Population & Family Health

Safaa G. Suliman, a second year Master of Public Health candidate in the General Public Health track and a program assistant for the Reproductive, Health Access, Information, and Services in Emergencies (RAISE) Initiative, represented healthcare workers in crisis areas on September 21, 2010, at the 65th ordinary session of the UN General Assembly. A native of Sudan and a certified dentist, Ms. Suliman personally delivered to the ministers of health of Malawi and Cameroon a petition with 12,000 signatures demanding increased support of health workers in areas affected by conflict. The petition was organized as part of the medical aid charity Merlin’s "Hands Up for Health Workers" campaign, which calls for urgent investment in the health workforce-including training, funding, and adequate support-in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. As Ms. Suliman placed the petition in the hands of the ministers of health, she appealed to them to "ensure that investment in health workers becomes a global priority" and "put health workers in crisis countries at the heart of the Millennium Development Goals."

Ms. Suliman practiced as a general dentist from 2004-2009 at the Sudan Federal Ministry of Health and from 2006-2009 as a dental public health practitioner at the Oral Health Directorate of the State of Khartoum Ministry of Health.