Distinguished global citizens, all protocols observed 😄
A close friend and colleague was surprised by my tweet & asked why - I don’t blame her at all and let me explain:
Earlier in 2022, I missed a meeting in London because my visa was delayed for over a month
🧵
A close friend and colleague was surprised by my tweet & asked why - I don’t blame her at all and let me explain:
Earlier in 2022, I missed a meeting in London because my visa was delayed for over a month
🧵
https://twitter.com/daktari1/status/1581170810093711360
In September, I almost missed UNGA; my visa appointment for US Embassy in Kenya was April 2024! We had to beg 🙏
A deputy minister of a country in Africa had to use their foreign passport; they couldn’t get a visa on their national passport 😞
Lucky they had dual citizenship
A deputy minister of a country in Africa had to use their foreign passport; they couldn’t get a visa on their national passport 😞
Lucky they had dual citizenship
5 of my colleagues from @Amref_Worldwide & many others could not make it to #UNGA an important meeting on global health to seek solutions for the lagging #SDG targets which are lagging largely in, guess? Africa! Why? visa appointments a year after their desired date of travel
Africa is front & centre of closing the gap in the health-related targets of the SDGs. For many of us, while Global Health is everyone’s business rich & poor, it’s the LMICs that are the switch to turn to achieve equity and leave no one behind.
We need people from Africa in global health conversations, not some of us but all of us!
If we are to hold global health meetings outside Africa as we do & must, we need not take it for granted that African people will easily hop on a plane & show up - they want to but can’t
If we are to hold global health meetings outside Africa as we do & must, we need not take it for granted that African people will easily hop on a plane & show up - they want to but can’t
The planning must include access & means to attend to contribute meaningfully to a discussion which is largely about them.
Visa processing, courtesy passage at the airport in partnership with the host Governments (a very African culture) are inevitable!
Visa processing, courtesy passage at the airport in partnership with the host Governments (a very African culture) are inevitable!
Change only happens when people speak up as @laktarr001 did & not for himself but for 1.4 Billion on the continent. It’s not about this incident but institutionalized passport discrimination meted on people from LMICs
We invite the world to the following Global Health meetings in Africa - cphia2022.com/registration/ in December 22
….and ahaic.org in March 23
All global health convenings in & outside the Global South (?) are needed & important because it’s everyone’s business - we only need to be sensitive to & more aware of existing passport & colour discrimination through visa and airport passage largely meted on LMICs
I submit 🙏
I submit 🙏
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