for discrimination made me even more frustrated with what I observed in the healthcare system because of the implications of those actions. To risk people’s lives, wellbeing, and quality of life is incomprehensible and inexcusable. And I firmly believe that if we see a problem are not part of the solution, we are complicit and part of the problem because our silence perpetuates the systemic discriminations. Ultimately, knowing that I have a vision that can result in system change and can have a positive impact on people’s lives is what inspires me to take action.“